Sacrament of the moment

The ‘sacrament of the moment’ a concept coined by de Caussade an eighteenth century writer has important meaning for our perception of the Christian journey. It focuses on the now of our lives and not the has been or should be thought avenues. Everything that is happening at the moment in our lives has either been allowed by God to happen or has been purposively instituted by God. This seems all fine when the things going on in our lives are great but not so when they are traumatic and bloody. We possibly have to get out of our comfortable cocoon created by our longing for the comfortable and realize that we are to respond to God even in the dirty parts of our lives. Those moments that look plain may have meaning, the time when you are in grief, you are lonely, you are feeling rejection, those moments can be converted into a sacrament if we allow them to. If we recognize that God is in every moment and has not vacated the premises.

A real mystery

Well, say no more. It is my birthday. Forty years back on this day I was brought screaming into the world in the capital city of South Africa, Pretoria. It always amazes, the vicissitudes of ones life. What seems like a minor decision turns out to be the eventual succession of your life’s work and purpose. A decision I made in 1988 in a Air force barracks to serve God in mission, took one phone call and my life moved off in another direction, toward a social world of faith, church, mission, and ordination. It could have turned out so differently, but lets not go there. We don’t understand the greater picture, we get glimpses of it now and again, our world is wrapped up in the greater dream, the mystery we seek. I found myself criticizing a couple who drift from one church gathering to the next, they are always going up for prayer and accepting altar calls for this and that. They are searching for a touch of the almighty mystery that will transcend and satisfy but I am afraid they will keep searching for the taste of that they just cannot reach. But, why not, should we stop seeking the infinite and conclude our job is done, our lot is satisfied? The search needs redefinition.

Only God opens our eyes to the reality that is before us, that the reality is in fact the mystery. We are so used to the existence we breathe we call it normal, real, mundane and routine. But, look a little closer and you realize that this is the miracle, this is the life we so longed to find, it is the gift we have been waiting for all these years. It just took you a little longer to see it. The longer I walk this journey, the less I need to find other worldly abstractions. The more I embrace the silence, that is God, and my reality which is the mystery, my joy is complete and my heart is satisfied.