Fr. Phil Cover is a longtime friend of Bon Secours and has presented many retreats, as well as facilitated many group conferences at the Center. Fr. Phil will be with us this summer for a directed retreat and we look forward to seeing him then! Let’s take a quiet moment to reflect on Fr. Phil’s point of view during the pandemic…
Being Moved Beyond Where We Are
The Coronavirus pandemic has in many respects turned our world upside down and inside out. The majority of us are living life in a mandated lockdown. This reality has evolved into weeks without any certain end point.
Some feel isolated and trapped. Others experience frustration about not knowing what is really happening and thereby feeling they are no longer in control of their livelihood or destiny. Still others find the experience of being in a standstill an opportunity to engage in some interior introspection, wondering if we will ever return to business as usual or should.
The personal impact of the pandemic on health care workers, first responders, and essential workers is confounding and difficult to weigh or assess. Their sacrifice and commitment to the person in need is remarkable and inspiring, a brilliant example of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love. The economic consequences of the pandemic nationally and globally could be staggering, even devastating.
The God who we believe is in all things invites us to look for God’s presence in all the uplifting and the heartbreaking manifestations of this pandemic. To do so requires us to see the human reality through the eyes of love.
Each one of us is a spiritual being on a human journey. As embodied, spiritual beings, each of us moves through various external and internal cycles, patterns, and stages of personal growth and development throughout our human journey from childhood to adulthood.
In looking through the lens of the spiritual journey, the cycles, patterns, and stages are better seen as movements in which the indwelling Spirit of God is always seeking to move us beyond where we are at any given moment in our lives. It is something that is being done to us; we cannot make it happen.
The Spirit is acting upon the core of our being, forming, shaping, refashioning, and transforming our lives. If we notice or intuit an interior feeling of disturbance, discomfort or a sense of restlessness, it may well be that the Spirit is dismantling us of our self-created ego-centered needs, wants and demands. In this interior movement, a shift is occurring as God’s desires and love are making a claim on us, moving us beyond where we are.
In the midst of our current national uncertainty, confusion, and ambiguity, there is one awareness that emerges above many others for me, actually it is a level of raised consciousness, namely, we are all in this together, no matter what. Like climate change, this pandemic is a wake-up call. The need for and analysis of information alone is not going to get us out of this national impasse. A renewed sense of the meaning of the common good of all is imperative, coupled with a commitment to work together at every level for the good of all. What comes next after the pandemic subsides will be determined in some large part on how we come to understand and accept the implications of just how deeply each one of us is interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent with one another on this planet. As this awareness seeps into the marrow of our bones and the core of our very being, we will indeed be moved beyond where we are, beyond perhaps what we could never have imagined.
6 replies on “Being Moved Beyond Where We Are”
Thank You, Fr. Phil Cover, for your reflections on how the Holy Spirit is moving us individually – and collectively – to become more aware of how interconnected/interdependent we are – and how important it is during this time of isolation to look at our lives and begin thinking of how we are going to live our lives when the time of isolation ends.
Thanks Judith for your affirming words. As to what happens next, my wondering is whether an awareness of the poverty of our own individual spirit will translate into reaching out collectively as a nation and as the Body of Christ to respond to the material poverty of the world at large, a scale of poverty the world may never have seen before.
In my earlier response, I did not mention how profound your statement was – that we are spiritual beings on a human journey. We sometimes forget how truly spiritual we are. Christ told us that the Kingdom of God is within us – but how often we forget. St. Paul reminded us in his question: “Do you not know you are temples of the Holy Spirit. If we truly understood that we are all One in God – One in Christ – One in the Holy Spirit – then there is no question that we are interrelated, interconnected, interdependent. We are all One.
Judith–what beautiful, life-giving awarenesses–the reign of God is in us; and we are dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. For me this takes on the additional realization that there is no separation between God and ourselves. As you observe, we are One in God – One in Christ – One in the Holy Spirit, the emphasis being ONE. Regretfully, most of us were never taught this. We are living, breathing manifestations of the love that God is. The spiritual teacher, James Finley, says, “from all eternity, God has been eternally giving God’s self away as you,” to which I add–so you can given yourself away as God’s love.
Fr. Phil, Thank you for your message. I can testify to the “interior feeling of disturbance, discomfort, a sense of restlessness. I believe that the Spirit is dismantling my self- imposed ego-centred needs, wants and demands.” Since the onset of this pandemic, I perceived an urgent need for change in my body, mind and soul. I dare say, this seems to be an example of your “shift occurring as God’s desires and love are making a claim on me, moving me beyond where I am.” I ask your prayers that I will pursue and fulfill God’s will for me.
I pray that God will continue to guide and direct you in your Ministry.
Thank you Sherma for sharing the nudging of the Spirit in you. It appears you are entering into a space of “unknowing” and discernment. In such moments, I find the first two prayerful questions of discernment are helpful–God, how would You have me BE with this, and what would You have me DO? You are acknowledging your vulnerability, while entrusting it all to God in a stance of waiting for the answer to be given. And indeed it will be given when the time is right and ripe.