Let Go
Matthew 18,12
Go in search of the stray
I remember my novice director (the person in charge of the first formal year when you enter a religious order) had a statue of the Good Shepherd on his desk. He remarked that what he liked about it was the fact that the shepherd was actually carrying the lost-sheep on his shoulders. He wasn’t leading it, or poking it from behind with a stick. He was carrying it.
The point he was making is that not only does God continuously seek us out, but he does all the work to bring us back to him too. All we have to do then is to surrender to him. This can be liberating when we truly understand it. It means that we don’t have to rely on our own resolve or limited resources to get us out of a mess, or back from the wrong path - all our own doing - but we just have to allow God to pick us up and carry us back to happiness. However this is not always easy, because we like to be in control. This surrender is a particular type of weakness which we need to learn and which St Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 12, 9: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” It is not the weakness which leads to sin, but to liberation. I will offer one more image to explain further the type of weakness I’m thinking of: it is the image of a child learning to write. In order for the child’s hand to be guided by an adult’s hand the child must loosen her or his grip and become supple so as to be led more easily. This is the kind of weakness we need in our relationship with God; to let go and surrender in trust. Then He can carry us home.
A reflection written by Gianni Notarianni O.S.A., St Augustine's Hammersmith, London, England
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Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Col 4:6