“The Lord comes to live in me and possess me. That is our Faith. The poet expressed the problem very wonderfully when he said, “If thou could empty all thyself of self, like to a shell uninhabited, then coming might He find thee on the ocean shelf and say, ‘This is not dead,’ and fill thee with Himself instead. But thou art replete with very thou and hath such rude activity that when He comes He says, “This is enough unto itself, `twere better let it be. It is so small and full, there is no room for me.’ “That’s the tragedy of our lives. “I know better than the Lord the things that are to my peace. I know how I to live; I who am too small and smug and self-satisfied. “ But the truth is, if we behave like this, and so often we do, we are stunted in our growth. We are spiritual pygmies. We are crawling on the face of the earth when we are destined to be flying into the face of the sun. But there is another aspect to this. If I do not forgive those who hurt me, if I have no forgiveness for those who have offended me, then I am less mature than I should be, less free than I should be. Indeed, I became a slave. Have you ever met someone who was unforgiving, became hard and bitter with a closed mind? Then you’ve met someone who is incarcerated by their own choosing, and thrown the key away.”
From the book: Reflections with Father Leo Clifford O.F.M.
Reality Meets Faith 