I'm convinced that 'unlearning'
is every bit as vital to our growth as 'learning'. Indeed, perhaps
more vital! Unlearning what? Unlearning whatever negative inputs
received in early childhood, that may have distorted truth for
us.
One such common distortion, with enormous
fall-out in our spiritual lives, was the prevailing notion
that somehow God was more pleased
with us when we were suffering than when we were happy, that
we were more closely united with Jesus in sorrow than in joy. "Offer
it up," you were told, if your tooth was aching or if some
childhood disappointment came your way. Saying the 'Morning Offering'
was a norm in daily prayer. In it you offered to God "the
joys and sufferings of this day". But you never really believed
that God was with you in 'the joys'; it was in 'the sufferings'
that he came close, or so you had been led to believe.
It was probably the prominence of the Cross of Christ in Christian
Spirituality and Culture that occasioned the emphasis. The Crucifix
was to be seen everywhere, not alone in Church, but in bedroom
and classroom too. (Not, by the way, that I disagree with that
practice; in fact I decry the disappearance of the Crucifix from
so many homes today). But a balance was called for. That would
lift our spirits and bring to life for us, the wonderful outcome
of Christ's sufferings - resurrection and glory, Christ's and
ours. The art, the culture, the liturgical practice needed to
embrace the totality of the Paschal Mystery. Death and Resurrection,
both, are essential parts of our Redemption. But death is passing
and resurrection eternal. And we got the balance wrong. The emphasis
was in the wrong place.
All of this was reflected and reinforced in the experience of
Lent and Holy Week. Lent, with its emphasis on penance and sacrifice,
drew crowds to Church and daily Mass, (crowds that quickly disappeared
as soon as the Easter season, with its message of Hope and Joy
and Celebration began!). People crammed the Churches for the
Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, but only a faithful few
ventured to the dramatic reliving of Christ's Resurrection at
the Easter Vigil.
The Gospel literally means, and is, good news! It can only appear
so if its received message is of hope and love. But the love
Christ preaches does not eliminate suffering: rather does it
enable suffering to be transformed for us?
To sum up the Christian Gospel as "suffer
here and be happy hereafter" is to discredit it. Christ's
legacy to us is peace. But it is peace, "not as the world
gives". And
that peace will be more and more experienced by us if the God
we know both supports us in our pain and rejoices with us in
our good times.
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