When Doing Nothing is Enough

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

"All of us know the feeling of standing within a situation and being powerless, at least in that we are helpless to change anything practically. What can we do when faced with that?

"Nothing - except live with the powerlessness, carry the tension, try to transmute it into something else, and wait for a new day - a day of new opportunity for resolution of the pain (which is very much contingent upon a deeper love and compassion on our part). In terms of resolving the issue practically, we can do nothing. But nothing can be enough!

"That might sound fatalistic, but is in fact the opposite of resignation. To stand powerless, in a biblical way, before a situation is to ponder. We see the prototype of this in Mary, Jesus' mother, under the cross.”
(continued tomorrow)


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