Total Eclipse of the Heart

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. (Luke 23:44-45)

Observing a total eclipse of the Sun was the fulfillment of a life-long dream for me, and an experience that will carry with me always.  It was truly a humbling experience of God’s glory made manifest in ways that relatively few are able to witness first-hand.  I’m very grateful for the experience.

Standing in awe of the magnificent event brought to mind two images that I will continue to meditate upon for spiritual nourishment. 

The first was a visualization of being at the foot of the cross, when the total eclipse occurred during Christ’s crucifixion.  At the world’s darkest hour, during the act of deicide, the skies physically grew dark as the moon covered the sun as the moon’s shadow crept across the landscape.  At that moment of totality, Christ gave up his last breath! 

The second, while a simple reminder, may be more profound.  Too often we allow the circumstances in our lives to eclipse the rays of the loving grace of our Blessed Lord.  We allow circumstances like the events at Charlottesville to trigger our anger, build resentments, and plunge us into despair (which are all products of fear).  The resulting hatred for others surfaces in the form of being judgmental, seeking revenge/retaliation in the form of violence and/or property destruction, and other forms of evil begetting evil.

This post isn’t about the why these types of things happen.  Unfortunately, there isn’t an answer to that question, outside of the generic “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)  We know “the whole world is under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), so we can continue to expect situations like Charlottesville to occur as Satan continues his war on “those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17).

Just like the darkness of a total eclipse, the light will return.  When Jesus died on the cross, it wasn’t His last breath after all.  He returned in glory.  When the dark moments, like the events at Charlottesville occur, we mustn’t carry the darkness forward through our fears.  Instead, we must be open to allowing God to work through us to bring light to the darkness. God can bring good out of the evil, but we must cooperate with His grace, which is very difficult to do when we are reacting through a lens of fear.

When you see the darkness, trust that light is right around the corner.  When you see evil in the world, do not react from your fear.  Instead, accept the situation for what it is; surrender your need to react to the situation, or control the situation, to God; and then pray for the grace to respond out of love.  The corporal and spiritual acts of mercy are a good place to start when trying to understand how to respond out of love.  By consistently doing this, we are following God’s plan to make the world a more accepting, tolerant, and loving place as opposed to falling into the snare of Satan, which only  progresses his plans of more chaos, fear, and hatred.

Ultimately, it is up to you to determine if you will allow your heart to be totally eclipsed by evil, or if you will allow your heart to be a reflection of the light and love of our Blessed Lord for the whole world to be nourished from.  Working with a spiritual director may help you get more clarity on these concepts and help you see how to more practically apply these concepts to your life.

Delusion #4: “My spiritual goals need to be based on my external beliefs”

“Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’  When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”  Matthew 21-22

By external beliefs, I’m really talking about those things external to us that we believe we need to help us feel complete; i.e., the persons, places, or things we are attached to. Our attachments impact how receptive we are to God’s transformative grace. Instead of accepting an invitation from God to fulfill our desire, we tend to fill our appetite with the object of our attachment.

Ideally, as indicated by Jesus, there should be nothing between us and our relationship with God.  We know our human nature is not capable of that level of perfection this side of heaven; however, we should aspire hold nothing back from God and continue to progress in our goals to detach from the people, places, and things that we tend to obsess about.

This is where “Let go and let God” starts to really take meaning.  We let go of our egos.  We let go of our need to control the people, places, and things in our life.  We let go of lusts and material satisfaction.  We learn to shift our focus from anything and everything of this world to the ever-present God.

This is an ongoing, life-long journey.  Removing attachments from our lives is like cutting away the layers of an onion.  There always seems to be another layer underneath.  It helps to have someone on the journey with you to help be a source of motivation when facing an attachment is difficult.

To complicate matters, we can be in denial about how an attachment is present in our lives.  Our ego may even try to convince that we don’t really have an attachment or that a certain attachment has no impact on our spirituality.   Having someone else on the journey with you can be a source of objectivity in these times of denial.  They can help us see when we are simply blind to what we are being called to do by God.

It is also possible for attachments to become an entry point for spiritual bondage.  If so, assistance may be required to help identify and renounce the spirit that is trying to take advantage of the situation.

A spiritual director can help you work through your attachments by being a source of motivation, a source of objectivity, and an aid in deliverance. 

Delusion #3: “I expect certain outcomes from our spiritual practices”

You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

It is said that expectations are premeditated resentments. While this phrase is generally attributed to our relationships with people, it also holds true to our relationship with God; i.e., our spirituality.  These expectations can stem from two sources, who we perceive God to be and what we perceive a relationship with God to look like.

According to one study, 62% of people are mad at God.  This is generally due to a false image of God the person has adopted.  Perhaps we grew up in a faith tradition that taught God is punishing and vindictive.  We would likely have adopted an image of God is punishing and vindictive.  Perhaps we grew up with a father that was absent and seems uncaring.  We could very likely transfer that image of fatherhood onto God creating an image of God being absent and uncaring.  These and other false images can easily create feelings of anger toward God that can impact spirituality.  We will discuss images of God in a future post.

Perceptions of what a relationship looks like can also come from the same sources.  We may believe (perhaps even subconsciously) that our relationship with God should look like the relationship we have with our fathers.  Or, the faith tradition we grew told us what a relationship with God would look like.  Either way, we try to make our relationship with God fit inside the box of our perception.

I had a client that thought a relationship with God equated to vocal conversation.  This expectation was planted by a well-intentioned friend, but created a box the prevented my client from experiencing God in the innumerable ways He reaches out to us.  When we started our sessions, she was very frustrated with God and with herself.  It was a relief to her to learn different forms of prayer, to come to the realization that God communication is often at a higher level than vocal conversation, and to begin to recognize how God is relating to her.

A spiritual director can help you see how your expectations of what a relationship with God “should” look like could be hampering the relationship you are looking for.  The sessions can be very useful for exploring your relationship with Him and discovering new ways that He is trying to relate to you.