292nd Meditation
“Hand over to Me all that wants to burden you. I am your Father” (Inner Word).
The Father invites us to constantly hand over to Him the shadows that hover over our soul, wanting to overwhelm it and – if possible – to bring it to despondency. He is certainly not referring to that noble sadness that we may feel, for example, at our sins or at the death of a loved one. It is rather that vice which the desert fathers called “tristitia”. They even saw in it a demon, which takes over or even provokes melancholic feelings.
When we perceive these feelings, it is important that we immediately set out on the way to our Father, and that we do not stop until our soul has been freed from them. For this, it is helpful to invoke the Holy Spirit again and again and to become aware that the state of sadness does not correspond to the dignity of our soul.
It is quite possible that we have become accustomed to give way to melancholic feelings and thoughts, and that we simply wait until they have disappeared. But this is not enough and will not help our soul to regain its light and clarity.
The advice our Father gives us in the opening words of this meditation also corresponds to the Lord’s words to us in the Gospel: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).
With this invitation, the Father expresses His love and understanding for us. He knows that we easily sink into our worries and problems. That is why He offers us His fatherly love, so that we can approach Him without fear or shame, because He is our Father. In this way He encourages us to come to Him with confidence, and then He will help us not to be overwhelmed by what weighs us down and to experience His closeness precisely in such situations.