Below is the text of Pope Francis’ weekly Wednesday audience, delivered on Nov. 16, 2022.
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Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
Today, allow us to resume the catecheses on the theme of discernment. We’ve got seen how essential it’s to read what stirs inside us, in order to not make hasty decisions, spurred by the emotion of the moment, only to regret them when it is simply too late. That’s, to read what happens after which make decisions.
On this sense, even the spiritual state we call desolation, when in the guts every thing is dark, it is unhappy, these items, this state of desolation could be a chance for growth. Indeed, if there just isn’t somewhat dissatisfaction, somewhat healthy sadness, a healthy capability to dwell in solitude and to remain by ourselves without fleeing, we risk all the time remaining on the surface of things and never making contact with the core of our existence. Desolation causes a “rousing of the soul”: when one is unhappy it’s as if the soul were shaken; it keeps us alert, it fosters vigilance and humility, and protects us from the winds of fancy. These are indispensable conditions for progress in life, and hence also within the spiritual life. An ideal but “aseptic” serenity, without feeling, when it becomes the criterion for decisions and behavior, makes us inhuman. We cannot ignore our feelings: we’re human and sentiment is part of our humanity. And without understanding feelings we’re inhuman; without living our sentiments we may also be indifferent to the sufferings of others and incapable of accepting our own. Not to say that such a “perfect serenity” can’t be reached by this path of indifference. This sterile distance: “I won’t get entangled in things, I’ll keep my distance”: this just isn’t life, it’s as if we lived in a laboratory, shut away, in order to not have microbes and diseases.
Pope Francis: Being desolate offers us the potential of growth, of initiating a more mature, more beautiful relationship with the Lord and with our family members, a relationship that just isn’t reduced to a mere exchange of giving and having.
For a lot of saints, restlessness was a decisive impetus to show their lives around. This artificial serenity is not going to do. Yes, a healthy restlessness is tremendous, the restless heart, the guts that seeks its way. That is the case, for instance, of Augustine of Hippo, Edith Stein, Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, or Charles de Foucauld. Necessary selections come at a price that life presents, a price that’s within sight of everyone; or fairly, the essential selections don’t come from the lottery, no; they’ve a price and you will have to pay that price. It’s a price that you should pay along with your heart, it’s the value of the choice, the value of creating some effort. It just isn’t freed from charge, but it surely is a price within sight of everyone. We must all pay for this decision in order to depart behind the state of indifference. The state of indifference brings us down, all the time.
Desolation can also be an invite to gratuitousness, to not acting all the time and solely with a view to emotional gratification. Being desolate offers us the potential of growth, of initiating a more mature, more beautiful relationship with the Lord and with our family members, a relationship that just isn’t reduced to a mere exchange of giving and having. Allow us to consider our childhood, for instance, think: as children, it often happens that we search for our parents to acquire something from them, a toy, some money to purchase an ice cream, permission… And so, we search for them not for themselves, but for private gain. And yet, the best gift is them, our parents, and we understand this step by step as we grow up.
A lot of our prayers are also somewhat like this: they’re requests for favours addressed to the Lord, with none real interest in him. We go to ask, to ask, to ask the Lord. The Gospel notes that Jesus was often surrounded by many individuals who sought him out with a view to obtain something: healing, material assistance, but not simply to be with him. He was pushed by the crowds, yet he was alone. Some saints, and even some artists, have contemplated this condition of Jesus. It could appear strange, unreal, to ask the Lord: “How are you?” As an alternative, it’s a fantastic approach to enter right into a true, sincere relationship, along with his humanity, along with his suffering, even along with his singular solitude. With him, with the Lord, who desired to share his life with us to the total.
Pope Francis: Desolation, then, is the clearest response to the objection that the experience of God is a type of wishful pondering, a straightforward projection of our desires.
It does us a terrific deal of excellent to learn to be with him, to be with the Lord, to learn to be with the Lord without ulterior motives, exactly because it happens with people we take care of: we want to know them an increasing number of, since it is nice to be with them.
Dear brothers and sisters, the spiritual life just isn’t a way at our disposal, it just isn’t a programme for inner “wellbeing” that it’s as much as us to plan. No. The spiritual life is the connection with the Living One, with God, the Living One who can’t be reduced to our categories. And desolation, then, is the clearest response to the objection that the experience of God is a type of wishful pondering, a straightforward projection of our desires. Desolation just isn’t feeling anything, when every thing is dark, but you seek God within the desolation. In that case, if we expect that he’s a projection of our desires, we might all the time be those to plan, and we’d all the time be completely happy and content, like a record that repeats the identical music. As an alternative, those that pray realize that the final result is unpredictable: experiences and passages from the Bible which have often enthralled us, today, strangely, don’t move us. And, equally unexpectedly, experiences, encounters and readings that we’ve got never paid much attention to or preferred to avoid—comparable to the experience of the cross—bring immense peace. Don’t fear desolation; face it with perseverance, don’t evade it. And in desolation, try to seek out the guts of Christ, to seek out the Lord. And the reply will come, all the time.
Faced with difficulties, subsequently, never be discouraged, please, but confront the test with determination, with the assistance of the grace of God, which isn’t lacking. And if we hear inside us an insistent voice that desires to show us away from prayer, allow us to learn to unmask it because the voice of the tempter; and allow us to not be influenced; allow us to simply do the other of what it tells us! Thanks.