Thursday, June 19, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:32-36

'So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of human beings, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven. 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law ... .

Prayer

It has taken me most of a lifetime to be able to declare my love for you in unwelcoming or uncertain contexts. But I have come to know that denying you, Jesus, is denying myself, heart and soul, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.

I should be grateful for that, and I am. It tells me you are a bigger part of me than 10 years ago or 20 … or … . This is great consolation, for I know what love as lies in the corners of this soul is you, the one I want to know before, above and in all things.

But it is also fearful because I know it remains possible for me to deny you. Troubled places in me remain unconverted from their devout fears. I could yet taste the dusty shell of a self that has lost you. It makes me shudder.

So, too, your words about family. My family has been such grace to me, Jesus, holy and blessed sacrament. I would not be sitting here praising to you were it not for them. I doubt I would be alive, tasting the sweet freshness of this new day. They were your saving arms and hands, your heart and eyes. And I thank you.

How could I turn against them? Yet, my love of you has made me odd, peculiar in some of their eyes. But I no longer mind so much, even as you still manage to love them through me.

I pray never to lose them and that they not be lost to your Spirit. But let nothing, not even these, come between us. I wish never to be alien to you, my Lord, my Life.

Pr. David L. Miller