Awakening of the Soul
During the fourth week of Lent the Gospel stories depict Jesus fully engaged in communicating the depth of God’s love.
Initially, his engagement is demonstrated through curing the son of the official and giving sight to the blindman at the Sheep Gate. The second part of the week through the Gospel of John we hear Jesus amplifying the significance of being the Word of God, the actual manifestation of the Father. The Word is Love. Through Christ we experience the fullness of God’s love.
It is hard to hear these stories and these words and not wonder, what might have been my response had I witnessed a miracle like the return of sight to a blind person? Would the sheer wonder of such an act completely rock me to the point of losing my equilibrium? Or would such an event stir in me the capacity to recognize the action of God?
I find these stories of divine love in action challenge my assumptions about God’s presence in my life. In his work Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue writes….
…Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From
then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you
linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal
makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger
hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.”
It is a choice each of us has to allow these final days of Lent to evoke in us this urgency to see and experience God’s presence in our midst. How are we choosing to navigate the journey back to transcendence? How will we arrive on Easter Sunday – more or less attentive to presence of Christ?
Schools of the Sacred Heart share in the educational mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart as articulated in the Goals and Criteria. The structure supporting Sacred Heart education in Canada and the United States includes the Conference of Sacred Heart Education and the Network of Sacred Heart Schools. Together they provide services and programs to ensure vitality of mission for the member schools sponsored by the Society of the Sacred Heart.