De Mello Wisdom
Father Anthony De Mello was a Catholic priest and director of a spirituality center in India. He wrote several books on spirituality using the wisdom from the West and East. He led seminars and was a speaker in much demand until he died in 1987.
Father J. Francis Stroud, is the director of the De Mello Center. Father Stroud captures the insights, humor and depth of Father De Mello, in his book on De Mello’s spirituality, titled, Praying Naked. We come before God, naked, just as we are, and, we are clothed in grace.
For the Tuesday Mornings in August, 2009, I am sharing some of the De Mello stories and wisdom from Praying Naked.
Father Stroud reminds me of a De Mello story I heard years ago. This is my version:
A man has two great loves in his life. One is his son, and the other is a beautiful stallion. His servants come in one day and say, "Bad luck. Your stallion ran away." The man shrugs and says, "We will see." The next day the servants come back and say, "Good luck. Your stallion has returned and with him three beautiful mares." The man shrugs and says, "We will see." The next day the servants come in and say, "Bad luck. Your son was riding on one of the mares and fell off and broke his leg." The man shrugs and says, "We will see." The next day the servants return again; they say, "Good luck. The army was wanting to draft young men, but since your son’s leg was broke, they didn’t take him." The man shrugs and says, "We will see." (87)
The servants judge goodness and badness by the obvious and sometimes, misleading, fortunes. The father suspects that things that seem as bad luck, may not always be bad and the things that look like good luck may not always be good.
Isn't this the truth? This has been true in my life. I am too quick to judge events by the obvious - whatever seems to benefit me at the moment or whatever seems to hurt me at the moment. It is trust that God is weaving all events into making me a better person that allows me to learn to accept what happens as the father does: "We will see." Sometimes difficult events bring blessings I could never forsee.
The Bible is full of events that are turned around by the grace of God. The crucifixion was no one's idea of Good. Yet, we saw the persisent and steadfast love of God come through that event, telling us, that even if we reject God, God will not reject us. Instead, God will come back to us once again and perhaps prepare a breakfast for us on the beach somewhere.
Together in Christ,
Dr. Stephen Melton
