Thursday, March 7, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 15:27-31

The servant told him, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the calf we had been fattening because he has got him back safe and sound." He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out and began to urge him to come in; but he retorted to his father, "All these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed any orders of yours, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property -- he and his loose women -- you kill the calf we had been fattening." 'The father said, "My son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

Reflection

You are always with me. Don’t you know? Didn’t you realize that all I am and have … is yours? Always was; always will be.

This is the singular reality of your life, but on average days we live the unreality of separateness, not knowing, not feeling, unaware that our souls are always connected with the Soul of the Universe.

But moments come when we feel and know.

Some call it a sense of oceanic awareness. We feel we are part of everything. We belong to everything, intimately connected with all that is. We are engulfed in a sea of love that surrounds all that is.

All that is, all creation and all we are is inside this sea, a part of the sea; yet each thing has distinct identity. Distinct, yes, but nothing is ever separate or apart from this embracing reality. Everything belongs.

This sea is the infinitely Abundant Source of all that is and holds all creation in an embrace of love that knows us entirely and loves us completely.

What words shall I use to capture what I know of you, Holy One, when such moments of blessing wash over me? What can I say? I struggle and strain, casting one metaphor after another to tell what you reveal of yourself.

I know only that peace settles on the soul, the heart slows, breath deepens, stress evaporates, and I find myself in an infinite sea of love.

I know … I am always with you. There is no escaping you, no getting lost; no place I go where you are not, no moment when the sea is unwilling to flood the soul with this sublime awareness that I may always know … you.

Pr. David L. Miller