I have been observing something in the past week, and I
asked a question concerning this observation. I am typing this in a car, in a
parking lot, waiting for people. I never waste time. If I am waiting for the
bus, I say a rosary. We do not have much time to become holy.
Here is the question and the answer;
Why are so many people upset about small things? Why are so
many American preoccupied with trivia and with the minutiae of passing things?
Garrigou-Lagrange answers this question:
“God’s simplicity…is
an unalterable unity, the simplicity of unchanging wisdom and of the purest and
strongest love of the good, remaining ever the same and infinitely surpassing
our susceptibility and unstable opinions…
The complex soul, on
the other hand, is one that bases all its judgments on the varying impressions
caused by the emotions and that desires things from motives of self-interest
with its changing caprices, now clinging to them obstinately, now changing with
every mood or time and circumstances. And whereas the complex soul is agitated
by mere trifles, the soul that has acquired its wisdom and unselfish love, is
always at rest.”
There is an entire group of people who have not found this
wisdom and unselfish love, which brings rest. They complain, almost constantly,
and they lack simplicity of heart and soul and mind.
Garrigou-Lagrange refers to Bossuet, “This simplicity, says Bossuet, enables an introverted soul to
comprehend even the heights of God, the ways of Providence, the unfathomable
mysteries to which a complex soul are a scandal, the mysteries of infinite
justice and mercy, and the supreme liberty of the divine good pleasure. “
This tendency to gripe and be negative among some shows me
that those who are speaking are hurt, wounded, far from peace of mind and heart
and soul.
How to bring such fellow humans to this peace is another
question. One can begin with prayer.
Some of my relatives hate poverty so much that they cannot
see the value of not having things, the freedom which the non-accumulation of
wealth can bring. All they see is the shame, or the lack of status. They do not
talk to me.
But, for those of us who have been or are being stripped of
things and status, poverty is sheer gift. One cannot, as Garrigou-Lagrange
notes, fall into naïveté, or shallowness, or stupidity, but one can choose a
more perfect way, the shortcut to perfection. If God chooses it for us, it is
less perfect, but can lead to perfection.
Garrigou-Lagrange points to the holiness of Jesus for a
model of simplicity. He recalls Christ’s answer to the Pharisees, “’Which of you shall convince me of sin…’
Their duplicity aroused His holy indignation: ‘Woe to you scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for
you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to
enter…Woe to you, blind guides…you are like to whited sepulchers, which
outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and
of all filthiness…’”
Of course, the key to this holiness is humility, and the key
to not being complex is humility.
Pride causes complaining and irritation. Ask yourself this
question today: “About what do I get upset?”
Sadly, priests are not
helping the elderly get to heaven. Too many priests are the blind guides.
They have not pursued holiness, and therefore, they do not know how to help
others get there. Many older people have not reached wisdom and unselfish love.
Why?
Why? Why?
To be continued…
