“This being human is complicated. We long for more in our spiritual lives, that’s for sure, but we’re not always ready for the harrowing journey of suffering, death, burial and resurrection that any true spiritual journey entails.
We want God as long as we can still have our successes, too. We like the idea of being on a journey of faith as long as it doesn’t require too much…well, faith. We dream of a promised land but we don’t want to leave anything behind. We want space for God as long as it doesn’t intrude too radically on our packed schedules and conflicting priorities. We want self-knowledge as long as it doesn’t cut too close to the ego bone. We desire to know and do God’s will as long as it doesn’t make us look foolish. We want love as long as it’s not too inconvenient. We’d like to buy the pearl of great price as long as we don’t have to sell everything we have. We wax eloquent about the Paschal Mystery one weekend a year as long as we’re not the ones doing the dying!
In one penetrating statement, Fr. Thomas Keating captures the mystery of the human struggle at the heart of any true spiritual journey. He writes, ‘The spiritual journey is not a career or a success story. It is a series of humiliations of the false self that become more and more profound.’”