Fr. Dave's Thoughts - March 15, 2024

Dear Friends,

This week, we will begin looking at the third meditation in Henri Nouwen’s book entitled, Out of Solitude. It is entitled “In Expectation.”

[On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus said to his apostles:] “In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.” Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean, ‘In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again?”… Jesus knew they wanted to question him, so he said, “You are asking one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.’ “In all truth I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world. So it is with you: you are sad now, but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you… (John 16:16-22)[i]

Care born out of solitude can hardly last unless undergirded by a hopeful expectation for the day of fulfillment when God will be all in all. Without expectation care easily degenerates into a morbid preoccupation with pain and gives more occasion for common complaints than for the formation of community. But Jesus sets us free from self-complaint by pointing beyond the short time of care to the great day of joy.[ii]

Expectation as Patience

The mother of expectation is patience. The French author Simone Weil writes in her notebooks: “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.” Without patience, our expectation degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes from the word patior which means, “to suffer.” The first thing that Jesus promises is suffering: “I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing… and you will be sorrowful.” But he calls these pains birth pains. And so, what seems a hinderance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door; what seems a misfit becomes a cornerstone. Jesus changes our history from a random series of sad incidents and accidents into a constant opportunity for a change of heart. To wait patiently therefore means to allow our weeping and wailing to become the purifying preparation by which we are made ready to receive the joy which is promised to us.

A few years ago I met an old professor at the University of Notre Dame. Looking back on his long life of teaching, he said, with a funny twinkle in his eyes, “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.”

That is the great conversion in our life: to recognize and believe that the many unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions of our projects, but the way in which God molds our hearts and prepares us for his return. Our great temptations are boredom and bitterness. When our good plans are interrupted by poor weather, our well-organized careers by illness or bad luck, our peace of mind by inner turmoil, our hope for peace by a new war, our desire for a stable government by a constant changing of the guards, and our desire for immortality by real death, we are tempted to give in to a paralyzing boredom or to strike back in destructive bitterness. But when we believe that patience can make our expectations grow, then fate can be converted into a vocation, wounds into a call for deeper understanding, and sadness into a birthplace of joy.

I would like to tell you the story of a middle-aged man whose career was suddenly interrupted by the discovery of leukemia, a fatal blood cancer. All his life plans crumbled, and all his ways had to change. But slowly he was able to ask himself no longer, “Why did this happen to me? What did I do wrong to deserve this fate?” but instead, “What is the promise hidden in this event?” When his rebellion became a new quest, he felt that he could give strength and hope to other cancer patients and that, by facing his condition directly, he could make his pain into a source of healing for others. To this day, this man not only does more for patients than many ministers are able to do, but he also refound his life on a level that he had never known before.[iii]

Next week we will conclude with the second part of this meditation entitled, Expectation as Joy.

Peace,

Dave.

[i] Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN., 1974; 2004, pp. 52.

[ii] Ibid. pp. 53.

[iii] Ibid. pp. 55-57.