Have the courage to be alone. Only when you have really achieved that, when you have done it in a Christian way, can you hope to present a Christmas heart, that is, a gentle, patient, courageous, delicately affectionate heart, to those whom you are striving to love. That gift is the real Christmas-tree gift; otherwise all other presents are merely futile expense which can be indulged in at any time.
Rahner's words remind me of a wonderful book called Stopping, a book which I have either given or lent to dozens of people over the years, a book which I plan to re-read myself this Christmas. The author, Dr. David Kundtz, quotes poets a lot because he says "they are always looking at life."
He quotes Rainer Maria Rilke saying, "I am the rest between two notes," and he quotes Walt Whitman saying, "I loafe and invite my soul." Teilhard De Chardin says, "the whole of life lies in the verb seeing."
When we stop "between notes" and invite our souls, in Whitman's words, we begin to see, to see what cannot be seen without stopping, or "loafing." Rahner encourages us, when we are alone, not to talk to ourselves or to others the way we do even when they are not there. He advises us not to accuse ourselves, or to praise ourselves, but only to wait, without expecting any unusual experience. What we hear is usually silence, and he wants us to bear with the silence without fleeing to the "religious symbols or concepts which can kill religion."
He wants us to believe that in the silence, God is close to us just as we are at that moment, eternity descending into our emptiness. This is the high festival of Christmas, according to Rahner: we can quietly and with faith accept the silence, the incomprehensibility, our lack of understanding as measureless, merciful presence.
If we can accept ourselves in this way, he says, we can experience the peace promised to men of good will.
This is the lesson that you taught seven-year-old Rachel -- the one she credits with her understanding of prayer. Thank you for sharing your God with my baby girl.
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