and in a cottage at Emmaus.
Help us to see traces of glory
in the common things of life,
for you are always with us
and your love never fails us
but will transform the world, the church and us.
For Reflection
Cardinal Basil Hume, a member of the Order of St Benedict and formerly Abbot of Ampleforth, was Archbishop of Westminster for twenty-three years until his death in 1999. Basil in Blunderland, while written to inspire children with thoughts about the meaning of the spiritual life, helps all of us to make sense of our blundering and searching for God.
The Sacrament of the Present Moment
A great spiritual writer spoke about ‘the sacrament of the present moment’. Now you know that a sacrament is an event where God enters into our lives. It is an outward sign of an inner grace (either a share in God’s own life or a special help being given to us). Christ meets us in sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. There are only seven sacraments, so what is this ‘sacrament of the present moment’? Is there an eighth sacrament?
Before thinking further about this I began to think about ‘time’, or rather about the idea of the present moment … I say to myself, ‘now’, and no sooner have I said it than it has already passed. I cannot hang on to ‘now’. It’s gone. Another ‘now’ has taken its place. Life is a succession of ‘nows’. You cannot prevent the clock from showing us how time marches on. I remember once looking at a clock at the moment it stopped. I said ‘now’, and there wasn’t another one. I realised that eternity is like a ‘now’ which goes on and on. The earthly clock stops and we are riveted for ever in the presence of God. Sometimes as we go through life there are moments to which we just want to hang on. It may be a moment of total happiness, one that is completely satisfying or very thrilling. We just want time to stop. That tells me something about what it must be like in heaven. In heaven there is a ‘now’ of total happiness when we are with God. The vision of God is so fulfilling and totally satisfying. It is an ever-present ‘now’ of ecstatic love when we are one with the most lovable.
Where, then, does the ‘sacrament of the present moment’ come in? A sacrament, as I have already said, is an event when Christ meets us and we meet Him. When you come to think of it the present moment can be a meeting point between God and us. It is only ‘now’, in the present moment, that we meet Him, here and now. Some people spend a lot of time looking back on their lives, others spend time daydreaming about the future, but the important moment is ‘now’. In any present moment we can meet God. At any moment we can just think about God and send a quick message up to Him. It may be a fleeting thought or a word spoken. For instance, I can just say ‘I am trying to love you’, or ‘please help me’, or ‘I am sorry about this or that’. The present moment is always precious. Like a sacrament it is a meeting point between God and ourselves.
BASIL IN BLUNDERLAND CARDINAL BASIL HUME
Scripture Reading
COLOSSIANS 3:12–17
‘Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.’
Prayer
Lord God,
Thank you for your presence with me;
for your guidance and encouragement in the past.
Thank you for taking me into the future,
unknown and uncertain.
But, above all,
thank you for being with me now,
today, at this present moment,
when we can meet together –
for this is heaven on earth.
For Reflection
Dr Sheila Cassidy is a palliative care physician who lectures widely on terminal care. She is the author of Audacity to Believe (an account of her arrest and torture in Chile in 1975), Good Friday People and Light in the Dark Valley. The following extract is from Sharing the Darkness which has the subtitle The Spirituality of Caring.
Precious Spikenard
Mary’s extravagant gesture (anointing the feet of Jesus with the expensive ointment, spikenard) must have been her way of saying to him, ‘I love you. I know what is going on inside you. I can’t stop it happening, but I want you to know that I care and to take the memory of my love with you, to comfort you in the dark days ahead.’ Perhaps this episode gave Jesus the strength he needed, at that moment, to carry on with his mission.
In the same way the love that we pour out on the dying or the handicapped says many things. It is an expression of our need to serve, to love, however flawed our motives. To the person cared for it is the gesture that makes the pain bearable, life somehow worth living:
No revolution will come in time
to alter this man’s life
except the one surprise
of being loved.
SIDNEY CARTER
But the most important message is the unspoken one to the world at large: that this ‘dead loss to society’, this dying woman or handicapped man, is infinitely precious. If I as a doctor spend an hour of my clinic time talking to a woman who has only a few weeks to live, I am making a clear statement of her worth. I am giving her time that could have been spent with people who will get better, who will be able to contribute once again to the common good. I am affirming the worth of the individual person in a world in which the individual is at risk of being submerged or valued only for his strength, intellect or beauty. It is a prophetic statement about the unique value of the human person, irrespective of age, social class or productivity. It is an affirmation that people matter just because they are people, because God made them and loves them, just as they are, not because they are good or witty or physically beautiful.
We isolate the handicapped on the pretext that they will disturb the peace – when the reality is that their presence disturbs our desire for the beautiful. We isolate our dying on the pretext that they want peace – when the reality is that their presence disturbs our sense of omnipotence and immortality.
Meanwhile there will always be those who find themselves called like Mary of Bethany to disturb the peace by pouring out over some dead loss to society that which could have been sold for three hundred denarii.
SHARING THE DARKNESS SHEILA CASSIDY
Scripture Reading
ST JOHN 12:1–8
‘“You do not always have me.”’
Prayer
Generous God –
as you pour your anointing Spirit on us
so may we pour out your love
on those we will meet today;
may we demonstrate by what we say and what we are,
that all are valued and precious in your sight
because