The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [45]
“Thus,” Father Kolvenbach wrote, “looking back over the length and breadth of his life the abbot could see for himself the passage of God.”
The examen helps you see God in retrospect. And what Father Kolvenbach said about the search for God could be applied to this daily prayer. “In this sense, it is less a matter of searching for God than of allowing oneself to be found by Him in all of life’s situations, where He does not cease to pass and where He allows Himself to be recognized once He has really passed.”
Likewise, while we frequently ask God for help in specific areas of life, we just as frequently fail to recognize God’s help when it comes. Sometimes the examen can help answer the question, “Why doesn’t God answer my prayer?”
Suppose you start a new job, enter a new school, or move to a new town and are feeling lonely. You ask God for help: Help me feel less lonely. Help me find friends.
Typically we expect a dramatic change: an instant new friend the next day. Normally, that doesn’t happen; real friendships don’t progress that quickly.
Instead you might start to grow friendly with a few people, very slowly. Perhaps the day after your prayer someone offers a friendly remark or asks if you need help. If you’re looking only for that “instant friend,” perhaps something as small as a kind remark will go unnoticed. The examen helps you notice that God often works gradually—which reminds me of one of my favorite images of God.
God, an elderly Jesuit once suggested to me, is something like an old carpenter in a small village in Vermont. If you ask the townspeople where to turn for carpentry work or repairs, they will say, “There’s only one person to call. He does excellent work. He’s careful, he’s precise, he’s conscientious, he’s creative, he makes sure that everything fits, and he tailors his work exactly to fit your needs. There’s just one problem: he takes forever!”
With the examen you’re less likely to overlook that slow work of God.
Over time, you’ll also begin to notice patterns of God’s activity in your life. Maybe you recall every night that you’re happiest when helping others with their physical needs—say, helping an elderly neighbor clean her house. You may think, That’s interesting. I’ve never noticed that before. Maybe I should do that on a more regular basis. Or you notice that every night you thank God for the same person in your workplace. That’s interesting, you think. Maybe I should tell him how grateful I am for his friendship.
Finding God in your examen makes you more likely to look for him during the day. You become more aware of where God was and where God is. Gradually you realize that God is active every moment of the day. Finding God by looking behind you makes it easier to see God right in front of you.
The examen can also be used to contemplate the presence of God over the long term. In her book Inner Compass, Margaret Silf tells of a leisurely driving trip she took in the Scottish countryside with her relatives, when they came upon a sign that said, “This is the source of the River Tweed.” In just a short time they watched the stream, which began as an insignificant spring, spread and grow, finally becoming a “stately presence in the valley town,” a great river spanned by a bridge, fished in by fishermen, a source of beauty in the countryside. By car they traversed the path of the river in a few minutes.
In All People
Finding God in all things also means finding God in all people. St. Alphonsus Rodríguez (1532–1617) was a Jesuit brother who for forty-six years served at the Jesuit college in Majorca, Spain, in the humble job of a porter, or doorkeeper. Joseph Tylenda, S.J., writes in his book_7esuit Saints and Martyrs: “His duty was to receive the visitors who came to the college, search out the fathers or students who were wanted in the parlors, deliver messages, run errands, console the sick at heart who, having no one to turn to, came to him, give advice to the troubled, and distribute alms to the needy.” St.