In all places today, we’re informed that one of the best coverage is “no surprises.” Our world is obsessive about management, planning, and threat administration. Mother and father of young children, coaches, managers, therapists, spouses, and pals are suggested to be regular and predictable, to keep away from sudden modifications, to be clear, and to clarify expectations clearly. A lot counsel in non secular issues has a “no surprises” taste. We’re suggested to stay to routines and develop good habits of prayer. We are able to depend on what we all know to be true, as a result of God is devoted. In spite of everything, says the author of Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is identical yesterday and as we speak and perpetually” (13:8). The Apostle James says of God, “there is no such thing as a variation or shadow as a consequence of change” (1:17).
However does that imply “no surprises”? Possibly not. Nobody was extra stunned than Abraham when God informed him to go away his snug house and set out on a journey and not using a map. Nobody was extra stunned than Mary when the angel of God visited her with an sudden announcement. Identical for Elizabeth and Zechariah, the Galilean fishermen mending their nets when Jesus walked by, and Saul on his technique to Damascus to persecute Christians. Jesus didn’t assume the regular, predictable, precise, clear, and exact “no surprises” non secular observance of the Pharisees was something to be praised. In reality, he condemned it. Jesus always overturned the expectations of people that listened to him, together with, particularly, the expectations of his disciples, who have been with him on a regular basis and have been startled again and again by what he needed to say.
Pope Francis typically spoke warmly of the “God of surprises.” He talked in regards to the Holy Spirit’s creativity in all the time bringing new issues into the lifetime of the Church: “The Spirit is the reward of God, of this God, our Father, who all the time surprises us: the God of surprises” (Morning Meditation, “God of Surprises,” Could 8, 2017). Francis warned about “non secular rigidity.” He was crucial of those that resisted change. Their perspective of, “That is the way it has all the time been finished,” “kills freedom; it kills pleasure; it kills faithfulness to the Holy Spirit who all the time strikes ahead, main the Church ahead.”
The issue is that we are able to fall right into a rut. Routine can harden into rigidity. As soon as open minds can shut. Sticking to “the way it has all the time been finished” appears to work effectively, or effectively sufficient. When the brand new factor comes alongside and we’re stunned by the God of surprises, we’ll frown and say, “That’s not how we do issues round right here.”
Many statues of St. Ignatius present him with one foot raised, alert, eyes ahead, and striding into an unknown future. That appears to be the precise posture. Ignatius didn’t all the time know the place he was going. However he served a God who makes all issues new, a God of surprises. He didn’t know what the following factor is likely to be, the place it might take him, or what it might demand of him. However he was prepared for it.
I’m reminded of considered one of my favourite novels, Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen. On the finish of the ebook, a lady who had highly effective mystical visions in her youth writes to a good friend, who desires to know if she nonetheless has such an intimate relationship with Jesus. She replies, “We attempt to be shaped and held and stored by him, however as an alternative he affords us freedom. And now when I attempt to know his will, his kindness floods me, his nice love overwhelms me, and I hear him whisper, Shock me.”
We crave certainty. As an alternative God affords us freedom. Are you stunned?
