Saturday, November 12, 2022
Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Conversation with Jesus on a rainy afternoon, after fighting most of the morning
Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before the Church. Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.
Polite to strangers, sure, but not always to each other when we live in the same house. Sometimes we just can’t seem to come to terms. Apologies soften our blows but not always for long. Do I need to take a nap? Eat an apple? Walk outside for an hour in the rain?
Sure. All of those. Anything to get away from each other and into conversation with God. When I talk, God listens. And then when God talks, I listen:
I worry about Margaret being sick, I worry about my occasional chest pains, I worry, I worry, I worry, Jesus.
I’m glad you’re telling me and not acting out right now.
That’s it, isn’t it? I’ve been acting out my impatience, projecting my fear, and not saying so. I don’t even know what I’m doing. Not until I talk to you.
Right. You can’t do this alone. You can’t do anything alone, really, but especially not be married, have a partner for forty or fifty years. Why try to do that on your own?
I forget … when Margaret and I are having a good conversation, when we help each other in ways that feel right, when we pray and sing in the morning, then it seems easy. Funny how that prayer is different from this prayer. I feel less involved then, and more now. More open, and more interested.
But in those songs you sing you are blessing each other, and I love to watch you together when that happens. When you sit close and sing, my ears perk up. I am more interested than ever.
If you are happy, then I’m happy. I’ll remember what you said when we’re singing and praying, and holding hands through all of it. That you’re watching and you’re singing with us and you are blessing us right then. That moment is holy.
Will not God secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
And I have always been grateful that neither of us hold grudges or remember with bitterness the other’s faults. I say many things that cut and jab and hurt Margaret. She might jab back, or she might be silent. I am sorry for saying those words, and I am thankful when we can continue being friends after just a little while, an apology, a turning of our faces up to you.
Margaret is like Mary; she keeps these things, ponders them, and stores them in her heart. But she prays to me for freedom, and I give it to her. You can pray for that too, David, just like you are now, and I will give it to you.
Margaret was a little girl, and she looked until she found friends who could help lead her to you, and teach her to pray.
Yes, I know. And you didn’t have to look so hard for those people, so you didn’t appreciate them as much as she did.
But I do now. Thank you.
God has called us through the Gospel, to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(3 John, Psalm 112, 2 Thessalonians, Luke 18)
           (posted at www.davesandel.net)
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