I Am No Longer an Isolated 'I'

Fr. Tomasek at Lake Michigan. 5 weeks before his death.

 

February 2011
Milwaukee, WI

"What kind of friendship or marriage would we have if we did not enjoy talking with our beloved, sharing what we are experiencing and asking our partner to share what he or she is experiencing? Lovers make phone calls and text each other. They hold each other in their heart, enjoy shared memories and mutual hopes and dreams. They look forward to talking when they get home from work. They do not define themselves as individualists anymore but as a couple, as two persons in a relationship.

"The Lord asks no less of us. He wants to be in an ongoing dialogue with us throughout our days and nights. We tend to compartmentalize our lives and say, 'I pray in the morning and in the evening and the rest of the time I attend to God's will and the people He puts in my life.' But isn't that too artificial? If I love Him, want to thank Him, feel moved to ask His grace and seek His guidance, just want to share and enjoy time with Him, and oftentimes find myself empty and lonely for Him, why should I not keep up a dialogue with Him during the in-between times of my day?

"Then there is the fact that Jesus wants and needs to talk with me. By creating me in His image and likeness, by calling me to faith and companionship with Himself, humbly making Himself my equal in many wants, offering His sufferings for me, sharing His divine glory with me, He is asking me to listen to Him and to follow His lead even when I don't feel like it. Remember that we often don't feel like relating to the Lord. He often seems a bore or a bother and I don't expect anything new or important as a result of this dialogue with Him.

"I don't feel like talking to God because my heart is still selfish and closed in on itself in many ways. Likewise I don't always feel like talking to my spouse or close friend. But, in the end, I must 'act against' this inclination and make the sacrifice of spending time and opening my heart to my beloved. Only gradually is my heart transformed into one of love instead of self-love, self-interest and self-will (Cf: Spiritual Exercises #189).

"Scripture is of course the primary model for the dialogue between God and human beings. When God becomes flesh and has intimate human relationships with men and women, we see examples of how Jesus wants to be part of our everyday lives. But there is also a rich body of Christian literature in which the saints and those who have gone before us engage in a deep and growing mutuality with the Holy Trinity. One thinks of such writings as Augustine's Confessions, Kempis' Imitation of Christ, Catherine of Siena's Dialogue and the Diary of St Faustina. Reading them, one learns the art of carrying on a life-giving dialogue with Jesus in all of our daily activities.

"One spiritual diary I wish to especially recommend is "He and I" by Gabrielle Bossis, written from 1936 to 1950, the year that she died. In it, Gabrielle records what she believes to be Jesus' words to her as the last part of her busy life on earth unfolds. And as she invites us to 'listen in' to Jesus' dialogue with her, we begin to realize that He is speaking to my heart as well. We begin to hear and see things from His divine perspective, to realize His amazing love for me and His desires and direction for my happiness and growth. New areas of my life come alive. I fall in love and burn with a desire to live in God's will. I am no longer an isolated 'I' but have imperceptibly become a 'we' with Him who is my Lord, my Beloved, my Life."