Susan's Musings: Facing the Challenges of Transition

Moving from young adulthood to a mid-life crisis; from robust health to the unexpected

diagnosis of a serious illness; from a seemingly happy marriage to a sudden separation—such are the challenges of transition. The greatest challenge none of us can avoid is, of course, the

passage from life to death.

These times of transition remind us of how unpredictable our days on earth can be. With

each passing hour, we face the reality of our finitude side by side with the infinite longing in our

heart to find its deepest meaning. Such feelings may hover at the edge of our consciousness. We

may do everything we can to push them aside, but we cannot dismiss them entirely.

One trait of these transitional periods is a certain loneliness. It is hard for us to believe that others really understand what we are going through. Neither need-fulfillment nor functional

satisfaction soften the blow of our feeling alienated from what once promised us happiness.

“What in God’s name,” we may say, “am I going to do? Where ought I to go? What does God

want of me after all?”

Transitional times like these, lonely as they can be, offer a great opportunity for self-

discovery. They are desert experiences that draw us to new depths of fidelity to Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit.

Another feeling facing us in these challenging times of transition is that of restlessness.

We move back and forth between doors that have slammed shut and those not yet open. As much as we want to rest in God, we feel torn apart inwardly by useless worry and anxiety about the future.

Such times of failing to trust God may also trigger a crisis of faith. Prior to this call to

deeper conversion, we may have practiced our religion in a routine way. It was enough for us to

adhere to a list of do’s and don’ts. Such lock-step behavior no longer satisfies us. Beyond

fulfilling our duty in a merely functional way, we long to experience more fertile fields of faith

deepening.

We realize anew how graced our life has been, and yet we feel that God asks more of us.

This “more” means putting all forms of routine religiosity behind us and recommitting ourselves

to the goal of becoming spiritually mature.

In the loneliness and restlessness of transition, we move from superficial expressions of

sorrow for sin to heartfelt compunction. We ponder our calling in the Lord and consent to the

changes he wants us to incorporate into our life. We see what we have undergone in the past in a

new light, one that teaches us how to act in the present.

Transitions in life are excellent learning experiences. They invite us to hear and heed our

calling in the Lord. They make us more sensitive to how and why we need to take a deeper dive

into the ocean of God’s mercy.

Spiritual guilt acts as a catalyst drawing us to confess our sins and ask God for

forgiveness. Such guilt encompasses the sorrow we feel over this or that transgression. We

promise to amend our lives and to try our best to become fully mature disciples of the Lord. We

choose to focus on obeying his will and refusing to allow ourselves to be dissipated in a thousand directions that decenter and distract us.

Facing the challenges of transition is a condition for the possibility of growing in prayer

and presence to God. It no longer satisfies us to approach life so functionally that we neglect to

be faithful to the mystery that is always more than we humans can ever hope to manage.

One of the finest transitional challenges God allows us to experience is that of replacing

“me-centeredness” with “mystery-centeredness.” Having committed ourselves to go beyond the

illusion of being in control of our inner and outer lives, we are free to focus on walking in the

truth of who God intended us to be.

To live in the world without being of the world is possible only when we let the words of

Jesus illumine the choppy seas and treacherous cliffs that we must navigate. Christ’s light lets us discern how to follow directions that at first sight may seem to be beyond the realm of

possibility. Without that light, we may miss the compass that points to our true self.

We lose our way because we get bogged down in a morass of substitutes for the transcendent. We may be enchanted by short-lived fashions more than by timeless truths.

Following an “in” at the moment mentality distracts us from what is lasting and truly of

the Lord. We betray the Christian commitments that ought to permeate and transform whatever

we do by defining ourselves in terms of popularity and prestige; by fulfilling secular roles to win

the approval of others; by allowing ourselves to be swept along by the tide of the media; and by

following the easy path of cheap conformity to worldly standards.

When we find ourselves trapped in patterns of living alien to our Christian calling, it is

time to change course by turning to Holy Scripture and the writings of spiritual masters. Etched

in our heart and guiding us from now on may be the words like those of the prophet: “The Lord

called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” - Isaiah 49:1