Like Peter, We Need To Get Out of the Boat
Your subjective dispositions do not impede the action of My grace in your soul. Learn, then, to trust in Me to do the things that you cannot do of yourself, and allow Me to work in you secretly, in a manner perceptible
A Benedictine Monk. In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart--The Journal of a Priest at Prayer (p. 126). Angelico Press. Kindle Edition.
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Most of us have in our lifetime have most likely met someone who seems to see us more deeply than we see ourselves. No matter what we are going through these special people actually do see deeper into what is really going on. Our moods, and insensitivity towards them, do not seem to bother them: they see too deeply. They understand. It is not always easy having a relationship because they do not have any ‘hooks’ that we can latch on to. We cannot draw them into the dramas that can so easily be created and at least for a time, believe that they are based on some sort of objective reality. These special people are not perfect and have limitations like the rest of us. Perhaps there are periods when we can play that role, and we may be confounded how we can see and understand someone else so deeply.
When we are the receiver of such a gift, or the one who is the giver, both tell us something about the love of God and how He relates to each one of us. Why is this so? Because we are made in the image of God and there are intervals when we can actually live out that image in a profound way.
In these special grace filled times in our lives, we are either called to face life and our fears and move forward, or we are the one’s doing the calling. Loving parents understand this I would imagine, perhaps more than anyone.
It is a call to step out of our self-concern, our self-centeredness and enter into a bigger world. It is not easy of course, but called we are and when that happens we are brought to a point in our lives when we are perhaps for the first time, make a life-changing choice or a path that will diminish us. Even then, if we choose poorly, hope remains, and mercy.
What many of us accomplish in our lives with certain people is how God is, always, for again we are made in His image and likeness. When we can see deeply into another human being, and still love them, it is then we live out of our full humanity, the very humanity of Christ. This is what led Christ Jesus to forgive all on the cross. For He had no need to hate, to show contempt, or to hurt others in an act of self-defense-self-protection, but faced the storm always looking to the Father. We are called to follow in His footsteps. To have faith in Him, to look to Him in times of distress, fear, ruin, and yes when we are close to death. We get out of the boat and walk on the water, not looking at the waves or the void that we are walking over, but to Jesus.—Br.MD
