Finding yourself a bit restless? Even during this Lenten season…or especially during this season? If so, you are not alone. In a Lent reflection several years ago, Ron Rolheiser wrote:
We are congenitally over-charged and over-built for this earth, infinite spirits living in a finite situation, hearts made for union with everything and everybody meeting only mortal persons and things. Small wonder we have problems with insatiability, daydreams, loneliness, and restlessness. We are Grand Canyons without a bottom. Nothing, short of union with all that is, can ever fill in that void. To be tormented by restlessness is to be human.
Is it possible for us to become more at peace with our restlessness?
Karl Rahner wrote, “In the event of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we come to understand that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished.”
Referencing Rahner’s words, Rolheiser suggests that
in truly accepting that humanity we become a bit more easeful in our restlessness. As Rahner puts it, in this life there is no unfinished symphony, everything comes with an undertow of restlessness and inadequacy. This is true of everyone.
Peace and restfulness can come to us only when we accept that fact because it is only then that we will stop demanding that life – our spouses, our families, our friends, our jobs, our vocations, and vacations – give us something that they cannot give, namely, the unfinished symphony, clear-cut pure joy, complete consummation.
It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Simply stop asking from the world and from others more than they can give. Simply accept that no matter how much they give, no matter how good it is, it will never be enough. If we can do that, we can better enjoy what they can give, with the knowledge that it offers only a glimpse of that which will fully satisfy us.
Creo en Dios! 