Confusion. Doubt. Fear.
These are, unfortunately, words that I
have heard from devout, practicing Catholics this summer in regard to their
faith. They are sensations with which I myself have deeply struggled. These are
not what God wants us to associate with our faith, though he will allow us to
be plunged into doubt and despair as a path to eventually bring us closer to
him. During the experience, however, we can have great difficulty discerning
God's will in our lives.
Questions about what God wants from us, to
whom he wants us to listen, and how we are supposed to follow him are all
natural and good. However, when these questions turn so much to fear and doubt
that our hearts are stirred into a frenzy of unknowing, then we are no longer
simply asking questions of our God: we are falling prey to the Tempter.
St. Ignatius, five-hundred years ago,
addressed this very problem, and his insights into the issue are all too-little
known in our day and age. Ignatius calls it the Discernment of Good and Evil
Spirits.
Basically, Ignatius discerns between
Consolation and Desolation, and how when we are in Consolation we often make
resolutions which are good, but are not necessarily what God wants from us. We
get caught up in the moment, filled with a fervor of love for our great Lord
and Creator, and we vow to do great things to transform ourselves and the
world. We forget in this moment of fervor about St. Therese's Little Way, or
Mary's hidden life in Nazareth ;
we want to become a Joan of Arc overthrowing evil, a Sebastian peppered with
arrows for God, a Paul spreading the Word across the nations. We must
acknowledge however, that we are simple, fallen human beings, and God asks only
that we obey him at every moment of every day. "Do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matt. 6:34) We stack up
to many expectations for ourselves, and so forget to rely on God's calm
guidance in our lives.
Sometimes, after we have resolved on these
great plans, fear suddenly sweeps over us. Fear of what we think God is asking
of us, and fear of our lack of desire to obey Him. We start thinking that we
are terrible people, that we are sinful wretches incapable of loving God. This
is not the turmoil that stems from an empty life, or the committing of a grave sin.
This is fear about everything: fear
about God's very ability to love us because of our fallen nature. These
thoughts discount God’s mercy and are never from
Him. This is an experience of Desolation, and arises from thoughts instilled in
us by Satan.
Ignatius discusses Desolation and how,
when we are in this state, we are filled with fear of our intentions, our
actions, our future. Sometimes, we mistakenly believe that God is speaking to
us through this feeling of confusion and turmoil: that he is allowing us to
feel wretched as a way to disengage us from our current path.
Most often, however, this is simply not
the case. God's nudges and guidance come from a place of peace in our hearts.
They come from a deep well of trust in his counsels. If we can not feel that
trust, if we can not feel the love of God in a decision over which we are
agonizing, then we are not in a position to make any decision.
Two years ago, I experienced a deep
desolation, and within the confusion of the experience, nearly turned away from
God. I suffer from Chronic Fatigue, which is a generally unknown and misunderstood
illness. It is debilitating and can become so to varying degrees. I was
confined to my room, divorced even from the company of my family: I was plunged
in a state of brain fog and depression, which made thinking practically
impossible. For a person whose whole life centers around Philosophy, this affliction
began to undermine the very way that I viewed reality. I could not believe that
God would allow such constant pain, such entire solitude, such total misery. I
could no longer recollect with any intelligence Christ's experience of agony,
or any of Aquinas' proofs for God's existence; I was bereft of any comfort, and
even Sunday Communion was an unknown privilege. I doubted the existence of God,
and I remember the moment one day, sitting upon the side of my bathtub, with my
head in my hands, when I decided that God must not exist. But cradle
Catholicism has its perks, and habit was too strong for me. I cried out in desperation
to the ceiling, telling God that I could no longer believe in him, and I had to
give up trying because it made me too tired.
What followed was a literal cartoon moment
- a flash of a light bulb above my head: without any thinking, without any reasoning,
but with a simple, solid knowing.
The knowledge came with an almost audible voice: "You are not expected to
prove my existence."
With that all the doubt, confusion,
turmoil, and pain of mind washed away like a stream in a desert. I was not
being asked to make a decision, to prove anything, or to understand anything.
Only to have faith. I knew then that one day, I would be well-enough to think
again about why I
believed in God. But until that day came, I had only to believe.
With simple surrender, I prayed a simple
prayer for belief.
Faith is underrated, and in this world of
scientific proofs, individualism, and logical reasoning, our world expects us
to understand and prove everything that we believe. God, however, is not so
hard on our simple, limited minds. He knows and loves our limitations, and
gives us the grace in every moment to simply accept him. He will not always
give the knowledge for which we pray, but he will always give us peace.
The best advice with which I would like to
leave you is this: Do not make a decision regarding your
faith when you are in a state of desolation, and be careful of the decisions
that stem from Consolation. Do not expect that any decision you make will bring you peace.
Pray first for acceptance and peace, and only when Christ has restored you to
that tranquility, will you be in a state of mind to know and do his will.
Confusion and doubt are from the Devil, but Peace is from God.
For further reading on Ignatius' teachings, check out these sites:
Ignatius' 8 Rules for the Discernment of Spirits: http://sacred-texts.com/chr/seil/seil79.htm
Article about Ignatius' Teachings: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions/discernment-of-spirits/introduction-to-discernment-of-spirits