THE DESERT WILL BLOOM

Along with yesterday’s Journal entry concerning ‘Information Indigestion’ I remembered this quote by Anthony De Mello (1931-1987), Indian Jesuit priest wrote, “If you wish to love you must learn to see again…You must tear away from your being the roots of society that have penetrated to the marrow. You must drop out. Externally everything will go on as before, you will continue to be in the world, but no longer of it…And in your heart you will now be free at last and utterly alone…There is no one there by your side, absolutely no one. At first it will seem unbearable, but that is only because you are unaccustomed to aloneness. But if you manage to stay there for a while the desert will suddenly blossom into Love.”

His reference is to Isaiah 35:1-2 concerning the blooming of the desert. I thought his line “You must tear away from your being the roots of society that have penetrated to the marrow.” Information has a way of producing deafness and ignoring time rather than being alone and silent and listening for the voice of the Father. The Lord is difficult to hear with YouTube blasting away. Again, De Mello, “that is only because you are unaccustomed to aloneness.”

The desert “will bloom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shouts of joy.” (Isaiah 35:2)

“Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.” Jesus