Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Today’s text

1 John 1:1-3

Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Reflection

I envy those who saw and knew Jesus in the first generations of the church.

I don’t want to live in that more primitive time. I like our modern comforts. But I would have been deeply moved to sit at the feet of people who actually knew Jesus, touched him and felt what it was l like to be near him.

Even at this distance, I imagine the amazement in their faces and the glow in their eyes at the wonder they felt. I see and hear as they struggle for words to speak what they saw and felt and knew.

And I see myself in rapt attention, waiting for their words and presence to carry me away into the Eternal Presence where the soul tingles with joy in the awareness of being in God, inside the eternal and all-loving.

I can imagine and feel this only because I have sat at the feet of those whose bearing and words conveyed the presence of that which was from the beginning. I have known those who lived in such close communion with God, the Father, and Jesus, his son, so that eternity was in them, visible and touchable, touching me.

Their presence bore the Presence of the unseen God. Their faces shared the light that filled the face of Jesus. They knew what it was to share wordless communion with the Holy Presence, and their presence shared the light and warmth of the Holy Presence of those who were near.

We share and speak what have seen and known, what we have touched and what has touched us.

I need not return to the first century to know the hearts who knew Jesus alive and risen. I need only be with those who live in communion with him, to hear their words and listen to what is in their hearts.

Time is no obstacle to seeing and knowing him. He is as near as the light in the eyes of those who love him, as close as those who abide in the mystery of eternal love.

Pr. David L. Miller