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| Road to Santiago de Compostela 2007 Rebecca Carroll |
This morning I
woke and began Lauds almost an hour
before the chime summoned me. Seemingly random gratitude and praise congealed
into pondering the ancient question – Why is there anything rather than
nothing? I pursued that to consider the nature of this anything. Since adolescence
at least, I have thought that the material universe might well have been gray
and angular, without beauty. Even life could have been mechanical without joy.
Even humans could have been isolated without relationships. So why is there not
just color but beauty that seem to exult in just being colorful and beautiful? Why
do we recognize at least some approximation of our human emotions in animals
and even plants and the earth and universe? Why do we have the capacity to not
only perceive but revel in the joy of beauty? Why do we thrive in relationships
and flourish on love? Why do we grieve when beauty, joy, relationship, and love
are lost?
My
contemplation took me to recognizing in this awareness something of not just
what it means to be made in the image of God, but that all of creation is an
extension or expression of the nature of character of God. Not just in the
marvels of the earth and universe, but in these invisible realities: beauty,
joy, relationship, love (and yes, even grief). It seems to me that the
Trinitarian (and other theological) formulations about God are our feeble
attempts to capture this with human reason and language. Yes, I accept that the
Bible is God’s inspired, reliable and authoritative self-revelation. As such it
too exudes in human language mystery well beyond human language. I am not
interested here in debating biblical orthodoxy but in being captivated by being
welcomed into the mysterious presence of God who is at once beyond my
imagination and personally accessible.
As I moved into
Prime and prayer Psalms while I ate
breakfast, I began with Psalm 17, which concludes with verse 15. “As for me, I
shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied,
beholding your likeness.” I was overwhelmed by recognizing that is just
what I had been privileged to do.
Then I started
up the computer and opened the email from the Center for Action and
Contemplation with Fr. Richard Rohr’s meditation for today. I am neither
endorsing nor critiquing everything he writes, but I have found he enriches my
meditation, prompting me to consider things I had not previously thought about.
This morning’s meditation seemed an extension of my own contemplation of the
mystery of God. To be sure, what he has written reflects the inadequacy of
human language and thinking. However, I was startled with how it directly it interfaced
with the mystery I had already been contemplating.
1 comment:
John 1:3 "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." Colossians 1:15-17 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
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