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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

stirred? What do you notice in your body and in
your thoughts?
In particular, what are you bringing to this
image of acrimony? What pain is being touched
in you, which core issues engaged? How are you
responding to this difficult image? Do you feel
reactive, frightened, judgmental, or outraged? Do
you want to run or attack? Has your mind rushed
in with a powerful narrative of grievance? Again,
take a moment to put your journal down and sit
with these questions, then take a few notes on
what you have experienced.
Dissension and interpersonal pain appear in
every human life. We need look no further than
the early chapters of Genesis to know that interper-
sonal discord is intrinsic to the human condition.
The goal is not to avoid or suppress controversy
or tension in our lives. Rather, responding faith-
fully to conflict means meeting each moment of
experience, to the extent we can, with clarity of
mind and heart, awareness of one’s own needs and
the other’s, and openness to God’s presence. What
most helps us cultivate mindful engagement with
the challenges in our lives is precisely the kind of
contemplative awareness that is so central to spiri-
tual direction. Prayerful, compassionate awareness
is the best way to soothe a mind alarmed by rela-
tional threat. Only when calm has returned can we
engage our best wisdom about how to proceed in
the difficult situation.
Consider the remarkable verse, “Seeing you is
like seeing the face of God” (Gn 33:10), at the cli-
mactic moment when Jacob and Esau reconcile (at
least partially) after a lifetime of enmity. Remember
the context: Jacob has prepared his household to
face a mortal threat and has spent a sleepless night
locked in combat with a threatening, mysterious
figure. He could hardly be in an open-hearted state
when, limping, he lifts his eyes and sees his brother
approaching with a retinue of four hundred men.
But a moment of loving conversation transforms “All One Country” — Chern’ee Sutton
long-simmering hate and fear into a moment of
healing for the long-estranged brothers, and per-
haps a turning point for Jacob, newly renamed
“Yisrael”—the one who struggles with God.

30 Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction