Burning But Not Consumed

Are we always meant to suffer? Helen Syski ponders the relationship between suffering and holiness.

And lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. (Exodus 3:2 RSV)

Imagine what that would be like, to be out in the wilderness on Mount Horeb, tending your father-in-law's sheep. The isolation and loneliness of shepherding, the monotonous landscape and winds and bleating of sheep suddenly—broken!—by a burst of fiery fingers in one of those familiar bushes.

But Moses paused to observe, rather than panicking his flock to run before a brush fire. He turns aside, to ponder, to see what God might be doing here. And behold! Those flames do not harm the bush, but rather contain God Himself. And from that fire, come directives for the salvation of Israel.

When we are alight with the fire of Christ, we are purified and made more ourselves, but never destroyed. We feel the heat, we are transformed, but our branch is green inside. We need to be grafted to the Vine of Life, to have His sap running in our veins to keep the fires of the world from kindling us.

How easy it is to allow our desire for purification to become destruction! For a soul that desires to follow Jesus, the words “take up your cross,” or “suffering is a kiss from Jesus,” can become twisted into a view of a masochistic God, and the graft withers and dries up. It is imperative that we interpret everything in light of God as loving Father. He is Love Itself.

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When someone tells you “you must” live a certain way to be holy, ask yourself, “What does that belief say about God?” If God could only make me holy if I had a special craft for my kids every saints’ feast day, attended daily Mass, said a daily Divine Mercy Chaplet before our family's Instagram-worthy shrine … wouldn’t that suggest an impotent God? If God would only make us holy because of a long litany of pious acts, wouldn’t that suggest an unloving, unforgiving God? But we know that our God is omnipotent, all-loving, all-merciful, all-just, all-everything-good-beyond-what-you-can-imagine.

Holy surrender is acceptance of reality, not dismissal of it, not escaping into religious platitudes or daydreams. To enter into each moment with each child, our husband, our friend, our chore or duty that is before us; this is holiness. To have Jesus always, to live with Him always, to trust that where He places us, He walks with us and communes with us; this is our goal.

As a dear friend said to me recently, “If all I have as a young mom is five seconds of silence, that means it’s all He needs.” Holiness is to live fully where God has placed you: it is expectation of miracle in the mundane, not relief from the mundane by a miracle.

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The Communion of Saints is an incredible gift. The inspiration and real help and grace that is given to us through the lives of the Saints is something to be cherished. However, beware that admiration of a saint does not become an attempt at a second St. Gianna or St. Francis rather than the completion of the first and only Saint YOU.

God does not want immolation—that is contrary to the eternal fact of His creation of you, as you. It is you He desires for eternal intimacy, you He died for. He already has insert-any-canonized-saint-here.

Personal dedication to Christ does not deform any of our natural gifts, disposition or character; it just renews without killing. (Fulton Sheen, Treasure in Clay, 200; emphasis mine)

The devil destroys—diablos means to rip apart. If something is ripping you apart, or changing who you are at your core, it is not of God. Go to Him to seek the path of the bush that is burning but not consumed. God renews and purifies us without killing the unique soul He created and cherishes. The destruction is not God’s will; Creator is His essence.

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It is not healthy to dwell more on the Crucifixion than the Resurrection, or the three days in the tomb more than the Ascension. #catholicmom

It is not healthy to dwell more on the Crucifixion than the Resurrection, or the three days in the tomb more than the Ascension. Keep firmly in your heart the goodness of your God. He rejoices in your joy; He cries in your sorrow; He lifts you and comforts you in His merciful heart. These burdens you carry will bring you peace and freedom if they are of God.