Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Letting Go (Mid-week Message)

-->




Letting Go 

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
September 25, 2013
 

“Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss?”
― Susan Gordon Lydon,
The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice

We often think that spirituality is about holding on—not giving up in times of trial, of sticking in there through thick and thin, of not changing in the midst of changes about us. 

But I think that a healthy spirituality is probably more about letting go than it is about holding on.  True faith is what is left when we have let go of everything else, whether false hopes, sorry attachments, petty delusions, or inordinate loves.  Abundance is all about letting go:  only that which is empty is able to receive.

I am not saying we need to detach from all desiring or yearning, or give up all striving, just that we need to let our yearning and striving be open-ended, without expectation.   “Enough is enough” can be a declaration of satisfaction rather than a cry of desperation.  “This is as good as it gets” need not be an expression of disappointment. 

Jesus’ parables and beatitudes are all about finding enough in God, all about trust and acceptance, all about letting go, and letting God: the treasure hidden in the field, the loving father welcoming the wayward home, the seed growing on its own and the leaven mysteriously raising the loaf.  There is significance to this pattern. 

Grace and peace,

Fr. Tony+  

No comments:

Post a Comment