While considering how pointless it is in life to not accept others as they are and thus to love others as God loves us--accepting us as we are--there is also a valid truth evidenced in Psalm 1: 1-2.
"Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night."
Early this morning, awoke with the usual, constant pain. it is made worse any time there is a storm front either coming in or passing on. I tried to distract some with perusing online news, of which there is always much for prayer.
But I grow weary of distractions; and as a hermit, I ought to grow weary of them, for my "distraction" if anything, is to turn to the Lord, to the Living Word, to the law of God: the law of love.
And the Lord is not a distraction but rather He Is the Source of All Beingness and Love. He IS. I am the distraction....
I considered yet again, that of simplicity and freedom when I see clearly how best it is to accept others as they are, and I practice this a bit, bringing to mind various persons whose actions have cut me deeply in the past. And I can easily consider those of my actions who cut others deeply, as well--particularly, I am sure, my parents, perhaps mostly my mother, who hoped success in the gifts and talents I was given. But my forages into the temporal world usually met with trials and temporal disasters and hardships.
(I was intended for something other--as a mystic and contemplative, and not for a worldly path or place, although in my on-going foolishness at times can wonder why not, or have fleeting moments of wishing I could have had or still have, a normal, active, temporal existence. Not to be, and for good reason, for God wills it not!)
I return to the reflection of accepting others as they are as being a type of condition necessary in love of others and thus love of God in Himself. And when I leave off with the usual distractions from pain, I turn to what always provides rich solace and purpose: His Real Presence. And I find in the daily Mass readings of His Living Word: Psalm 1.
This Psalm answers the questions some may pose regarding accepting others as they are--that it may be too simplistic and even an excuse for the situations in which it may seem we should not accept others as they are--those others who do bad things or seem evil through and through.
Psalm 1 provides the recourse of the blessed. While one can accept others and love them as they are--even if wicked, sinful, insolent--we are not to take their counsel, follow their ways, or keep their company. Rather, we are to remain in God's love and turn to God and His precepts, day and night.
Being in Christ does not mean we do not accept and love others as they are; but it means we exist for and in Christ's love--God's law of love--and we strive to live accordingly.
There are times in our lives in which we must move on from some relationships. Recently, I've had to take God's cues that my purpose and time with another person is best left off. The person is entering into a phase of life and has a vocation of marriage and parent to fully embrace; God wills it. In the new phase of life for this person, of entering more deeply into sinking roots more deeply into this aspect of life, God also reminds me that I am on the verge of a new phase, be it in this life or the next. The present phase is coming to a close, one way or another. Deeper conversion beckons, always.
I suppose this can be ever the case, for we never know the day or hour; yet in a very real sense, we do go along in life assuming there is going to be another day and hour here--for there are temporal responsibilities to which we must attend while we are in our temporal bodies. However, our minds and hearts and souls are best to be delighting in and meditating on God's truths and His Love.
The recent situation with the time of spiritual friendship and advisement came to the fore when I realized the divergence in vocations as well as in life phases--and that there was not much spiritual progress for either. Time was nigh for the other to learn to figure out what matters in life and to live the lessons necessary in proceeding with family and friends, and to turn to God increasingly. I really had nothing more I could or should advise; I had become repetitive beyond effective. The Lord, as well, needed me to turn increasingly to Him and to be prepared for whatever is next in deeper conversion lived in the path of the eremitic vocation.
In the delight and meditation on God's law, we find our flaws unraveling when we otherwise may have considered that our lives were stitched up nicely. We do tend to live, often enough, in false security. Thus, sometimes others do not even need to be all that obviously sinful, or the wickedness fleeting or situational, or the insolence also temporary--and that can be for our own. Yet, we need to effectually remove ourselves in essence by turning to and returning to that deeper, more quiet, inner Source of All Power and Beingness: His Real Presence.
"Remain in My Love, Jesus tells us through His Living Word.
Meditating on the law of God, the law of love, we may be surprised to find that it is most loving to cease the company of some others when our paths must diverge according to God's loving will--for one or the other, or for both. Especially as we travel along in life, if we aspire to remain on the narrow path, there are moments when those with whom we walk and who walk with us must reroute or fall back or move forward. This occurs naturally if we note the path narrowing or angling off in a God-determined mode, dependent upon His will for each individual soul.
We do not remain in the same company--us insolent and capable-of-sin humans--all our lives. But we can always love one another no matter our insolence and sin, and that includes accepting one another as we are yet also accepting that our sojourn in this life is taking us beyond where we were; and where we were ran its course of productivity and progression in that phase.
This is something to accept in ourselves and others--yet does not preclude love that ought live on eternally.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
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