Lectio
“Reality is remarkably mundane. And if we can really grasp the dignity of the ordinary, then we’re able to understand God’s love, God’s love for the world.”
— Sr. Mary Beth Ingham, CSJ, Everything Belongs: John Duns Scotus with Sr. Mary Beth Ingham (Center for Action and Contemplation)
Meditatio
We spend much of our lives hoping for more, reaching for more, and waiting for more. We live as though peace, joy, and contentment are somewhere beyond us, beyond this circumstance, and beyond this moment. As if God exists somewhere else, in some far-off time or place, but not right here, right now. Anywhere but here. Anytime but now.
But while we are waiting for the holy moment that may never come, we miss this moment. We miss this opportunity to experience and embrace holiness. We miss what God is saying to us now, through these circumstances, at this time, and in this place.
God awaits our presence. God awaits our attention. God awaits our awakening to his presence here, now — as a bridegroom who has never left the threshold. His love is this very moment. This very experience. This very breath.
We wish it were otherwise because we find it difficult to accept that the holy creator of all things, who made all things in order to love them, the God of life and the God of love, is present in the dishes, the laundry, or even in conflict with a loved one or with someone who does not love us at all. But while God may not have willed the dirty dishes piled up in the sink, the clothes that will not fold themselves, or the conflict we would rather not be having, God is somehow still present in these mundane, annoying, or even uncomfortable circumstances.
God is the mysterious ground that may not cause all of the mundane, ordinary, and even frustrating or traumatizing circumstances of our lives, yet somehow sustains us through every one of them. God exists exactly in these moments, not just beyond them. The beyond we are waiting for is already here, even as our nature longs to transcend this mundanity and ordinariness.
But here, now, if we look, we will find that God is not far. Rather God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves, nearer to this moment than we are to ourselves. While we are reaching for the door of the future, God is knocking on the door of the present, waiting for us to open it to receive his presence. While we are hoping for something different, God is speaking to us through what is in front of us, whether it be the dishes, the laundry, or an angry acquaintance, but also in the trees, the breeze, and the smile of a child.
Oratio
a sea of grass
dancing in the breeze
laughing at the wind
bending
yielding
receiving
no complaints
no resistance
no protestations
celebrating
all that comes
all that goes
all in all
Contemplatio
What would change if you believed that the beyond you are waiting for is already here?
Related Scripture
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. — Psalm 139:7–10 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Unfolding In God: Viewing Life Beyond Dualistic Thinking About Good And Evil, which explores how releasing our need to categorize experience as good or evil opens us to recognizing God’s presence unfolding in all things — even those we struggle to understand or accept.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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