"Attachments, repulsions, attractions, preferring this person or that place, obeying your preferences and feelings rather than reason - these are enemies of the presence of divine Charity in your soul. Next time you go into a room, sit next to the person you least like, eat the food least appetizing, go by the way you would rather not, and you will walk the way of the saints, removing obstacles to freely loving in Jesus Christ." -Fr. Sam Medley
A friend sent that quote to me via e-mail and I misread the subject line...I thought it
said "removing obstacles to sanity" and my initial thought was, I kinda like my insanity, I'm not so sure I want to remove those obstacles. What it actually said was, "removing obstacles to saintity". Truthfully, I still kinda had the same thought about removing the obstacles.
Removing obstacles, i.e. changing my own "defects" (for lack of a better word) is hard work and quite frankly, it's a little scary. But before it means work, it means I have to admit that I have defects - own them as my spiritual director tells me. You can't change what you won't acknowledge and own.
I have actually been working on just that with my spiritual director. He started me on the 12 step program (yes, like alcoholics use). It is a great tool, but it has been a lot of work, and it is quite humbling. It's slow going too because I have to discover what my defects are - because no one really thinks they have any of their own - although we easily find them in others.
This quote reminded me - again - that I have a lot of obstacles to remove. I still have some to discover about myself (I am not asking for help in this regard!!) and then work on removing them. I do need to learn to sit next to those I find contrary to myself. I do need to learn to eat what displeases me - I might actually eat less - which would help me remove the defect of gluttony.
In my life, I have discovered that when I have a choice to make, it is the harder choice that will usually draw me closer to God. What about you?
