103 posts 6/5/2007 5:37 am
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6/5/2007 5:40 am
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John 16:29-33... Jesus’ Departure... Reflect…
John 16:29-33... Jesus’ Departure... Reflect…
We hear Jesus in his Last Discourse very realistically predicting that his disciples will have to suffer. However, he also tells them that, whatever their trials, they will always find peace in him. this promise has been proven true a thousand times in the course of the centuries. As experienced master of spirituality like Benedictine monk Hubert van Zeller expresses his deep convictions on this topic:
“Lacking spirituality,” he write, “human afflictions must appear as either punitive, arbitrary, vengeful, self-induced, imposed by blind fate or bad luck. It is only Christian faith, with its orientation towards Calvary, that can make sense of suffering. It is only prayer that can make it bearable, or even acceptable. When a man has learned through prayer that there is something that not even the greatest of sufferings can take from him, he can be at peace in the midst of disturbance. Like the supposed cell of silence in the heart of the tornado, there is an enclave within the soul which is proof against any distress one can mention” (The Current of Spirituality, p. 92).
The late Martin Luther King teaches the same thing in his book Strength to Love:
“A positive religious faith,” he says, “does not offer an illusion that we shall be exempt from pain and suffering, nor does it imbue us with the idea that life is a drama of unalloyed comfort and untroubled ease. Rather, it instills us with the inner equilibrium needed to face strains, burdens and fears that inevitably come, and assures us that the universe is trustworthy and that God is concerned” (p. 123 ).
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365 Days with the Lord
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