Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
—Step 2 of the Twelve Steps
Father Richard considers how the gift of Step 2 can only be received through a full, embodied acceptance of God’s grace:
Step 2 is the necessary longing, delaying, and backsliding that invariably precedes the full-blown leap of faith. It’s wise to use an active verb to describe this step: “came to believe.” The surrender of faith doesn’t happen in one moment; it is an extended journey, a gradual letting go, unlearning, and handing over. No one does it on the first or even second try. Desire and longing must be significantly deepened and broadened.
To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we need to have three spaces opened within us—and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the work of spirituality—and it is work. Yes, it is finally the work of “a Power greater than ourselves,” and it will lead to great luminosity and depth of insight.
When all three inner spaces are open and listening together, we can always be present. To be present is to know what we need to know in the moment. To be present to something is to allow the moment, the person, the idea, or the situation to change us.
To keep the mind space open, we need some form of contemplative or meditation practice. One could say that authentic spirituality is invariably a matter of emptying the mind and filling the heart at the same time.
To keep the heart space open, we almost all need some healing in regard to the hurts we’ve carried from the past. We also need to be in right and honest relationship with people, so that others can love us and touch us at deeper levels, and so we can love and touch them. Nothing else opens the heart space in such a positive and ongoing way.
To keep our bodies less defended is also the work of healing past hurts and the many memories that seem to store themselves in the body. The body seems to never stop offering its messages. Fortunately, the body never lies, even though the mind will deceive us constantly. It’s very telling that Jesus usually physically touched people when he healed them. He knew where memory and hurt were lodged: in the body itself.
If we are to come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity, then we will come to that belief by developing the capacity for a simple, clear, and uncluttered presence. Those who can be present with head, heart, and body at the same time will always encounter the Presence, whether they call it God or use another word. For the most part, those skills are learned by letting life come at us on its own terms, without resisting the wonderful, underlying Mystery that is everywhere, all the time, and offered.
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| The Shadow Side of Service |
 Click Here for AudioTrue to his character, when the father discovered that his eldest son was not home he went out to find him. There the father begged the older son to come to the party, but the young man was furious. “Look, all these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15:29-30).Many people sympathize with the older son. His anger seems justified. Why should the disobedient son get a party while the obedient son gets nothing? But we must look more closely. Notice where the older son roots his significance: “All these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.” The older son obeyed, and for his obedience, he expected a reward. In this way, he really is not that different from the younger son. Neither son was particularly interested in a relationship with their father. Instead, both were focused on what they might get from their father. The younger son simply took what he desired while the older son, being a more patient and self-disciplined person, worked for it. Their methods were night and day, but both sons desired the same thing, and in neither case was it their father. In other words, both sons were self-centered. One just happened to be selfish in a more socially acceptable way. Jesus told this story at a gathering of very devoted religious people who drew a great deal of significance from their obedience to God; men who would have identified with the older son and his righteous indignation. Was Jesus saying there is something wrong with serving God? Of course not. The problem comes when we find our significance and worth in it.In the parable, Jesus was not diminishing the older son’s service, just as he was not endorsing the younger son’s sin. Instead, he was showing that both sin and service can distract us from what really matters—a relationship with God. DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 15:11-32 MATTHEW 9:11-13 JOHN 5:39-40 WEEKLY PRAYER. By Thomas Dekker (1570 – 1623) O God, the true and only life, in whom and from whom and by whom are all good things that are good indeed; from whom to be turned is to fall, to whom to turn is to rise again; in whom to abide is to dwell for ever, from whom to depart is to die; to whom to come again is to revive, and in whom to lodge is to live: take away from me whatever you will, so that you give me only yourself. Amen. |
