Opening ourselves to the energy that comes from God

There is a profound harmony between the external demands of Christianity and the internal dynamism of the human heart. Christian discipleship asks no more and no less of us than that we become what God intends us to be, that we fulfill the potentiality inherent in our individual nature, that we cease acting a role and allow ourselves to become fully ourselves. What theology terms “sins” are, it seems to me, not primarily offenses against God; they are offenses against ourselves—refusals to act in accordance with our God-given natures. We were made in the image and likeness of God; our most authentic behavior is when we act as God acts, as this has been revealed to us in the words and example of Christ. “Be perfect,” he said, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” An impossible task had he not exemplified this perfection in his manner of living To live as Christ lived is not only to live a fully authentic human life but also to realize as completely as possible our own individual vocation. No doubt this is a very lofty ideal, but it is the purpose of Saint Benedict’s Rule to show us how to move closer to its realization in the course of a lifetime: not only to be good, but to become ourselves.

Every day God’s light shines upon us and God’s voice calls to us. Every day there is the prospect of opening ourselves to the energy that comes from God, the energy that can change our life. For many of us the possibility of ongoing, lifelong conversion is a daunting prospect and so we close our eyes and shut our ears. This self-imposed isolation certainly insulates us from challenge, but it also causes us to run away from a source of happiness. God’s light is transforming; God’s call is life-giving. God draws us by delight, by allowing us to experience something of the joy that comes from allowing God into our hearts and into our lives. So satisfying is this experience on a very deep level that we desire it more; we begin to seek God more intensely and, by grace, to find God more often—though this happens in progressively more subtle ways; Saint Benedict wants us to be fully conscious of God speaking to us every day and showing us the way forward. He wants us to open our eyes and to listen with the ear of the heart to the call that can make the difference between a life that is half-asleep and one that is fully alive and on the move.

Michael Casey, OSCO
The Road to Eternal Life, p. 37