Thursday of the Third Week of Lent - March 15, 2012

Luke 11:14

After the demon had gone out, the man started speaking, and the crowds were amazed.


In this longer passage (Lk. 11:14 - 23), I notice this first verse and the amazement of the crowds at this miracle. What caused them to be amazed? Why did this miracle do it for them, when many other things had gone unnoticed to that point?

As humans, we are so accustomed to not seeing, that when we finally do see, it seems amazing. We become acclimated to the darkness, so that seeing the little-bit offered in darkness seems like full sight. When the fullness of light, then, does shine, it can be overwhelming and blinding.

I believe that for the person who can see, who has eyes to see and ears to hear, these kinds of miracles are happening all the time. In fact, they are such "ordinary miracles" that they may defy classification as miracles. Once we begin to see them, once we start to notice the ways the Holy is woven through the fabric of everyday life, they seem commonplace and ordinary.

For the person with eyes to see and ears to hear the deeper resonances of God's Spirit pulsing through all things, a mute person speaking is an everyday happening.


For today . . . be intentional today about seeing and hearing in your everyday life. Intend to notice sights and sounds. There will be many things in your life-world that are there every day, but in your hurry and preoccupation, you miss them. Slow down enough today to notice what is around you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dinnerless Camels

Dinnerless Camels Saturday after the Resurrection – April 18, 2020 Transformation does not happen by an act of the will. Responding to an altar call is important for some, but is certainly not the end as much as a new beginning. Benchmark life-events may help nurture us, but one-time events do not have the force to shift the deeply ingrained patterns within us. There are no quick fixes in the Christian spiritual life, no short-cuts to an adult spirituality. Rather, we must take care to feed the inner self, to nourish the soul, to give care to that which is at our center, for this inner self will emerge in the world as a transforming presence. We cannot expect ourselves to live differently in the world if we do not attend to this inward dimension of life. For example, in order not to be overwhelmed by a global pandemic, we must be intentional about ingesting spiritual nourishment that will give us resources to keep us from being overwhelmed by the pandemic flood. We have to ea
Read more

The Pattern Includes Resurrection

The Pattern Includes Resurrection Resurrection Sunday – April 12, 2020 Resurrection follows death. Every time. It is the immutable, God-given pattern for all of life. Death is not the end. Life is the end. In John 11, Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, goes through a litany of titles for Jesus. Jesus tells her straight-out that he is the resurrection and the life. Then he asks, “Do you believe this ?” He is not asking if she believes in resurrection as an idea or as a theological proposition. He is asking if she believes that resurrection and life are God’s established pattern for the world. Affirming Jesus’ resurrection is not enough. Rather are you willing to enter into this rhythm of birth, life, death, and new life for yourself? This is not only new life. It is also real love. English mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote a great deal about spirituality in the last century. She taught both significant religious leaders and ordinary lay persons with a simplicity that I find c
Read more

The Sunshine School of Piety

The Sunshine School of Piety Thursday after the Resurrection – April 16, 2020 The popular prophets of contemporary culture are not those who tell the truth – which is the hallmark of a true prophet – but those who say what their followers want to hear. Religious leaders, political leaders, leaders of commerce . . . most anyone can fall into this kind of cheerleading . . . another version of dressing up a pig in lipstick. We notice this all around us, even in the midst of a global pandemic . . . some who say things are not really that bad (try selling that to 28,593 families in the United States and 138,487 families around the world who have lost loved ones to COVID-19) or who advocate sacrificing people’s health and lives for the good of economic factors (Capitalism as the greatest good!). In the excerpt below, Evelyn Underhill uses the ominous phrase, “ the sunshine school of piety ,” calling it a “charmingly optimistic outlook.” How apropos is that to our current times? G
Read more