Sensible

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25).

Saint Andrew and Saint Peter (Fernando Gallego)

If only everything in life was sensible.

If only we would be able to remove all emotion and lack of rationality and replace it with sensible common sense…  At least that is what I have always told myself as I have considered all the different things that I could do and all the different ways that I could respond to things…

However, I have come to understand things slightly differently…

“(Some people), when they (receive Holy Communion), strive with all their might for sensible sweetness, instead of worshipping in humility and praising God within themselves. So much are they given to this, that they think when they derive no sensible sweetness, they have done nothing, so meanly do they think of God; neither do they understand that the least of the blessings of the Most Holy Sacrament is that which touches the senses, and that the invisible grace It confers is far greater; for God frequently withholds these sensible favours from men, that they may fix the eyes of faith upon Himself…  All this is a very great imperfection, being against the purity of Faith, and directly at variance with the nature of God.” (Saint John of the Cross, “Dark Night of the Soul”, page 28).

Christ said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25).

And there is power in that.  You see, what Christ is really asking us to do is to act without sense.  He is asking us to act with faith…

Saint Amelia who lived in the later part of the eighth century, on the border of Belgium and Luxembourg. The young emperor Charlemagne pursued her, but she had already committed her virginity to Christ.  Eventually, Saint Amelia was able to enter the convent, spending the remainder of her life in the Benedictine abbey of Münster-Bilzen in Belgium.

And this Saint is a reminder to me of the importance of remining insensible some of the time.  After all, the reason and rationality that I have is the way that God has made me in His Image.  And this means that I am able to understand what He wishes for me to understand, and I am confounded and confused by other things.  And this is important to me because it means that I am able to surrender to God.  After all, if I am able to submit to the Holy Will of God – without relying on my own sensible nature – then I am truly submitting to Him.  And THAT is the secret to salvation.

After all, the Blessed Virgin did not stand around and try to rationalise all the great miracles in her life.  She pondered them in the silence of her heart, which is another way of saying that she worshiped her Beloved, who had blessed her…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.