Inner Authority

In Richard Rohr’s book, Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent (Fourth Sunday of Advent), he writes about the Blind Faith of Mary and Joseph.  He wonders why Mary and Joseph so seemingly easily followed the plan of God in the nativity story.  Who would trust such a situation?  Roar writes:

So why do we love and admire people like Mary and Joseph and then into imitate their faith journey, their courage, their non-reassurance by the religious system? These were two laypeople who totally trusted their inner experience of God and who followed it to Bethlehem and beyond.

He asks, “In what ways do you trust your own inner authority?”

Do we trust our inner authority? Do we follow God because our innermost self tells us it is the right thing to do? Or do we, sometimes, ignore the voice within to trust something else?

And when is it right to trust that voice? Don’t we sometimes get it wrong?

I think this is the challenge of discernment.  God is with us; the Holy Spirit speaks in us, directing us, helping us, right? But also in our minds is our own voice, not yet completely perfected, that leads us to something less unselfish, less God-led.  How do we come to the point of trusting our inner authority, of understanding that it is from God?

Doesn’t the question become - I trust God, but do I trust myself to discern God’s will?

That said, I can also say that there have been times when I did trust that inner authority - when I followed my inner voice.  Most often it took lots of convincing from God - whether that was a sleepless night or several months of arguing with myself.  I did get there, and the result has been wonderful.