Friday, October 6, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 2:1-7

“If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy ... . Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:1, 4-5).

Prayer

And this you would give me, your own mind? The thought of it alone brings tears. Shall I have the mind that knows the Eternal Wonder and speaks to the Unspeakable One as to dearest old friend? Shall I see the Beauty who kisses golden autumn days with crisp clarity and sparkling wonder? Shall I ache for the day when the eternal blessing for which all is intended absorbs every needy soul and mends every broken thing? Shall I hunger to be wholly given to that holy dream as are you in blessed completeness?

Dearest One, is this what it is to have your mind in my mortal flesh? Such is my hunger for you. I am too much with me. I long to live in you, knowing the substance of your being within my own, blessed Christ. I want to be filled with your greedy love that desires nothing less than all of me, a liquid compassion that seeks the vacant emptiness in the dark cylinder of my soul, pushing out all that is not itself. Then, only then shall your mind appear in its fullness in me. And I shall share in the beauty of the Eternal Wonder and in the insatiable longing for the healing of every wound and every death Earth has ever known.

But even now you keep your promise, and your mind appears in your people, and me. You fill us with a liquid grace that overflows our hearts, dissolving all shame and guilt, all anxiety and fear, so that with fresh eyes we see all that is. Then it is that there is no need to tell us to have your mind, to exhort us to do nothing from selfishness and conceit. For we are filled with you, in whose presence selfishness and conceit evaporate like so much morning mist. It is then that we know what it is to have your mind.

How does this happen, blessed Font of life? Do we ‘let’ your mind dwell us, or do you simply fill us with the impenetrable mystery and indivisible mercy whom you are? However it happens, may it happen to us today that we may see as you see and love as you love, for the sake of the world you cherish more than we can know. Amen.