It has been hot! Very, very hot! And boy can I complain with the best of them about the heat. And then I remember…my 3 years as a Marine mostly stationed in Mississippi and South Carolina, my summer in San Antonio TX, eleven weeks in Yuma AZ, my two week mission trip to Nicaragua and a few years ago a month in Ghana Africa…and then my complaining takes on a slightly different tone.
It has been hot and uncomfortable but we are always challenged to put it into perspective…don’t you just hate that. It is what God asks us to do when we look out into the world, seeing the joy and suffering, the justice and injustice and the beauty and evil and put it into perspective. I hope that we all wish to alleviate suffering, stamp out injustice and correct the evils of the world but it must be done in the perspective of human dignity, stewardship of the gifts of life and trusting in a goodness beyond our limited view of the world and particular situation.
We all know how this works in life and as the great Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote once “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Darn it! Life gives us a natural perspective on the things around us but life must be taken one day at a time and therein lies the rub.
My perspective on the heat has been learned from the many other experiences I have lived, do these experiences make this week any less hot, no, but then I place this alongside my other experiences of heat and move forward knowing this moment will be added to all the other moments.
Okay, now lets get back to seeking how God wants us to put all things into perspective…Old Testament here we come…perspective is everywhere as the people of Israel learn about God’s love for them and ultimately how He will send them a Messiah which does place everything into perspective. Jesus throughout the Gospel talks about the perspective of the Father’s love, mercy, and justice that envelops even the most powerful metaphors and images and makes them seem small in proportion to God’s love: The Cross…perspective.
Perspective today in our faith journey…how we learn about God and live with God and share God with others is found in a life lived, blessed and given over and over again. Because when we share our faith with others, the perspective of God’s presence in our lives and how God acts within our lives is always a challenge for so many of us. When I read, hear or experience something profound I often share it with friends and will at times be puzzled by their reaction from wonder and awe to a shrug of the shoulders or meh. Or just as frequently my response is less than what it should be…for example…over the past several weeks in the parish I have celebrated and attended more than the normal number of funerals: Nine (9) in total.
I can and do become a bit too comfortable with talking to the families and I am sure I miss some of the important signals about their grief and suffering in the moment and this is where stepping back in to the perspective of memory, and to use the memory of the sorrow of my own father or brother’s death and be present in this moment with the other as we open and share our hearts and gift of God’s love with one another.
Just as we experience God’s love day by day and like a couple married for fifty years who share the experience of love much different than newlyweds, our lived experience of God, especially when we choose to seek Him and be with Him and talk with Him and laugh and cry with Him gives us this living perspective.
God bless (and stay cool)
Fr. Mark