PRIMARILY an introspective process, reflection does not aim to remove us from the world. In fact, it is basically a reminder that we are “in the world.” But though we are “in the world” it is more important to keep in mind that we are “not of the world.” We live in this world but we are not destined to stay here forever.
Precisely why I completely agree with St. Augustine that we are earthly sojourners. We need to respond to the invitation to “return to oneself” because in man’s innermost being “dwells the truth.” With a few more words we learn from the great ecclesiastical doctor: “and if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself. But remember, when you transcend yourself, you are transcending a soul that reasons. Reach, therefore, to where the light of reason is lit.”
Reflection, which means finding oneself, is important nowadays. We are a people lost in the so many complications of life. We have difficulty turning to our political leaders many of whom cannot be trusted. We also have difficulty turning to our religious leaders because they too are – to some extent – questionable. There is a crisis of trust. There is a crisis of truth. Where abounds a crisis of trust there abounds, all the more, a crisis of relationships. We are a people who have trust issues with one another. We run here and there looking for the consolation that we need.
By reflecting on our limits we get to open our view and then our world. We would realize that the world has its purpose but no matter what – even if it would be exhausted it cannot be our source of solace. True that we have the duty to fight and struggle for justice, but in doing this we are reminded that such a kind of justice cannot wipe away all our tears. As one song says it, “there is a peace that the world cannot give, there’s a joy that the world cannot understand.”
The invitation to reflect extends to the Church. Just like anyone else our Church is also in search of herself. It is a Church which at once was sure of its convictions but now – no longer. It is a Church that has trust issues with its flock; a Church still trying to retain power but no matter what – cannot. It is a community that tries to pray together but no matter what divided and wounded by its own differing political convictions. Thus, a Church predicted to be gone in the next twenty to twenty-five years. This may not really be the case but neither can we say that such will be impossible.
Before he’d become Benedict XVI, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger said some four decades ago that the Church of the future would be different. It shall be a Church “not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right.” He added that the Church will have hard time and it would cost much of her energy to “crystallize and clarify” herself. But it is a Church though shrunk yet genuine. It is a Church that is introspective and contemplative though still on the go. It is a Church that knows where it stands but also knows when to go out from its comfort zone.
Without reflection the Church and especially its leaders would end up like a political party. The failure to search herself would cost the Church its own identity. Least should it be forgotten that the identity of the Church as well as of each and every Christian is not independent from Him “in whom we move, and live, and have our being.”
The Church cannot continue to exist as an oligarchy or worse an economic machinery. To continue making meaning for its people the Church has to give up some of its pretensions. Lent is a good time to reflect on this. These are pretensions that have to be done away with. Without influence and power the Church may be weak and irrelevant. But as Fr. Ratzinger said years ago, at least it is a Church that is “poor and meek.” And the final reminder from him should touch us all in our core and the Church as well:
“Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.”