"Come, Lord Jesus" is a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope. The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.
We are able to trust that the Lord will come again, just as Jesus has come into our past, into our private dilemmas, and into our suffering world. Our Christian past then becomes our Christian prologue, and "Come, Lord Jesus" is not a cry of desperation but an assured shout of cosmic hope!
Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, p. 5
I think this may be one of the longest lessons to learn in this life of prayer. To relinquish the longing for closure, resolution, satisfaction is a fierce kind of poverty; Lady Poverty can be a passionate, and unexpected, lover!
1 comment:
I am beginning to realize that if our souls were made for eternity, for everlasting life, that there will never be closure in this world. Peace in knowing this can only be accomplished through hope and trust in Christ.
Thanks for sharing this. Richard tour is one of my favorites.
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