Today’s post is brief due to the fact that my own computer crashed – Disk error….Cache flaw….divide by zero….error….error….
Alas and despite my Computer Science Degree from 30 years ago, I am often mystified by the complexity of our modern devices. Most of us who use them really have very little idea of how they basically work!
But if you think these mere computers are complex, how about you? The Scripture from Thursday of this week at Mass says this:
More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart (Jer 17:9).
One of the greatest discoveries that we are onis the journey to discover our very own self. And only the Lord can really do this for us. For, it is so often the case that we allow illusions to dominate our sense of our self.
The world and so often tells us that we were made to be rich, powerful, beautiful, popular and so forth. And we run after these things, only to eventually discover their emptiness.
We too build up expectations for ourselves that are often wrong and misguided. We often try to be what others are, to have gifts that others have, to look like others etc. Perhaps it is the movie star or sports hero we feel drawn to imitate. Perhaps it is the media-driven body-type we must be. Perhaps there is some one we admire, and we have to be just like them.
But here is the real question: Who is the man or woman God made you to be? What are the gifts He gave you? What is His plan for your life?
This is the real and great discovery. And it is not merely a discovery, it is an acceptance, a whole hearted and grateful acceptance for the gifts that God has given me and the “self” he has made me to be.
In Lent this journey, this great discovery is intensified. But in the end it is a life-long journey that we must make, and God alone can show us the way.
I conclude with a story about Rabbi Eleazar who thought, one day:
Eleazar, why are you not more like Moses? Moses was a great man! But then I thought again, that if I try to be Moses, I will one day face God who will say to me, Eleazar, why were you not more like Eleazar?