Sometimes I just need to let go of the ordinary and let the possible extraordinary wash over me bringing joy or hope. This morning, for example, on my way to the USCCB website (U.S. Bishops) where I find the daily Scripture readings, but before I successfully found today’s gospel, I was treated to a four-year-old girl not only identifying photos of an ear, a heart and a pair of lungs but also correctly explaining their function to Ellen DeGeneres. Then there was a man holding his 4-week old baby, giving instructions that the season of crying was over and now the baby ought to do nothing more than smile. Miraculously, the baby did just that! “Enough of this!” I said to myself. “Let’s get serious!” At that moment Rilke’s Book of Hours caught my eye and I opened to a previously marked page that said the following:
You too will find your strength. We who must live in this time cannot imagine how strong you will become—how strange, how surprising, yet familiar as yesterday. We will sense you like a fragrance from a nearby garden and watch you move through our days like a shaft of sunlight in a sickroom…(p. 183)
So with all of that experience gathered I was not surprised to find the passage from Matthew’s gospel for today that said: At that time Jesus exclaimed, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to little ones…” (MT 11: 25-26)
And thus, a shaft of light bringing gratitude to my 72 year-old self will allow a relief of total responsibility for the salvation of the world today, remembering that God is in charge and sees each generation through the challenges that arise and will undoubtedly be conquered!
The weekend just ended brought both old friends and new faces to our tiny “island of grace” (the way I see our small retreat center these days). The privilege of preparing meals for them allowed me observation time of their interactions with one another and the alternation of their movements to and from the conference room – so often peppered with “thank you” or smiles of appreciation for every little thing. I cannot help feeling judgments about people melt from me as I observe the gifts that diversity brings to a retreat where everyone is desirous of spiritual growth. The ways that people dress or speak or choose their food are all overshadowed by the blinding light of their intention toward unity with the Divine (however they perceive the One I call God).
It has become my practice every morning to consider each day a clean slate for my living. Of course there are on-going concerns or projects and I have my lists of “unfinished business” from the previous day (or week or month…) but my intention is to look at everything from the perspective of this day and leave yesterday to the history books. Even more important does that intention become on Sundays for two reasons. It is, after all, the first day of the week, the beginning of a new cycle of events. Additionally it is for Christians the Lord’s Day, the day of Resurrection, thereby giving impetus to thoughts of God and my own sense of hope for myself and the world.