I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. As I was sitting in the office reading, a man walked in, I guess he was a little younger than me, but in his 60’s. He seemed weary and brought in with him a cup of coffee. After a while we started talking to pass the time, for the Doctor was running late. He was a man who for the past ten years has had many serious, chronic, medical conditions that he has had to endure. Yet as he continued speaking he brought up his faith. He spoke in simple terms about how he has never lost trust in God even in the worst of times. As he talked he brought up ‘trust’ and how it is never too late to begin again, even after a life that has been wasted on activities that have been self destructive. He spoke with such gentle compassion that I felt in some way he was revealing some of his past to me. Yet in all the time he did not feel the need to quote scripture. He just talked about his personal experience of the love and mercy of God. I found it very powerful and when I got up to go to the back office, I shook his hand and told him that he has given me quite a bit to meditate over. He seemed surprised, for I suppose he was not telling me anything new, since for him that was the world he lived in. In such a quite gentle way he touched me at such a depth that I will never forget him.
The way to touch another heart is to be gentle, loving and respectful. This man was all that, though I doubt he was conscious of the fact. Perhaps it was because of that childlike unconsciousness that allowed me to listen so freely and openly. My only regret is that we did not have more time to share. However, I think I needed to be ministered to by him. People don’t understand the power of their personal experiences when spoken in simply loving language. We each have a way with words, just as this beautiful soul did….he showed me how to embrace my own life on a deeper level and taught me the power of gentle speech.
In all of my years, when someone talks to me about their faith, when they start coming from “I am Infallible in my own private interpretation of scripture” and then starts preaching or talking down, he or she has little or any impact on me. Scripture can be used to back up pretty much any position. I think it has got to the point that everything is really an opinion. So many disagreements and each feels that the Holy Spirit is enlightening them.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
