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The people who have been most helpful in my personal journey of seeking and understanding "faith" are those special individuals who have allowed themselves to be deeply vulnerable in my presence, as they have shared their dark valleys and brokenness ... and also their joys, and yet, in the midst of such pain and suffering lay claim not only to their faith in Christ, but of the presence of Christ, who walked with them through the dark valley; some people even felt as though they were being carried.
As John O'Donohue reflectively writes in Eternal Echoes, "Post-modern culture is deeply lonely. This loneliness derives in large part from the intense drive to avoid suffering and pain and the repudiation of commitment. People relentlessly attempt to calm their inner turbulence by all manner of therapy and spirituality. They seek refuge in each new programme or method as if it offered a final resolution. Yet so many of these programmes have no earth beneath the seductive surface. They can offer no growth, nor enable a person to indentify the pain at the root of identity. Such external tamperings never manage to reach or embrace the inner loss which is a natural part of being
a human person. Every heart has to manage the emptiness of its own dark."
John O'Donohue, philosopher, poet, and Celtic theologian, I believe may well be on to something. We live with the reality of social media technology that promises a connection to "friends" across this vast globe, and yet we can be lonely, as we are apt to compare our "empty" lives with the lives of others, and when it appears as if others are having more fun than we are, it can help us feel even more lonely, isolated and even disconnected. It makes the valley darker. We are also exceptionally vulnerable, as social media also offers a perpetual platform for abuse, belittling, ridiculing, and cyber bullying.
As John O'Donohue insightfully observes, he offers four good reasons for our vulnerability: "First we are vulnerable because each of us is housed in a body. The body is in constant conversation with creation; it allows us through our senses to smell the roses, to see the waves and stars, and to read for ever the hierglyphics of the human countance. Second, you are vulnerable because you are an individual. To be an individual is to be different. There is a dark logic to experience which often seems to target individuality. Third, we are vulnerable for we live in time. We cannot control time. The tides of time can throw absolutely anything up on the shore of your life. It is amazing how successfully we repress the recognition of our total vulnerability. We have learned to forget that any moment can bring an abrupt and irreversible change of destiny." (We don't even want to think about it, let along talk about it - O'Donohue would die at the age of tender age of 53. He died, unexpectedly, in his sleep).
O'Donohue lists the last reason for our vulnerability. "Fourth, he says, "We are vulnerable because
of the destiny that is given to each of us. Each person who walks through this world is called at sometime to carry some of the weight of pain that assails the world. To help carry some of this pain a little further for others is a precious calling, though it is a lonely, sad, and isolating time in one's life."
O'Donohue, and recalling he is reflecting on "being and belonging" makes what I think is a pretty radical and very challenging statement when he writes: "Vulnerability is an infinitely precious thing. There is nothing as lonely as that which has become hardened. When your heart hardens, your life becomes numb. Though vulnerability leaves one open to pain, one should somehow still be ultimately glad of vulnerability - everyone gets hurt. The extreme response to hurt is to close the heart."
O'Donohue, offers once again this challenging thought in his chapter entitled Suffering as the Dark Valley of Broken Belonging: "Vulnerability risks hurt, disappointment, and failure. Yet it remains a vital opening to change and to truth. We should not see our vulnerability as something we need to hide or get over. It is great when we can learn to behold our vulnerability as one of the important gates
of blessing into the inner world. In giving love we are most human and most vulnerable."
~ all photographs belong to cathcart photos ~
As John O'Donohue reflectively writes in Eternal Echoes, "Post-modern culture is deeply lonely. This loneliness derives in large part from the intense drive to avoid suffering and pain and the repudiation of commitment. People relentlessly attempt to calm their inner turbulence by all manner of therapy and spirituality. They seek refuge in each new programme or method as if it offered a final resolution. Yet so many of these programmes have no earth beneath the seductive surface. They can offer no growth, nor enable a person to indentify the pain at the root of identity. Such external tamperings never manage to reach or embrace the inner loss which is a natural part of being
a human person. Every heart has to manage the emptiness of its own dark."
John O'Donohue, philosopher, poet, and Celtic theologian, I believe may well be on to something. We live with the reality of social media technology that promises a connection to "friends" across this vast globe, and yet we can be lonely, as we are apt to compare our "empty" lives with the lives of others, and when it appears as if others are having more fun than we are, it can help us feel even more lonely, isolated and even disconnected. It makes the valley darker. We are also exceptionally vulnerable, as social media also offers a perpetual platform for abuse, belittling, ridiculing, and cyber bullying.
As John O'Donohue insightfully observes, he offers four good reasons for our vulnerability: "First we are vulnerable because each of us is housed in a body. The body is in constant conversation with creation; it allows us through our senses to smell the roses, to see the waves and stars, and to read for ever the hierglyphics of the human countance. Second, you are vulnerable because you are an individual. To be an individual is to be different. There is a dark logic to experience which often seems to target individuality. Third, we are vulnerable for we live in time. We cannot control time. The tides of time can throw absolutely anything up on the shore of your life. It is amazing how successfully we repress the recognition of our total vulnerability. We have learned to forget that any moment can bring an abrupt and irreversible change of destiny." (We don't even want to think about it, let along talk about it - O'Donohue would die at the age of tender age of 53. He died, unexpectedly, in his sleep).
O'Donohue lists the last reason for our vulnerability. "Fourth, he says, "We are vulnerable because
of the destiny that is given to each of us. Each person who walks through this world is called at sometime to carry some of the weight of pain that assails the world. To help carry some of this pain a little further for others is a precious calling, though it is a lonely, sad, and isolating time in one's life."
O'Donohue, and recalling he is reflecting on "being and belonging" makes what I think is a pretty radical and very challenging statement when he writes: "Vulnerability is an infinitely precious thing. There is nothing as lonely as that which has become hardened. When your heart hardens, your life becomes numb. Though vulnerability leaves one open to pain, one should somehow still be ultimately glad of vulnerability - everyone gets hurt. The extreme response to hurt is to close the heart."
O'Donohue, offers once again this challenging thought in his chapter entitled Suffering as the Dark Valley of Broken Belonging: "Vulnerability risks hurt, disappointment, and failure. Yet it remains a vital opening to change and to truth. We should not see our vulnerability as something we need to hide or get over. It is great when we can learn to behold our vulnerability as one of the important gates
of blessing into the inner world. In giving love we are most human and most vulnerable."
~ all photographs belong to cathcart photos ~
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