Friday, December 3, 2021 (today’s lectionary)
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest
The Lord is my light
Out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord.
Not only blindness of the eyes, but of the mind and emotions. Blindness that leads straight into unfounded sorrow, sorrow of the spirit, founded not so much on sin as on sadness. Seasonal Affective Disorder, perhaps, or clinical depression, or loneliness. Oh God, is this also what you mean to free us from?
The tyrant will be no more. The arrogant will have gone. All who are alert to do evil will be cut off.
I must say, most of the tyrants are of my own making. I am the arrogant one. When I could be alert to do good, I fail, and sometimes I even choose self-conscious sin. Alert to do evil. Hmmm. Who would admit to that? But who does not sometimes follow that awful path?
Do not leave a just man with an empty claim. Then you shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall your face grow pale. Watch instead to see the work of my hands in your midst.
God’s instructions are clear. Stop thinking only of yourself. Think more highly of your brother, especially when he has no power, but you do. I am grateful that God gives me seventy times seven days and weeks and years to discover the joy of this generosity, to become a bit more of the child he made 72 years ago.
Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction. The Lord is my light and my salvation. I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.
Until then, surely I am like a blind man, led by other blind men. The blind leading the blind leads us all down endless wrong paths toward empty destinations, toward nowhere.
We are not yet lost. Nowhere, like no-thing, might lack definition, but never possibility.
We blind men approached Jesus, who looked at us and said, “Do you believe I can do this?” Yes, Lord. Then he touched our eyes. “Let it be done according to your faith.” And our eyes were opened.
We have reached the end of our lectionary texts, and the end of our our lectio divina. The day dawns, and we are alive along with our sovereign God, our Creator, our Lover, our Friend. There is so much to do, now that we can see. Life rushes toward us, and so we breathe it in.
(Isaiah 26, Psalm 118, Isaiah 55, Matthew 7)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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