August 25, 2008

Fear Not!

Our Lady is our role model.  It seemed that when the angel first came to her, there was some element of fear there.  Otherwise, he would not have said, “Fear not, Mary.”  It took tremendous courage on her part to give her fiat, particularly when she said, “.. according to Your Word.”  She let go; she let go without understanding, without really knowing.  “What do I do now?  Where do we go from here?”  We used to have a poster in our hermitage of a chicken that had just been hatched.  It was this big egg shell with a chick coming out, just born, and his words were, “What do I do now?”   Many times, this is our posture.  “What do I do now if I surrender?  I am in unknown territory.  I am in God’s hands.”  It is not unknown to God, is it?  We have to let go of the control, “according to Your word.”  It is not easy.  We have to beg constantly for the grace because we do not know God’s ways.  We do not know His thoughts.   But we want to know and He wants that too.  But He requires of us, “Take off your shoes first.  You are on Holy Ground.  Come into My presence.” 

In order to overcome this fear, we need to be shown how to surrender.  We need to experience for ourselves - up close - that healings really can happen. 

People who are broken in spirit find it really much easier to relinquish control of their lives to God.  Those of us in the ministry of inner healing find this to be very true.  They have no where else to go.  They are going to be much more open to God because He is their last resort.  They have already been everywhere else.  They have tried everything.  They already know that they are broken in spirit.  They already know they are hurting and they find it easier to let God have control of their lives. 

Then there are the childlike ones, the beautiful people in the Church today who do not have to have that experience of being broken, because they already know who they are. They already have experienced God’s love and God’s littleness to them.  They have already identified with the babe of Bethlehem.  These people do not have a problem with opening up because they have come to know God as a child like them.  Or maybe God has made them a child like He is.  Their spirit will be very much open to God’s will because they already know that this is the only path to take.  The Little Flower constantly wrote on this.  She knew this was the way ~ the sure way for her ~  and she had no problem, being little. 

Now the people who most resist surrender to God are the spiritual rebels.  These are  (theologians and people in the healing ministries tell us)  the emotional addicts.  They have already surrendered their lives to other gods.  One way or the other, we are going to surrender.  It is a choice.  They have already surrendered their lives to their gods.  It might be alcohol, sensuality, drugs, their reputation, self esteem, their will.  The other god is not always money.  The other gods can be all the “riches” that I think I have ~ whatever is giving me control.  It is all part of being enslaved to selfishness and self interest.    It might take a moment of despair, or some sort of real brokenness, before we allow ourselves to be led to the point of this total surrender.  God knows how to back all of us into a corner and, in His mercy, He will do that.  He knows how to do that so that we will surrender.  The surrender is our choice.  I have heard that in the AA program, until an alcoholic really gets to the level of admitting, “I am an alcoholic and I need help,” the program will not work.  That is when inner healing begins.  God has to bring all of us to the point where we can admit that we need help, that we are neither free nor whole. Then the healing begins in a beautiful way.

Excerpt from Mother Nadine’s, “The Healing Power of Surrender,” Omaha, 2006