11/6/2023 0 Comments New beginnings meaningThe difference is determined precisely by the quality of our inner life, our practices, and our spirituality. It can either help people to find new meaning or it can cause people to close down and slowly turn bitter. Spiritual transformation always includes a disconcerting reorientation. He knows how much “letting go” it takes to “treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12). Not accidentally, he mentions this narrow gate and hard road right after teaching the Golden Rule. Perhaps Jesus is describing just this phenomenon when he says, “It is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). We will normally do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart, yet this is when we need patience and guidance, and the freedom to let go instead of tightening our controls and certitudes. Whatever it is called, it does not feel good, and it does not feel like God. The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, dark night, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Most of us would never go to new places in any other way. The pain and chaos of something old falling apart invite the soul to listen at a deeper level, and sometimes force the soul to go to a new place. But the mystery of transformation more often happens not when something new begins, but when something old falls apart. The word change normally refers to new beginnings. Richard Rohr honors how painful transformation can be and reminds us to be patient with ourselves and the process:
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