Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes. The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.” In reading this, I may be tempted to go to Kroger and buy everything I need to make a fresh blackberry pie. In that case, I will have completely missed the point! The point is that most of us walk around unaware that God is present to us in every single moment of our daily lives. We are mostly unaware of his presence. In fact, if we actually recognized the presence of God at every single moment, we may indeed walk around without shoes for the rest of our lives!
In today’s reading from the Book of Micah we hear the prophet appealing to the people of Israel to turn back to God. He tries to explain that neither burnt offerings, herds of rams, nor expensive oils are what God really desires. Even one of the most precious gifts—the firstborn child—is not what God wants. So what is it that God truly desires from them? The prophet tells them, “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God”. Does he want me to do good deeds? Does he want me to give money to the poor and tithe in my parish? Does it please him when I go to Mass every Sunday and fulfill my obligations as a member of a Christian community? Of course he does. I am sure all these things are good and wonderful but what does anyone I love actually desire from me? I think they want ME—they want me to be present to them. I think they long for my affection and attention and my heart. This is precisely what God desires. As well, God desires my affection and attention. God desires my heart; he desires an encounter with me. This sounds obvious and simple but it is very hard stuff! Being present to God, being available for God, surrendering to God—these things are difficult. Most of us can only manage to do this in fits and starts. Most of us have surrendered portions of ourselves and our lives over to God and fail to allow him to be involved in others. Living in the messy trenches of life, as most of us do, the busyness and challenges and losses can sweep over us to such an extent that it feels like a great accomplishment just to get through the day. And the times we do think about God, the best we can do may be to wonder where He is when we need Him so badly. My husband is ill or my daughter has died or I have an incurable disease or I cannot support my family. In the midst of such we can find ourselves saying, “We wish to see a sign from you” as the scribes and Pharisees say to Jesus in today’s Gospel passage. Are you really there? Where can I find you?
God does not normally tap us on the shoulder, call our cell phone, or communicate to us the way our friends, spouses or children do to let us know they want us. But God is here with us, offering himself to us, and presenting himself to us in ways we can easily miss if we are not aware or seeking his being there and available to us. The signs of God are all around us; it is our faith and wakefulness and desire that allow us to perceive this amazing God of all creation. And it is in everything created that he is found. Today, what will I be seeing? What is it I will be looking for? I pray that God will grant me the grace to see him and perceive his presence in all that comes my way this day.
---Gail Lyman