Reflection series
Crises mean not just danger, but also carry the possibility of growth. In the following weeks, I invite you to prayerfully reflect on how the present dangers can help us grow in our call as Christians and on how the Beatitudes, our “blessedness” can help us be present differently in these challenging times.
1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Crisis situations like the present ones confront us with our utmost fragility and vulnerability in contrast with our natural desire for safety and the need to be in control. Naturally the latter ones are indispensable for normal living, nevertheless, while striving for them we too often forget about our total dependence on God and tend to fall back on our own limited resources. The other day I was listening to a mother and her words deeply moved me: “Seeing the endless stream of refugees I instinctively thought of my children, wanting to gather them around me, and I caught myself pondering where I could go with them to secure them in case the war reaches our country as well. And I realized there is no absolute security anywhere. There remains only one thing: total reliance on God.”
In liminal situations we get in touch with our ultimate poverty and vulnerability. Faith will be the divide between two possible scenarios: whether we are drifted into ultimate despair, or whether this situation – though not without inner struggle – would open us for greater freedom and love. When we are able to allow the fear generated by the threatening and inevitable reality come close to us and facing it we embrace our ultimate poverty and helplessness, and here, at this deepest point we hold onto faith in God, the Source of Being, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and hold fast onto our personal relationship with this God, at this extreme point another, more profound reality opens up for us: a deep, unquestionable sense that no matter what might come, we are held secure in love. This might sound so simple; nevertheless we all know how difficult it is to actually do so when fear becomes tangible in our guts. But once we make this inner shift, we become free to love, and love will cast out fear. In our utmost poverty we become able to rely on God’s infinite richness and strength and we can welcome the events with calm even when they come with suffering – because God will not suspend the consequences of senseless human actions. Nevertheless with all that or in spite of that we become able to rely on the creative energies welling up within us that will flow out as streams of caring and life-giving love into our wounded environment, into the world that seems to have lost all common sense. The mustard seeds of the kingdom of God amidst the craziness of the world.
This present situation invites us to face our fears and our poverty, and instead of fleeing from them into useless and stressful strains, it invites us to rely on God’s strength dwelling within us and thus allow the streams of love to be freed within us. This will enable us to stay sober and calm even amidst the most dangerous events, and resting securely in God’s sustaining love and in the resulting inner freedom to reach out to our neighbors with acts of love. We are blessed when we engage in this transformative process because God’s work and idea of the kingdom is happening within and through us – in the here and the now. With prayers
Magdolna Kővári
General Moderator
