Wilfrid Stinissen (1927–2013)
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (at that time she was sixteen and a novice at the Carmel in Lisieux) wrote to her sister Céline: "Let us make use of this single moment of suffering and look at every single moment. Every moment is a treasure (...), a single act of love allows us to know Jesus better and brings us closer to him for all eternity!" (1)
This text reveals many interesting things to us: "Let us make use of this single moment of suffering and look at every single moment. Every moment is a treasure..." Although we are eternally in our deepest sphere of being, our life unfolds externally in time. One little piece of life after another. Every moment has its own task. Life is much simpler if we can live it in the present moment: God does not give us two moments at once, but comes to us one after the other. The Lord does not want to disturb the order of creation. After all, time was created for man, not man for time. Therefore, when God, who gave nature order, created time, He did not want to have power over the natural movements of man. Such movements come gradually one after another. On the day of judgment, therefore, a person will have no excuse. When he is accountable for how he used time, he cannot claim: "You gave me two moments at once, even though I was only capable of one act of will." Our asset is therefore to go step by step and moment by moment. "I do not want to know, one step is enough for me" (Cardinal John Henry Newman).
"A single act of love means more than everything that has ever been done." We have unwavering certainty that every meaningful moment lived bears fruit and has unpredictable consequences. On the level of requirements and results, we miss out on much. For example, someone might start studying at a pedagogical faculty, but after two years changes plans and switches to medicine: two lost years! However, on a deeper and more essential level, it may not be a loss at all. Every moment filled with our agreement of "yes, Father" resonates with infinite echo. For example, we meditate. Suddenly we realize that during this time we mostly spend in thoughts discussing with the boss. And we react with words: "I am a hopeless case, I will never learn to meditate properly." But we need not be troubled by this. Even great masters of spiritual life could not meditate without any distraction. The only thing that is needed is to realize our distraction and immediately return to prayer. Gradually our attention and vigilance will grow so that we can capture these moments and fill them with love. This will allow them to become a source of new similar moments.
People who often participate in exercises sometimes complain about their old habit of making some resolutions at the end. However, experience repeatedly confirms that we are unable to keep them. Then we conclude that we will never make any resolutions again. I think this is a mistake. A resolution is a certain way of turning. However, we must avoid two mistakes. First, we must not give up any thought of the outcome in advance. The subject of the resolution should not be something like honesty or temperance, but an attempt, the effort to be honest or temperate. Whether that attempt succeeds or not does not play a fundamental role. And it may happen that it will be better if we suffer defeat. Failure plays a very important role in spiritual life: it causes a person to diminish. We cannot suffer defeat unless we have first made an attempt.
And our next mistake: we want to force ourselves to continue. "From now on I will always be honest." However, to continue being honest is not within our power. The only thing we can do is to try to be honest when we think about it. It can be a moment. But those moments will become more and more frequent, the intervals between them will shorten, and ultimately they will together create a straight line. In other words – life consists of continual new beginnings. Therefore, resolutions should concern new beginnings. Life will grow and become richer as more and more of its moments are filled with love. Whoever despises the moment will never reach the fullness of life.
"A single act of love will allow us to know Jesus better and bring us closer to him for all eternity!" If a moment is the embodiment of eternity, it means that when I fill my "now" with a loving "yes," the entire eternity changes. A moment is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all, but what grows from it is immense. More light, more joy, and above all, more love in all eternity. How immense a power has been entrusted to man!
(1) Letter dated April 26, 1889.
Taken from the book: Christian Deep Meditation
Author: Wilfrid Stinissen OCD
Published by: KNA
