Yesterday during a walk on
retreat, I was reflecting on leaves. They have a season of changing. Wind,
storms, rain, and birds come and knock into them, bit if they stay, and it
can’t be easy to hang on, they continue changing color. Even though this indicates
death, the more they change, the more beautiful they become.
If Christ is the vine and
we are the branches, then we, too, must have seasons of change. Our ‘leaves’
must change, fall off, and die. I think the change in color: deeper purple,
red, orange, is the Father’s Love, that is Christ’s blood, flowing more so to
us, indicating that when we are in the most pain, he is there all the more.
Seasons have cycles, so
this changing takes place over and over again, meaning, that Christ is still
connected to us and our lives are bearing fruit for him. Each time our leaves
change, it is a shedding of ourselves, which is painful and scary, but with
Christ as our trunk, he will have a steady hold on us on through to the time
that we are bare.
We cannot force the change
or speed it up. We can’t stop it. We can; however, allow it to stretch us, or
we we can cut ourselves off of the Source of life, which would be a greater,
even sadder death. So, it seems that it’s best that we hang on during this time
and let this shedding happen. We cannot be sure of what lies ahead, but we can
be sure that there will be new leaves, a new springtime of the Father’s Love
and a Resurrection will take place within us revealing new leaves and a new
layer of self revealed to show and receive his love in a whole new way.
Patient
Trust
Above
all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are
quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach
the end without delay.
We
should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are
impatient of being on the way to something
unknown,
something new.
And yet
it is the law of all progress
that it
is made by passing through
some
stages of instability—
and that
it may take a very long time
Don’t
try to force them on...
Only God
could say what this new spirit
gradually
forming within you will be.
Give Our
Lord the benefit of believing
that his
hand is leading you,
and
accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in
suspense and incomplete.
Teilhard de Chardin
