Cracked

We do not handle suffering;

suffering handles us in deep and mysterious ways

that ironically become the very matrix of life.

Suffering--and sometimes awe--

has the most power to lead us into genuinely new experiences.

Once the killing of God becomes the redemption of the world,

then forevermore the very worst things have the power

to become the very best things.

The heart is normally opened through a necessary hole in the soul,

what I call a "sacred wound."

Our wound is the only way, it seems,

for us to get out of ourselves and for grace to get in.

As Leonard Cohen put it in his song, "Anthem,"

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

Our wounds are the only things humbling enough to break

our attachment to our false self

and make us yearn for

our True Self.

Followers of the Crucified One will pray for the grace to do what he did:

hold the pain until it transformed him into the Risen Christ.

If you do not transform your pain,

you will almost certainly transmit your pain to others

through anger, blame, projection, hatred, or scapegoating.

Gateway to Silence

From death to life

~R. Rohr