In Going Deeper this month, excerpts from chapter two (Freedom and the Present Moment) of the book Interior Freedom written by Jacques Philippe are shared for further reflection. We are encouraged to take some quiet time to invite the Holy Spirit to guide us to prayerfully ponder some of these ideas on growing in interior freedom. According to Philippe, interior freedom requires that a person have the capacity to live and embrace the reality of the present moment. He affirms that it is only then that we can truly exercise our freedom. (Pg. 81)
In today’s fast-paced and hi-tech society it is difficult to be “present” in the present moment, and in particular to be attentive to the person before us. There are so many distractions, advertisements, social media, and competing voices clamoring for our attention. Moreover, it is easy to get stuck dwelling on our past mistakes and/or be bogged down by the demands and anxieties of the future. If we are honest with ourselves we realize that we have forgotten how to embrace the gift of the “now,” where God is communicating to us his life, tenderness, and merciful love.
I appreciate Philippe’s thought on how the merciful presence of God is found within each instant of our lives:
“Every moment, whatever it brings, is filled with God’s presence, rich with the possibility of communion with God. We do not commune with God in the past or the future, but by welcoming each instant as the place where he gives himself to us. We should learn to live in each moment as sufficient to itself for God is there; and if God is there, we lack nothing. We feel we are missing this or that, simply because we are living in the past or in the future instead of dwelling in each second. There is something very liberating in this understanding of the grace of the present moment. Even if the whole of our past has been a disaster, even if our future seems like at a dead end, now we can establish communion with God through an act of faith, trust, and abandonment. God is eternally present, eternally young; eternally new, and our past and future are his. He can forgive everything, purify everything, and renew everything.” (Pg. 82)
In addition, Philippe provides practical insights to assist us to be aware of the “shadows of the past,” thoughts and attitudes that make us fret about old disappointments and choices. He aptly suggests that we should genuinely ask God‘s forgiveness for past mistakes and grow from them; he goes on to advise that while seeking to make restitution for any injury caused, we should humbly surrender things into God’s hands with confidence, living in the present and trusting that God will work everything for our good. (Pg. 86)
When we are overwhelmed by thoughts of how much we still have to do, feeling threatened by our inadequacies, or paralyzed by the feeling that we are not good enough, we are encouraged to make an act of faith and hope, such as: thank you, God, for everything. I trust in you. Philippe emphasizes that nothing can please God more than us coming to him with child-like trust and relinquishing to him the messiness of our daily lives:
“I firmly believe that you can bring good out of everything I have lived through. I want to have no regrets, and I resolve today to begin from zero, with exactly the same trust as if all my past history were made up of nothing but faithfulness in holiness.” (Pg. 87)
To avoid the mistake of burdening the present with the future, Philippe suggests that we reflect on the lesson contained in the Gospel (Matthew 6:25-34) about abandonment to God’s providence, and to ask for God‘s grace to live it. He notes that living in the present and relying on God’s providence does not mean being negligent or imprudent. Indeed, we need to plan for the future and consider tomorrow’s undertakings. But we should do it without agonizing or being anxious. Often this added stress thwarts us from putting our hearts into what we need to do and prevents us from being open to the grace that God desires to offer us. (Pg. 87)
It no surprise that things don’t always happen in life as we anticipate or hope. Philippe points out that most of our anxieties and worries turn out to be entirely imagined. He writes: “That difficulties we anticipated become very simple in reality; and the real difficulties are things that didn’t occur to us. It’s better to accept things as they come, one after another, trusting that we will have the grace to deal with them at the right moment than to invent a host of scenarios about what may happen—scenarios that normally turn out to be wrong.”
If there was one take away point from Philippe’s chapter: it is to do our best in being mindful of the present where God is and to be intentional in putting our whole heart into whatever we are doing at that moment.
Available Now on 