Mark Mossa, SJ of YOU DUPED ME LORD on Inexplicable Encounters With God

I once posted here about Loyola Marymount College in LA. In it, I complained about Jesuits. Well, it's surely easy when blogging to run off quickly as the keyboard and not be consise enough in one's terms. That post was such a time for me. Certain Jesuits have concerned me. Others positively inspire me. Mark Mossa, SJ happens to be one of the latter kinds of Jesuits. For instance, he discusses Inexplicable Encounters With God in this post.

Consider how he begins to describe such encounters, with an excerpt from the autobiography of Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola:

One day while he was reciting the Hours of our Lady on the steps of the same monastery, his understanding began to be elevated as though he saw the Holy Trinity under the figure of three keys. This was accompanied with so many tears and so much sobbing that he could not control himself. That morning he accompanied a procession which left the monastery and was not able to restrain his tears until dinner time. Nor afterwards could he stop talking about the Most Holy Trinity.

Then he presents those moments in his life in which he, too, experienced the intimacy of God's presence:

I also remember distinctly a certain evening, when I was about 12 years old. I was upset at having been mistreated and was, frankly, sulking. It was nighttime and I’d gone outside to get away from everybody. I laid down on a grassy incline, looking up at the stars, feeling sorry for myself. As I contemplated the beauty of the stars, I had the most consoling sense of God present with me. I was not alone in my sadness.

He then ties together the encounters to make this consoling point:

It seems to me the more “ordinary” nature of my own experiences suggests that God doesn’t offer such moments only to great saints. No, these types of spiritual consolations, I believe, are things that we can all experience. Indeed, many of you probably already have. There’s just the problem that, as Saint Ignatius explains, we do not know how to explain these things, and perhaps we don’t even remember them well. We just know that in some way we had a brief encounter with the divine. God touched us.

I, too, have experienced moments of encounter like his. I have felt the consoling presence of the Lord in times when I needed him most. In unhappier times, when family illness plagued our hearts and minds, I had a particularly grueling conflict with my mother. Afterward, I went into my room and closed the door behind me. Dropping to my knees, I prayed for some relief from the insanity that I felt surround me. In the midst of my grief, I suddenly a soothing sensation of relief, as though arms enfolded me. Everything would be alright was the thought that cascaded over me like a sudden spring shower. My sorrow dissipated like morning dew before the rising sun. I felt such consolation that even now I don't know how to describe it. I had been freed of my anxiety and grief. I could go on.

God is with us always, even when he seems furthest away. We can experience his presence even as the Saints did. He is our Father, too. His love for us so overshadows whatever hardships we experience. The cross is nothing before the empty tomb!