To expose oneself to God's light means to consciously embrace the reality that in the bright daylight all our flaws and shortcomings will surface. At first, they will be evident to others, and over time, as the light becomes clearer, the individual will also see them. First, we discover the mediocrity in others, and only then do we recognize our own. We always take this risk when we aim high. We then suffer all the more intensely, as we feel we are merely drifting further from our goal. (…) The revelation of mediocrity in others, and subsequently in ourselves, is a path to the light that becomes increasingly confusing. Holiness, perfection, virtues: all these concepts that we inadvertently interpret as a reflection of the Absolute within us slowly fade away. Everything that can make me the center of everything, some sort of autonomous crystallizing core, must disappear so that I can resemble the resurrected Christ. Nothing will remain, only the relationship with the Father, stripped of any created riches: just a pure relationship.
(Paroles de chartreux, Cerf 1987)
