Thursday, February 2, 2012

Today’s text

Mark 1:29-31

And at once on leaving the synagogue, he went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her. He went in to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them.

Reflection

A portrait of my desire … and of the church appears here. The woman rises. We don’t even know her name, but she is us, or at least me.

I feel a gentle smile as she rises from her mat and goes about her business, quietly serving with unhurried grace. There is no trace of anxiety or concern for approval in her. I sense no concern in her for how she is perceived or with whether anyone notices what she is doing.

But she is notices. She is aware, quietly mindful of her quiet motions as she goes about her hospitality for the needs of her visitors. Gentle joy lights her face as she attends to them.

She is given to that which has been given her to do and to be. She lives what she is. In this simplicity, there is the joy of being that manifestation of grace that God fashioned her to be.

Her soul is quiet, at peace, having known the Spirit of Love lifting her into herself, She lives this self not worrying whether it is enough just to be who she is, giving what she has been given to give.

Only Love, which is to say only the Divine Spirit can do this in a human heart.

This points the way for me and for all.

Her gentle grace draws me. The peace she exudes, her quiet givnen-ness to the grace in her is my desire.

She has no thought of success or failure, of ‘making it’ or of proving herself to some judge, and so many judges hold sway over our souls. There are judges from our past or present, judges outside of us and those terrible judges that inhabit our minds.

On our very best days, we are like the woman, free from the judges and the anxieties they provoke. Then we grow weary or troubles come, and the judges take over our minds. I begin to live as if it is not enough just to be and to give what God has put in my soul.

This is no way to live, of course. It is not real life at all.

And it’s so much less than the quiet, gentle light I see on the woman’s face as she serves, Jesus having lifted her into life. She is a portrait of The Spirit of Life seeks to awaken in human hearts, mine and yours.

And that is what the church is: a communion of hearts having been lifted by the Divine Spirit of Love in Jesus, sent to live out the mystery and goodness of what is in them.

Pr. David L. Miller