As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church
1 Peter 3:13-22, Acts 9:32-43, John 9:1-39
One of the constant themes of monastic spirituality is
the notion of keeping vigil: watching for the coming of the Lord. We are to be
vigilant and alert for the subtle ways the kingdom of God breaks into our
consciousness. For in those moments, we touch the elusive mystery of God on
earth.
For the man born blind, the mystery of Jesus healing
him revealed the message that Jesus is the light of the world for all to
see. Christ said that as long as he was
in the world, he was the light of the world. The mystery is that Christ said
that he is with us always, having died, but rising and sending his own Spirit
to be with us. Watch and pray!
Only by faith can we live peacefully with the
knowledge that we will die. What can help is to notice the daily deaths we all
undergo throughout our lives – those errors in judgement and moments of
alienation, the hurt feelings and careless words that we utter or that others
say to us. Notice that death never has
the last word. A quiet call stirs from the depth of who we are: Rise up! Rise
up to new life, to a better vision of who we can become! Hope rises with each new day. Being able to
let hope spread is to begin each day in stillness. Take nothing for granted,
but be open to whatever the coming day may be.
Ours is an age that is increasingly uncomfortable with
silence. When we embrace silence with courage, we are given the chance to be
mindful of God’s abiding presence. Silence allows us to be aware of our own
thoughts and to choose our own way with care. Focusing our mind makes our life
fertile soil for the coming day.
Anything we achieve comes from God. We need to give
serious thought to what in Jesus we are striving daily to imitate. We believe
many things about the Christ, about our God. Let’s give some thought to why we believe these things. We do believe
in many mysteries of our faith. Why do we believe them? And why do we not
believe some of them?
Many things about Jesus in Scripture do not look
mysterious. His goodness, his compassion for the sick, the loss of loved ones, his
sadness with those who would not believe him. Reflecting on these things will
help us to remember that we are grace-bearing creatures, commanded to be the
salt of the earth and to be a light for those around us. If we obey the divine
command of service offered to others, with love, patience, gentleness,
kindness, integrity, fidelity, and all the rest that goes with being witnesses
for Christ, healing will come through us to others. Perhaps not as it did for
Peter, with Tabitha and Aeneas, but in other ways.
If our hearts
are set on possessions, pleasure, good health, prestige, ease, and comfort, we
are vulnerable to unhappiness. Any of those things can be lost at any time. If the relationship with God is the
highest priority, our blessedness is secure. Even when we are suffering, we can
remember to unite our own suffering with Jesus’ sufferings, and we can attain
peace. Sometimes we might be suffering because of less than smart decisions we
have made, sometimes it is just due to the human condition. None of these
sufferings should touch that which matters most: our relationship with God.
We can find
ourselves stumbling as if we were blind. We grasp and search for truth and
wisdom, but usually not see Jesus right in front of us. if we would focus our
life on Christ and keep our minds focused on the one needful thing, then we
would see, we could affirm as did the blind man, “Lord, I believe.” Let us pray
that Christ will illumine the way to that pearl of great price—the source of
all.
Christ is risen!!