While the world we are living in almost encourages us to delay growing up, we don't have to fear that our inner child is going to disappear. In the spiritual life there is an old saying: "Feet on the ground; eyes toward Christ."
The transition into adulthood is not just about making one's own choices and finding a way to make a living. Part of it is also the realization of the different ways that we need to become a little more complete.
From my perspective now thirty years after graduating from university, I can say that my parents missed a couple of chapters in the parenting book, but that they did a pretty good job! But that meant that in my late twenties and into my thirties I did burn some calories trying to fill in the gaps.
It's tempting sometimes simply to rebel at least against some things. It is also true that we cannot simply reprogram ourselves. Things that got under our skin when we were younger may still bug us as we mature.
The moral life is all about living in the context of divine love: receiving love and being thankful for it, and returning love to God to others. Our feet standing on the ground tell us that life isn't always fair or easy and our own desires to be good and true and faithful are sometimes fraught with our failings too. But our eyes looking toward Christ and our ears and heart deeply listening remind us that in the texture of our very real lives is a deep constancy. We are loved.
In the old days, the saints wrote about avoiding being too attached and sometimes readers thought that they meant we should become detached from passionate living. We are built for deep commitment and love, so healthy passion comes right along for the ride.
In school it can be that we become too attached. What if I don't do so well in school? Does school define you? It is good to work and to use our talents and gifts as well as we can but that is not who we are. Our deepest attachment then need to be for things that answer an aspiration whose answer truly is, "Yes." Are we built to receive and share love that takes us beyond ourselves? Yes!
So as you continue to make important steps on your journey remember where the deeper longings lie.
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| Church of the Holy Sepulchre: From here, Jesus, rose. The place of the Heart of Love. |
