Tout mon coeur pour chanter Dieu

But what is it like to be called?

People who think themselves ‘un-called’ ask me this all the time. People who haven’t yet figured out how they hear God speaking in their lives ask me all the time. I can’t tell them what their call or their experience of the Divine is like, all I can do is share my experience.

For me, to hear and follow a calling on my life is like tuning an instrument in the middle of a large orchestra.

Tuning an instrument in an ensemble works like this: one instrument is tuned to a specific pitch (hopefully the right one, usually F or C or something like that). One and only one piece in the entire orchestra (usually the first violin) is tuned to that note. Then, all the other instruments in the ensemble are tuned to match that note. To determine if your instrument is in tune with the rest of the group, you listen for a subtle “wah-wha-wha” of fluctuations in the combined pitch – caused by slightly conflicting sound waves. When the instrument comes into tune the waves in the note disappear and it resonates.

And when the whole ensemble is in tune, you resonate as well. To your very bones.

(…)

Maybe it was inevitable, but I fell into a torrid love affaire (with an E so it’s french and classy) with the wilderness of the mountains. I would sneak away for stolen rendezvous, quick moments caught between the busyness of the rest of my life.

Instead of being satisfied, the resonance got stronger. The calling increased. Things fell into place with amazing ease. It became clear that this was the path – the mountains were calling, I had to go.

I thought I was crazy, for a while. I am not usually considered an ‘outdoors-y’ kind of person, what with my love for reading and technology and showers and other indoor pursuits. Then I began to read some of John Muir’s writings. If I am crazy, I am not alone.

Bref, je ne peux pas dire que j’avais de grandes affinités avec Benoît XVI. Sauf peut-être sur un point, et non des moindres, il estimait plus que tout le travail intellectuel. Même dans ce qu’il a de rébarbatif et fastidieux. Sur plusieurs questions, je pense que j’étais en désaccord mais j’avais au moins l’avantage de savoir pourquoi car il énonçait clairement ce qu’il disait. Le goût du labeur théologique, de la pensée longuement mûrie, du système intellectuel cohérent le ramène à une des choses qui me touche le plus dans le catholicisme : l’idée que la raison puisse apporter le bonheur et peut toucher quelque part la vérité de l’homme.
(…)

Bientôt, habebimus papam, nous aurons un pape, un nouveau pape, et il n’est pas dit qu’il sera de la même trempe que l’ancien et que les défis seront grands pour lui. Benoît XVI a choisi de renoncer à sa charge et, pour un pape étiqueté comme conservateur, cela témoigne d’un certain sens de l’innovation.

(…)

En renonçant à sa fonction, Benoît XVI marque peut-être une évolution importante. Il ré-introduit de la faiblesse et de l’humanité, là où Jean-Paul II avait poussé les vertus héroïques jusqu’au dolorisme.