Standing before Enigmas

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I say to you, Blessed is he who exposes himself
to an existence never brought under mastery,
who does not transcend, but rather abandons
himself to my ever-transcending grace. Blessed
are not the enlightened whose every question
has been answered and who are delighted
with their own sublime insight, the mature
and ripe ones whose one remaining action is
to fall from the tree.

Blessed, rather, are the chased,
the harassed who must daily stand
before my enigmas and cannot solve them.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who lack a
spirit of cleverness. Woe to the rich, and woe to
the doubly rich in spirit! Although nothing is
impossible with God, it is difficult for the Spirit
to move their fat hearts.

The poor are willing
and easy to direct. Like little puppies they do not
take their eyes from their master’s hand to see
if perhaps he may throw them a little morsel
from his plate. So carefully do the poor follow
my prompting that they listen to the wind
(which blows where it pleases), even when
it changes. From the sky they can read the
weather and interpret the signs of the times.

My grace is unpretentious, but the poor
are satisfied with little gifts.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Heart for the World.

Perhaps we can be annoyed to be likened to “little puppies” satisfied with “little morsels.”  And even this would expose how we approach the one who beckons us to “stand before enigmas” we are neither capable nor called upon to solve.  Instead we are called to “abandon ourselves to ever-transcending grace.”

If we are to be “satisfied with little gifts,” gratitude is itself a satisfaction with realizing all of life is a gift. May we be so poor as to “follow the prompting that listens to the wind.”

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