I wonder, what has this phenomenon looked like in your story?

Has someone cared for you in a period of sickness or loss? Have you received some small sacrament of hope in one of your darkest days through a spontaneous act of kindness towards you or by you? Have you reconstructed something that was cruelly broken, with support from others and the discovery of gifts and capacity within yourself? Have you been brought to silence and into a state of presence by the sun shining through a stained-glass window, a stately eucalypt, the songs of the birds, the sound of children laughing? Has an experience of ‘bad luck’, major disruption, and set-back, been transformed over time into a platform and context for fruitful living?

Have you reflected on any given day with the purpose of noticing and drawing energy from its blessings? Happiness is found in the small things, the spontaneous, warm conversation with your neighbour or work colleague, the taste and feel of a good cup of coffee, the satisfaction of a task or job completed (even though you didn’t get to the end of your list).

The Christian view of life understands grace not as an anonymous force but a movement of life from the loving heart of God. There is a particular understanding of grace within the spiritual exercise of Ignatius Loyola that I would like to comment on from a personal perspective. In the exercises Ignatius invites people to reflect on the intensity of what Jesus suffered as a human being and then contrasts this with an invitation to reflect on the joy and happiness that emerges from his resurrection. It is as if Ignatius wants people to take human pain, loss, and hardship very seriously and to feel their affects without denial or pretence. Then he wishes people to move through these feelings into the more permanent truth of life, namely that love, hope and faith ultimately triumph over hate, despair, and loss. Ignatius’ view of Jesus is that in his resurrected life Christ fulfills a ministry of consolation. Consolation is a beautiful word that holds various meanings in Ignatius’ writings but the one I want to highlight is in relation to one of his intimate meditations.

Ignatius imagines that upon his resurrection one of the first people Jesus would want to meet with would be his mum. He invites his readers to imagine the scene when Jesus appears at the place where Mary is staying and what might occur between them. As I was imagining this exercise, I saw Mary rising to meet Jesus and the two of them meeting for an extended embrace. I was on the sidelines watching and I could feel the consolation flowing from Jesus to Mary in a way that felt like trauma healing. After a while I became aware that I was no longer on the sidelines observing but that I was now standing where Mary had been, and Jesus was consoling me. I realised in that moment that Jesus was comforting me in relation to my experience of sadness and pain in relation to all the suffering that I have witnessed in others over the course of my life. People close to me who have suffered, people distant, whose suffering somehow impacts me through my access of news media. All this suffering and sadness, and here is Jesus, the one who somehow has passed through the worst the world can offer and who still loves, believes, and hopes and holds out yet the vision of a good end and destiny for the human family. And as I imagined myself held, I could feel the subtle power of this comfort and its healing.

May the peace and consolation of grace be with you and within you in the lead up to Christmas and year’s end.