“I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:2)
Carlo Carretto once wrote: “When there is a crisis in the Church, it is always
here: a crisis of contemplation. The
church wants to feel able to explain about her spouse even when she has lost
sight of him; even when, although she has not been divorced, she no longer
knows his embrace, because curiosity has gotten the better of her and she has
gone searching for other people and other things.” (The God Who Comes by
Carlo Carretto)
We talk about
being a weaned child with its mother, we read about it, we study it, we teach
it, and we even write about it. But do
we do it? Do we actually ever become a
weaned child with its mother? That is
the crisis of contemplation.
Action
that is not born out of contemplation has no power or authenticity. It is just theory and dogma without
experience and encounter. We must stop
talking about it and just do it! We must become
a weaned child with its mother! For only
then will we be able to experience the stilled and quieted heart of one whose
hope and love and life are rooted firmly in the experience of God's unfailing love. And only then do we have any hope of being a
non-anxious presence in this fallen, broken, chaotic, and fearful world.
O Lord, help me not just to talk about being a
weaned child with its mother, but help me to actually become a weaned child
with its mother. Help me to live every
minute of my life in your strong and loving embrace.
