I keep running about asking,
"Do you love me? Do you really love me?"
.
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One of the simple enjoyments in life is reading comic strip. Below is one which was published recently in a local newspaper.
On a more serious and spiritual note, the cartoon does remind me of a passage from "The Return of the Prodigal Son". The author of the book is Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Dutch Roman Catholic priest. After a distinguished career at Harvard University, he went to share his life with people with mental disabilities in Toronto, Canada. He died in 1996.
photo: a small chapel in Bruges, Belgium (1998)
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"... I keep running about asking: 'Do you love me? Do you really love me? I ... put myself in bondage because the world is filled with 'ifs'. The world says" Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much and buy much." There are endless "ifs" hidden in the world's love. These "ifs" enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world's love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain "hooked" to the world - trying, failing, and trying again. It is a world that forsters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart." photo: Ireland (2005)
At issue is the question; "To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?
Henri shared that many of his daily preoccupations suggest that he belong more to the world than to God, "A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowing shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me."
At issue is the question; "To whom do I belong? To God or to the world? Henri shared that many of his daily preoccupations suggest that he belong more to the world than to God, "A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowing shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me."
photo: Ireland (2005)
Even as a priest, he was constantly surprised at how he kept taking the gifts God has given him - his health, his intellectual and emotional gifts - and kept using them to impress people, receive affirmation and praise, and compete for rewards, instead of developing them for the glory of God.
Even as a priest, he was constantly surprised at how he kept taking the gifts God has given him - his health, his intellectual and emotional gifts - and kept using them to impress people, receive affirmation and praise, and compete for rewards, instead of developing them for the glory of God. .
scripture: "you are my son, whom I loved, with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:22)
Source: Henri J.M. Nouwen (1992), "The Return of the Prodigal Son - A Story of Homecoming".
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