Things move, the change and we are part of the change. Even people who seemed never to have changed all their lives, even after many years, indeed have seen subtle shifts in their lives. And the aging process itself forces us to face changes to our bodies and in turn our ability to perform certain tasks that were no problem at one time and now are made with difficulty.
There are people who like change and those who prefer none at all. We all of us, fall somewhere between these two. The familiarity we have with patterns to the day make us comfortable. We are creatures of habit. It can take very little to disturb us from these life patterns – are thereby our temperament.
Change that is growth is wonderful to watch. We see children getting older and achieving in school; we see gardens grow. If the garden is for vegetables we can eat the resulting harvest. If we have flowers and shrubs we see the seasonal progress and natural beauty and design.
You crown the year with your bounty.
Abundance flows in your pathways;
in pastures of the desert it flows.
(Ps 65, 12-13)
Sometimes the desert blooms as in Namaqualand in South Africa. But not in other places.
…in the desert people of faith are needed who, by the example of their own lives,
point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive.
Benedict XVI
These are changes for good. We enjoy these and often anticipate seasonal change. Seasons in our lives are related more to the progress through ages from child and adolescent to late youth and adulthood and then middle age and old age. “To everything there is a season…” (Ecc 3, 1) This should lead us to see that our life time is not infinite, but rather quite finite. We need to keep this in mind. Even those who seem to be a rock in the flow of a changing river are actually being slowly transformed – but may be unaware of the imperceptible change.
We should be grateful at all times and thankful for opportunities to serve in the Kingdom of Light. We are or should be humble workers for the Lord in this changing world. Saints like Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein were swept into a world of horrors, taken from their monasteries and interred in a concentration camp in 1940s Europe and ultimately put to death. Their European world changed rapidly in a negative and destructive way. But people like these and many others of a variety of faith traditions, remained faithful.
The deepening of the hidden life of the soul is at the heart of the religious life.
Visible signs alone denote the fruits of interior perfection.
St Maximillian.
We see then that not all change is good. But whether good or bad we must remain as faithful followers of the Master and not be defeated in our tasks and purpose as children of God and servants in His Kingdom.
