Caterina Benincasa Dominican Monastery

Funny how society judges your success by your lack of failures, problems, or difficulties. “That person is well-balanced” they’ll say of someone who has known few if any difficulties.

And yet, Pentecost is all about receiving the Spirit of Truth. Our culture often echos those words spoken by Pilot, “What is truth?” When we are open to the Spirit of Truth, life ceases to be “normal” or even “balanced”. We find ourselves faced with all sorts of challenges, and at crossroads which demands us to choose: truth or convenience.

Many spiritual writers compare life to two paths: the visible, tangible, and tactile road, often superficial, often empty, with success, money, fame as its goal; and the spiritual, often elusive, intuitive, less trod road, that isn’t sure of itself, so is always seeking and therefore deeply reflective. Sometimes we try to combine the two, looking for a spirituality that is romantic, “good feeling”, and esoteric. Often we too judge spiritual progress by its lack of difficulties, as if obstacles signaled insincerity or lack of dedication.

Yet, the Spirit of Truth isn’t seeking that which is calm, but “troubled waters.” Sometimes, an abundance of trials are sure signs of a soul’s dedication, not vice versa.

In a day and age where appearances and visual images control, even within the Church, living from the Spirit of Truth poses quite a challenge. Still, only by remaining true to yourself, will you find the Light which enlightens all.

Daily mysticism. How do we get it? Is it even possible? Yes, says renown author Robert Wicks. He maintains that how we accept life’s lessons directly affects our own ability to live life at that deeply spiritual level. For it is all too easy to let life become habitual and to live on autopilot. Jesus says he came not only to give us life, but to give it to us “in abundance.”

Robert Wicks book Seeds of Sensitivity investigates his own ability to learn the mystical way of life, and he concludes it starts with unlearning and relearning. To demonstrate by example, he first describes his visit to Cambodia and the pain and suffering he witnessed in that country. His reflection on this experience is too profound to do anything but quote here:

The little girl whose home was burned down also had a lesson to teach–the
fresh continuance of hope. Would I accept this, learn from it, and be able
to maintain perspective in my life as well? Would I continue to be
sensitive to the people and lessons that each day held for me, or
would I try to run away, psychologically and spiritually, in search
of security and comfort and then call it peace? [36]

It is all too easy to run from experiences that makes us uncomfortable in search of a more comfortable and secure place. Yet, Wick challenges us to be open to our experience, because such experience holds a wealth of opportunities to change ourselves. And it is precisely such changes that open the door to new opportunities to life, the mystical experiences. Again:

We no longer need be on a seesaw of comfortable complacency balanced
by occasional, abrupt, rash acts of desperation because we fear that life is
slipping through our hands. With this new interest in unlearning, relearning,
and responding to life in a new way, it may become really possible to grasp
something that may have been elusive or incomprehensible to us up to this
point. When sensitivity is pure and real it can actually open us up to life
in a way that daily mysticism can become a natural way of living rather
than merely a subject of occasional fantasy. [37]