Sifting
Waking up these days doesn’t feel like island living anymore. The mornings feel wet and damp, making us burrow and linger under the covers for a few minutes longer. The skies are gray and overcast with a healthy promise of rain. When the skies do drip, rain seems to pelt us several times in the day. So, when we do step out, there is an additional decision to make. Bring an umbrella or just wing it? A thin cotton shirt or add a jacket? Wear closed shoes or just go commando with flip-flops?
Ah yes, decisions. How uncomplicated things would be if our choices were limited to ’payong’ or ‘no payong’? Yet at certain significant crossroads, we are faced with the life-altering ones: to leave or to stay? Get married or stay single? Hold on or let go?
Fr. Thomas H. Greene, SJ in his book “Weeds among the Wheat; Discernment: Where Prayer and Action Meet” ably discusses a tool in decision making. “Discernment” has grown in familiarity over the past several years. However, it has been practiced for hundreds of years. The church draws its practice of discernment from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. These in turn, stemmed from St. Ignatius’ own journey of conversion and were completed in 1524. He would subsequently share his rules and exercises with the first few members of the Society of Jesus such as St. Francis Xavier. Such is the wisdom of these exercises, having withstood eons and generations.
Requirements of Discernment
In discernment, there are some presuppositions. There needs to be a desire to do God’s will and to accomplish His work in this current world. Moreover, one is presupposed to be open to God. If we have too many attachments, it is difficult to hear Jesus. Lastly, there is knowledge of God, “born of love”. There is trust in a God who will never will evil or stop being good. All these point to‘simplicity of intention’, just a genuine desire to do God’s will.
Consolation and Desolation
Discernment can occur “when much light and understanding are derived through the experience of desolations and consolations”. Consolation can take many forms such as strong emotions, being inflamed with love, shedding tears of love and praise or it may be quiet and deep. The common denominator is peace, which leads to a felt increase in faith, hope and love thereby being drawn to God. Desolation is “darkness of soul, turmoil of spirit, inclination to what is low and earthy, restlessness arising from many disturbances, which lead to lack of faith, lack of hope, lack of love.” The soul feels “slothful, tepid, sad and separated, as it were from the Creator and Lord.” There is a general lack of peace. This is also not the time to make a decision, but rather to grow in virtue and wisdom first.
Discernment is also between two good choices, for it is not in accordance to God’s will for one to be choosing between good and evil. It is something that we become more adept at, the more that we keep at it. It is also something that can be a learned communal behaviour. A group of people can indeed discern together: to leave or to stay, to hold on or to let go, to grow or to be still?
A maturing fruit is being a discerning community, a group of people who actively seek to hear the Holy Spirit amidst the ruckus of this world. How lovely to aspire and dream that such communities would form cities, who in turn would build countries – all seeking to weed out and choose what is good and uplifting. Imagine that.
