Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Do it right, right now
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sixth Day of Christmas
1 John 2:14-17
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. And I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One … The world and its desires are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.
God created time and space. Is God captive then of the time and space he created? Of course not. But he MADE himself captive, “made himself nothing” in order to be one of us and teach us how to regain our confidence that we are made by God, loved by God, known by God. We can spend our lives in that strength and joy and then, as John seems to understand, “remain forever.”
This is difficult to apprehend when we are caught in cancer, distracted by divorce, undone by unemployment. I never want to forget that when Isaiah was undone (Isaiah 6), his lips were immediately touched by fire and made new. He became the speaker of God’s words. But he had to die before he could live.
I can be tied into knots by time. But in those knots, Jesus shows me how to say YES. As a young man, then as a father, then as an old man, there is a “knowing” that Jesus invites me into. Not the tangled, ambiguous, subjective knowledge of good and evil. No, not that lie. Instead, Jesus invites me into the YES of obedience, literally hearing God, and knowing that God hears me.
There is a marvelous reflective poem variously attributed to an anonymous friar, an 85 year old woman in Louisville, Jorge Luis Borges, and others. Sometimes it is titled “If I had my life to live over again, I wouldn’t have to be so Perfect” (here’s one version – http://www.padworny.com/2/):
“Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had it to do all over again, I’d have more of those moments … That’s the stuff life’s made of – only moments. Don’t miss the now.”
When I know the way God calls me to know, I travel light. The dominant question in my life changes from “Why?” to “What now?” And the truth is, as the poem says, “I’d ride more merry-go-rounds. Watch more sunrises. Play with more children … Pick more daisies.”
Each of us, Lord – young men and women, fathers and mothers, those of us ready to finish our physical days – ask you over and over, “What now?” I can’t wait to see happens next, but while I wait, this moment holds the most amazing blessing. You Are Here Now. Please direct our paths, Lord, to be curious rather than afraid, when the next Bend comes into view. You have scouted out all the forest green, and through it you will bring us safely home.
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