Yesterday we observed Memorial Day, and “Saving Private Ryan” is a movie that often comes to mind when we think of the great sacrifices of our military veterans.
About halfway through the movie, Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) happens upon Capt. Hamill (played by Ted Danson), and explains that he’s on a mission to find Private Ryan. At this point Capt. Miller has literally experienced hell on earth and is struggling to grasp the sanity of his mission.
It is then that Capt. Hamill says, “I sure could use you here, but I understand what you’re doing.”
Tom Hanks, as Capt. Miller, delivers a pitch-perfect response by staring dismayed at Capt. Hamill and asking, “You do?” with an incomprehensible mix of bemusement, skepticism and … hope. As if just maybe Capt. Hamill can make good on his claim that “I know what you’re doing” – perhaps he has some hidden wisdom, known only to him, that will somehow make sense of the insane world that is self-destructing all around them.
As the scene goes, Capt. Hamill explains “Yeah, I’ve got a couple of brothers myself” and would want someone to do the same for us. And just like that, Capt. Miller’s hopes of a grand explanation are dashed, and he’s brought back to the senseless chaos of war.
At one point or another we are all Capt. Miller, making our way through a world gone insane, watching the casualties pile up all around us and wondering if there’s anyone who can look down and make sense of it all – anyone who can say, “I understand what you’re doing.” Or better yet, “I have a plan for you.”
In last week’s Pearls of the Interior Life we reflected on Pentecost and how the Holy Spirit brings us to life, just as He did for Adam (Gen 2:7) and just as was witnessed in a vision by Ezekiel (Ez 37:5).
More specifically, the Holy Spirit gives supernatural life.
But “supernatural” doesn’t mean impractical.
When we receive the Indwelling presence of God, the great theologian Frank Sheed explains that we understand fundamental aspects of life in a new way:
“We know how the original weakness of our nature (which we cannot help) and the damage caused by our own sins (which we can help) may be repaired. We know the meaning of sin – both in its attraction for ourself and in its ugliness before God. We know something of the meaning of suffering, and know, therefore, how it may be used for the eternal enrichment of our own soul and offered to God for the souls of others. We know that in a world over-ruled by the providence of God nothing is of necessity evil, save only sin.”
Not only that, “And, principally we know that God is love – a piece of knowledge which is a most powerful stimulus to right action of every kind and which, as has been seen, marks the supreme difference between Christianity and all other religions whatsoever.”
As we come to life in the Holy Spirit, the world makes sense in a new way. It doesn’t change the insanity of the world – if anything we become more acutely aware of it – but at the same time we also become immune to it, because we recognize the world for what it is and God for Who He Is. As the Apostle says, “for what can separate us from the love of God?”
That is when we begin to experience the peace that Capt. Miller yearns for, the peace of knowing there truly is a reason and order to things. And that “reason and order” is a Person who loves us and can turn all things to good for those who love Him. (Rom 8:28)
Does this happen overnight? For most of us, no. But it does happen, and probably sooner than we realize. As spiritual master Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange explains, “By degrees the spirit of Christ will take the place of our spirit’s way of thinking, feeling, judging, loving, willing, doing, and suffering, a mental outlook which is extremely cramped and superficial since it is materially dependent on our physical temperament, on our heredity, on the influence of our surrounding circumstances and on the ideas of our time and locality. It is this spirit which must slowly yield ground to the spirit of Christ, to his way of looking at things, of judging, feeling, loving, acting, and suffering. Only then is Christ truly living within us.”
… Christ truly living within us …
Pentecost is when the same God who stepped into our broken world and calmed the seas, healed the sick, and comforted the broken-hearted, offers to come into our very soul and do the same in us.
Pentecost blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life