Living in the now no small task!

Today I have had a day bathing in scripture and prayer. After cleaning the floors, which is my household task knowing that I can clear my mind of all things and just be presence, I lit the candle on my small prayer plate grabbing my bible. 

Recently I have started to have a new self discipline, giving self permission to be presence in the moment, to start the day with the Word, spend time in prayer. Then share in the celebration of the Eucharist often while I recall all my Sisters around the world, knowing they too will hear the Word and celebrate in this nourishment of the soul. Knowing that my loved ones will too be celebrating in their ways even if not at the Eucharist at the Altar, they too will be witnessing the Word and sharing the rich nourishment we are given. 

Making me realise that living in the now is no small task!! 

We are a people of anticipation or are we a people of despair. As people who believe in Christ, hope is our native tongue but we often struggle to translate that language to the world. It’s not enough to just hope life is complete when we are reunited with our Creator. We are a people of a coming Kingdom, of a Kingdom here and now; we must live with an ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ kind of vision. And it’s this vision that is so hard in the day to day. 

I watch the news, just like you, the world is a mess, the world is beautiful. There is glory everywhere, everything is broken. It is a both and sort of situation that tension is painful and messy. 

It’s easy to want to divide what seems secular and what seems sacred and pick a side. It’s natural to want to measure our worthiness in how much we do. It’s also normal to want to escape from it all. 

It’s easy to want to spiritualise everything and try to live above the fray of it all. I’ve found myself struggling with wanting to pull away from things because it all seems so fluffy and unimportant. 

But God doesn’t do it that way. He never has. Every petal that blooms spells out the majesty of God. Every flavour that melts on the tongue, every eye catching moment of splendour. Every beautiful thing our vision catches and the fact that we notice them at all has everything to do with who He is as a creator. 

Jesus came in both flesh and holiness in the most extraordinary of ways. The wisemen brought extravagant and beautiful gifts and offered them as worship. The shepherds came stunned at His glory. And God used both to usher in the Good news of Jesus’s birth and foretell his majesty. 

Jesus always taught that He - himself - was present not only with the poor but also present in the poor. This is our language of hope for the world.  

I am reminded on this day of the teaching where Jesus taught us that when we fail to see Him in the poverty and oppression of others, when we ignore their plight, we fail to grasp our Creator. We fail to understand the heart of our saviour. 

He made no qualifications of those who deserved grace and mercy. He didn’t mention their choices, their gender, their religion, their immigration status, their political affiliations, or the colour of their skin. 

This restlessness I feel? It’s living in the tension of abundance knowing that God is among us. 

He says to us “ I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink”… 

I have known poverty on some levels while not on others, I have known abundance. Just to live here in this moment, in the now, present place affords me huge privilege. 

It makes me realise that to meet Jesus in that place of poverty, I would have to have food, I would have to have drink, a home to open, clothes to spread across another’s shoulders, freedom to visit the prison. I am blessed with these things in abundance for the very purpose of meeting Jesus. He has equipped me with everything I need. He’s not calling me to ignore His blessings; rather He’s asking meet share them, to rest, to enjoy, to speak out, to serve and to lament. 

He’s calling me to peace in the tension, not an escape nor another thing to do but a place to abide in Him and be met with hope.