It’s difficult to feel that there is much to say after the time of anticipation before Christmas, the days of Advent and especially that last meaningful week of the O Antiphons. The shopping frenzy has died down a bit “out there” but now there are the gift returns and the shockingly low after-Christmas prices on what wasn’t already purchased. For those of us more inner-focused there is the question of how we are changed by the Christ-event, aka the birth of Jesus into our world. Is there any shift in our perception of things, any deeper willingness on our part to cooperate with grace? Do we understand any more clearly that the Incarnation is about us as much as it was about Jesus?
Today – when all the gifts have been opened and thanks have been expressed, when phone calls have assured those close in heart but far away in miles that they are loved – we ought to take a breath and recognize that no day is “just an ordinary day” but rather one more chance to recognize the extraordinary possibility that is ours in living. My friend, Jan Phillips, wrote a book about that, called No Ordinary Time, – subtitled The rise of spiritual intelligence and evolutionary creativity (Whew!). On the back cover of the book is a quote from the introduction that says something about what I’m trying to get at this morning. Take a look:
We are the vessels of the Divine, agents of Supreme Intelligence, neural cells of our home planet, and it is our job now to call God home, to tend the kingdom that is all around us, and to create stories and cultures of hope and compassion.
Today I will think on these things and see where it all leads me in the days to come. Maybe next Friday won’t be the day for new resolutions for 2016. Maybe every day will become that day.
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 