Discernment: Overrated!

A marvelous word, "discernment" has become overused, trivialized and thereby spoiled.

What does the word mean? The Latin etymology ("dis-cernere") means to separate apart or discriminate. It  means a judgment that is deep, broad, discriminating, and normally patient, time-consuming and laborious in its consideration of evidence. It is the opposite of a quick, simple, impulsive decision. It implies a degree of complexity, density and obscurity that requires studious attention, careful evaluation and consultation.

In Catholic circles we often hear "I am discerning the priesthood...or the religious life, or marriage." That is entirely appropriate. But it has become overextended and cheapened. My youngest daughter, part-time nurse and mother of three little ones, was asked to take on leadership in the parents' association of her parish school. She committed to involvement but not the Presidency. A serious friend asked: "How did you discern that?" Discern? She didn't really engage a process of discernment. Bright, quick and decisive, she decided in a "blink" (Malcolm Gladwell) that she could serve but not as the boss.

In Catholic spirituality discernment was authoritatively developed by St. Ignatius as a sophisticated practice of determining God's will, especially in regard to vocation, state of life, or a significant life decision. Classically, within a 30-day retreat, one is led systematically through an itinerary of prayer, scripture reading and meditation by an experienced spiritual director, frequently a Jesuit. It is an active, imaginative, disciplined, deliberative process. Particular attention is paid to the "discernment of spirit"...the quiet action of God and that of the Antagonist...by awareness of consolations and desolations of the spirit. So, the retreatant shares with the director his interior responses to the readings and themes: what brings him joy, peace, hope, faith and what brings him discouragement, sadness, inner turbulence.

This is a far more sophisticated, profound engagement than the crude "follow your bliss" of Joseph Campbell and similar Jungians. God or the Evil One can cause joy or sadness. It requires, precisely, discernment. So, for example, imagine a successful but discouraged, middle-age business man, deep in undiagnosed midlife crisis, who becomes youthful, thrilled, hopeful, and light-hearted when he thinks about his 21-year-old assistant who has a crush on him; but becomes sad, irritated, angry and bored when he thinks of his annoying-and-annoyed wife of 30 years. Shall he listen to Campbell and follow his bliss? Not according to St. Ignatius who teaches us that when our soul is in a state of sin the actions of the devil fill us with pleasure while the workings of grace provoke resistance, turbulence and sadness. A good spiritual director will, of course, assist where our own blindness would lead to disaster. 

My suggestion here is that discernment is a serious, rare event, not part of the normal flow of life. It is like a miracle,  exorcism, or an apparition. It happens. When God wants it. But it is unusual. How many of us can go off to a 30-day retreat.

(Disclosure: I was blessed to make the Spiritual Exercises, under annotation 19 "in everyday life." For most of my adult life I benefited from spiritual direction from Jesuits John Wrynn and Neil Dougherty. The finest, most influential of all my teachers were the renown Avery Cardinal Dulles and the mystic Joe Whelan. Jesuits have been very close to me. Yet, I would not characterize my spirituality as Ignatian.)

It is, of course, the foundation of Jesuit spirituality and a marvelous charism within the Church. But I further suggest that it bears fruit within a broader, balanced Catholic spirituality. It is a private endeavor done alone with the director, and tends to a certain isolation. It is largely an activity, although in response to Scripture and sensitive to the movements of the Holy Spirit, with a strong sense of the agency of the intellect, imagination and will. These are, of course, strengths but need to be balanced by other dimensions of Catholic life.

So if discernment is overrated, is not our ordinary manner of conversing with God, what is?  To be specific, these six are vastly underrated: Divine Providence, Mimesis or Imitation, Sacramental Immersion, Habit as Fidelity to State of Life, the Blink of Intuitive Decision, Prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Divine Providence. Ninety percent of our life comes to us without our choice, agency or will power. When, where and how we are born and die; and virtually everything in between...comes to us actively and we receive passively. We know in faith that all of this, everything outside of our agency, is under the Providence of God and is planned or allowed (permissive will in regard to evil and suffering) by God for our wellbeing here and now and in the hereafter. Our first and foremost urgency: to receive all of this, gratefully and trustingly. We can never say "Thank You" enough. And this moves us into surrender or abandonment to God's providence. Like an innocent, trusting child we place our lives in the hands of God and rest joyfully. This is not agency, this is deep passivity. Jesus! I surrender myself to you! Take care of everything!

Mimesis. Of the remaining 10% of your life, 90% of that is mimesis or imitation. As persons we are created to image or imitate the Trinity and so mimesis is the core of our being. Always and everywhere we are looking for someone to  imitate. We are for the most part the sum of the influences which we emulate, mostly without intention or deliberation. That is why it is SO important who we associate with, what we listen to and watch. If you hang with holy people, you will become holy. It actually is a simple as that.

Sacramental Immersion. For the Catholic, 100% of life is centered in worship, in the sacramental encounter with the Trinity through Jesus Christ. The Eucharist and accompanying sacraments are the vortex, the center, around which the entirety of our lives flow. Everything moves into and out of Christ in the Eucharist.

Habit as Fidelity to State of Life. About 90% of our conscious life is given over to habit: how we wake up and go to sleep, get dressed, structure our day. Even more so as we get older we are creatures of habit. We are products of the "program of life" or the (however indeliberate) "rule of life" we have developed. It is like a good high school track or football program: they systematically train and turn out championship teams every year, not so much from recruitment but from consistency, patience, and persistency. Whatever our state in life...family, priesthood, evangelical vows, undetermined...our habits carry us most of the way to our goal.

Blink of Intuitive Decision.  Malcolm Gladwell taught us that momentous and trivial decisions are often made in the blink of a micro-second. Our mind takes in a complex situation and reacts immediately, without deliberation or discernment of any sort. Consider buying a house: this would seem to require serious, attentive study about the location, taxes, house structure, school system, asking price and so on. But my realtor friend of happy memory, Joe Napolitano, was amazed that often a woman knows immediately, at first sight, that she wants that house. It is a flash intuition: like in the movies and your eyes meet and your are in love for ever. This is largely, but not absolutely, the marvelous workings of the human psyche and intellect.

Promptings of the Holy Spirit. When I am confronted with an on-the-spot, difficult decision I do not go into deliberative discernment mode. I become quiet, rested, passive. I implore the Holy Spirit:  "Guide me. I don't know what to do. Help me! I trust in you." And then I rest, peacefully and quietly, and I wait and I still my mind. And I wait. And then I repeat it again: "Guide me. I need you. I trust in you." And again I still my mind, I wait, I quietly pray thanks in praise for the impending guidance. I am attentive and receptive to what is outside of me and what is at work within me. And then, most gently, I suddenly know what to do. That is the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

To conclude: I am not knocking discernment. It has its valued place in Catholic life. It operates in a broader context of immersion in, reception of, and response to God's grace present always within us and around us.