Do we actually need God? This is a provocative question that gets to the heart of our salvation, yet false ideas abound: Do it yourself, Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, You can do anything you put your mind to, etc. What a sad vision for life! Where’s the mystery? The risk of encountering the other? The hope of some new reality? The trust in a power beyond ourselves? The connection that satisfies our longing to be whole? I am reminded of the story of a monk who goes to his abbot to learn about the spiritual life. The abbot leads him out to the monastery lake, and, as they are talking, gradually pushes the monk’s head down into the water until he is totally submerged. The monk, who had been thinking it was some ritual, begins to panic and just when he thinks he is going to drown, the abbot relents. The monk bursts out of the water, gasping for breath and screaming obscenities. The abbot calmly responds, “I’m sorry, but I want you to understand that you will never know God, until you need God like that next breath.” Let’s stop playing God with our clever calculations and power moves, but instead learn the meaning of these words, “Your heavenly Father already knows the things you need, so do not worry about tomorrow” (Mt 6:32,34). Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
March 26, 2022
Published
Voice of Moreau 
Thank you! I have learned more from the Brothers and Notre Dame in the past decade than I did my entire life from all others. A blessing I will never be able to repay.
Love,
Jeff
It is an honor to journey with you Jeff!!
Thank you! A good reminder about the degree of wanting God (casually vs. urgently).
I appreciate your ministry at “The Voice of Moreau.”
Thanks Mark! That casual stance is what my uncles call “alligator arms.” When the bill would come to the table – with all 25 of us family members eating out – they would all say “Oh, I’ll get that” and pretend to reach with their hands, while their arms would stay close to their chests (like an alligator’s little arms). I think that it is very easy for us, as religious people, to be like that…to talk a big game but to hold back.