Old Testament: Jeremiah 3:6-18
Psalm 119:73-96
Epistle: Romans 1:28–2:11
Gospel: John 5:19-29
My eyes gravitate to the subheading of the third portion of today’s Psalm: In æternum, Domine.
It reminds me of the Requiem prayer where we ask for perpetual light on those who have suffered enough and have gone on before us. Through the sadness of our goodbyes, there is a mysterious comfort knowing that it will all come to an end one day, for all of us. There will be eternal rest.
God’s Word is everlasting, standing firm in the heavens… despite the mess we’ve made here below.
I can get overwhelmed with that mess, with the sickness and suffering and conflict. I can’t fix it. People are unreasonable, selfish, and sometimes mean. I can’t fix them. So I log off social media, turn off the outrage on the television, close my eyes, and hope that it will be better tomorrow.
All shall be well, and God’s kingdom will come. I do believe that. But what are we to do TODAY?
Perhaps, like the mystics, we can turn to the Everlasting. We can find stillness and peace in contemplation of the infinite. However much life changes day to day, however far removed we feel from the Beloved Community, we can rest in the eternal Love of God, even on this side of the grave.
“That things are finite therefore we learn by our senses. But infinity we know and feel by our souls: and feel it so naturally, as if it were the very essence and being of the soul. The truth of it is, it is individually in the soul: for God is there, and more near to us than we are to ourselves.” Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations
Michael Barnett
No comments:
Post a Comment