Grace
strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us
when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life.
It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual,
because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from
which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own
being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of
direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us
when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not
appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for
decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that
moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though
a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted,
accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you
do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it
later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much.
Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend
anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!" If that
happens to us, we experience grace After such an experience we may
not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before.
But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin,
and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is
demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual
presupposition, nothing but acceptance.
Paul Tillich 1886 - 1965
