Summer is often associated with rest, vacation and travel. This summer brought the issue of whether to travel or not, closer to home. “Should I stay or should I go?” is the question we are asking, especially when terrorism hits the country we intend to visit. For others, summer is not such a restful period because they have to deal with a personal weakness, overcome a family dispute or face the toughness of a situation at work.

We’re often troubled by one or the other of the negative aspects of life. Our first reaction is often to oppose, resist and struggle endlessly with these situations, or otherwise to run away. These are important reactions for our own sanity. Yet many a time we need more, on the spiritual level, to survive through these tormented times we face.

I would like to explore what I will call a third way. When faced with these situations we often seek the easy way out, in line with our morals, our immediate desires or what we feel is the ‘good’ way.

An initial step is the embrace of our vulnerability, the embrace of the weakness within us, our society and the people we live with day by day. Often, beyond our initial coping process we waste a lot of time, energy and frustration in accepting that ‘I am a work in progress’. Likewise others are on a journey, and with their actions they can hurt us, as we do ourselves, according to what experience we’ve lived through.

But “accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives, is the beginning of spirituality… because we let go of seeking perfection and instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives” (M. Yaconnelli).

This attitude includes groundness and fight against injustice while keeping alive spaces of hope, within our own journey and that of others.

People who notwithstanding the bleak view in front of them, dive into life with this trust discover new ways of being

Our weakness, worries and negativities are transformed when we realise and accept we are part of a vulnerable journey, community, nation, and world, but especially God’s embrace. This active acceptance opens spaces of greater freedom, courage and creative ways to deal with situations and adversities around us.

Pope Francis defines his spiritual journey as follows: “I am a sinner, whom the Lord has looked upon”. An air of freedom transpires from such a statement. “Authentic religion leads us to places we don’t know” (R.Rohr).

This complete trust and abandonment in a way that is laid ahead of us beyond our own expectations, plans, reactions of fight or flight, frustration or ambitions, is a ‘second step’ in this third way.

People who notwithstanding the bleak view in front of them, dive into life with this trust discover new ways of being. They live life as a gift, they are ‘out of control’ so as to allow God chart a life ahead.

This third way is the spirit animating some much contested teachings of the Church, such as those regarding euthanasia or the indissolubility of marriage.

There is always a creative experience we are invited to be open to. It’s not simply my plan or our plan, but surely my life and our life together, even though it may sound as dark as terrorism or years of anger and bitterness in relationships. Simple examples can be the survivor of euthanasia, Andrew Lloyd Webber, or abortion survivors like Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli and Steve Jobs.

Today is the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, who called himself a pilgrim precisely because he had to discern his way through life by letting go of it, letting go of the bitterness against his own and the weakness of others to embrace the gift of life. It was a way he didn’t know in the beginning of his life as a soldier. He ‘discerned’ this life with spiritual skills that he passed on through the experience I am grateful to have lived through, called the Spiritual Exercises.

We’re all pilgrims, on a journey. My desire is that we will all one day peacefully embrace our weakness and take up the gift of life.

tonimifsud@yahoo.com