We awaken till we awake no more

23rd April 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist

What a privilege it is to wake up in the morning! And what an exhilarating experience to feel the surge of life one more time! No wonder the roosters crow, the turtle doves coo unceasingly, the mocking birds sing every tune in their repertoire and the cardinals whistle their distinctive “tzew­wheet, tzew­wheet, tzew, tzew, tzew, tzew!”

Swelling the graces of that daily morning awakening is another kind of gradual, daily awakening that brings a smile to our faces as it works in our minds, understanding, will, heart and very soul to shape us into being all that we can be in a life to the full.

This latter awakening is somewhat different for each one of us, beginning early on in some of us, a bit later in others and much later in still others for whatever reasons. But, willy-nilly, at times despite ourselves, an awakening of some kind is always there. Just in case these thoughts are not ringing true for you, let’s look at a few for instances.

It took all these years for me to lock into the habit of bringing used grocery bags with me to be used for my current shopping. The thought awakened gradually until the day when it suddenly locked in. A light bulb had finally come on. Proceeding one by one, this and others’ light bulbs will stem the annual tide of 300,000 tons of plastic bag waste.

We awaken numerous times during our lifetime, sometimes even a number of times in one day. Light bulbs keep coming on as we grow up a bit from our negative experiences, learning the hard way what philosopher Edmund Burke taught us ca 1770, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

How often have we heard the truism that we should use hard times, setbacks, raw deals and even failures to toughen us and build character? Just as our muscles grow stronger through resistance exercise, so are our will and moral resolve steeled by the ordeals we endure. If we keep the right attitude, trials invariably make us better, stronger.

Running a close second to trials are the situations where we purposefully choose to pursue the more difficult, the less familiar, the more challenging approach to a problem or the mingling with people and ideas that are outside our comfort zone. These are the invariably awaken us more quickly and more completely.

At virtually any gathering, people splinter into distinct groups distinguished by characteristics of ethnicity, gender, status, finances, class, religion, politics or linguistics. Beyond those differences, there are considerations such as personalities and interests.

Such splintering does not challenge us and consequently does not jolt us awake.

Bucking our tendency to break up into cliques and other groups according to our ethnic origins and comfort zone is what awakens us from our sameness and torpor. It is curious to note that this clique and comfort tendency is found among laypersons as well as clergy, in all walks and all conditions of life. It severely impedes our full awakening.

The greater part by far of our learning consists in mini-lessons that we experience daily and not infrequently hour by hour. But once in a while, we come face to face with a mind-jiggling, near once-in-a-lifetime epiphany that sets our whole world on edge. If it has not yet happened to you, be on the lookout for it, since it will occur sooner than later.

As perhaps most small boys, I detested study. I was not much better as an adolescent. My desire for study was quite eclectic through my twenties, thirties, forties and even into my fifties. Only with the onset of my sixties was I faced with the startling epiphany of the whole world and my whole life as history to be lived and recorded.

There is our salvation history powerfully detailed in the Old Testament and carried to its fulfillment in the New Testament. Wrapped into salvation history are the origins of each one of us, the blessings of family and extended family, the sacred lessons and worship of our spiritual family in the Church, and the chronicles of world history.

Given a jumpstart by this epiphany of history, my hunger, intensity and drive for knowledge and study bloomed. At long last, the biggest light bulb in my life has come on and I cannot get enough exposure to all the roots and fonts of all kinds of knowledge.

We will still be awakening until the moment we return to God. Then, of course, we will be fully awake for the very first time, satisfied to be alive to God for all eternity.

This article originally published in the April 23, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.