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From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday
I order you, O sleeper to awake. I did not create you
to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise up from the dead, for I am the life of the
dead. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you;
together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
We are one
Good and gracious God, this
voice crosses many centuries to appear on the page of my prayer book.
I have no idea who wrote
this sermon. The name and face are lost to history, but I recognize the voice.
It is your voice, your truth and love speaking to the troubled and conflicted places
in my heart.
You speak and heal me
with a Love that awakens tears of joy and knowing what only the heart can.
I feel the worlds as much
as I read and see them in my mind. I feel and know: you would not have me
living in the hell of unknowing for even a single moment. Hell is not to know,
to feel far off as when our sins and conflicts separate us from knowing the Love
that is ours always.
So I turn from all that
is petty and negative, from all that is dark and hurtful to the heart. I turn
the eyes of my heart to what is light and love, to beauty and grace, and there
I know you, shining like the sun, eyes lit with a love who wants and treasures
me, removing all sin and shame, lifting every sadness and doubt.
Seeing you within, hell
is banished. It cannot stand the joy of such Love unbounded.
I enter heaven and am blessed
once more, knowing that we are never separate one from another. We are one
person, your love living deep within my own love for you. These are not two but
one.
All that I am is in you,
encompassed in this great sea of love, and everything you are pours in and
through me, leaving no room for anything but the love you are … and that we are
… together.
Pr. David L. Miller
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