Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Today’s text

1 Peter 1:3-4

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into a heritage that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away.

Reflection

What is this lightness of being, this unbidden appearance of joy? It comes when I expected nothing, creeping unheard into my being. No signal marked its approach. I could not run to welcome the sunrise amid the night of soul of recent weeks.

Nothing sudden occurs, no great and shining moment, no reversal of fortune or deliverance from challenge. Nothing. But joy comes, welling within, lifting and filling the heart that it becomes, again, an engine of energy and gracious good will.

Hectoring inner voices fall silent. Their ghosts disappear, leaving no fear of their return.

Hope fills their place, and promise colors the day and each new encounter. Anticipation lives were avoidance and dread cast their dreary shadow.

There will be joy. There will be grace. This I know without knowing how I know.

Surely, I am deluded. But this freshness is as undeniable as the unrelenting sadness that had turned all days gray. I choose to deny neither. Honesty requires this much.

Strangely, there is no need in me to grasp this new birth that quietly appears from the grace of your Mystery. This is new.

I feel no desire to hold it fast lest it escape me, and I fall again into the darkness. My soul knows only rest and confidence. I have no idea what the day will bring. I know only the unwavering assurance that you will abide my being, unshakable and sure.

Darkness comes and darkness goes, but you abide, Holy One. New birth will come out of the darkness, and I cannot command its time.

“Patience,” you whisper. “The day will come.”

I can only await the sunrise, oppressed by the darkness, yes, but knowing the freshness of unspoilt morning will again be born in a time of your choosing.

Wait, trust, the day will come. Even now.

Pr. David L. Miller