Glimpses of Beauty (midweek)

Glimpses of Beauty

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

February 22, 2017

As I write, it is snowing heavily in Ashland, and the heavy bright snow and icy slush are accumulating on the ground ever deeper.  Earlier in last week, we saw rainstorms in sunshine, and multiple rainbows each day.  Then on Friday morning, as the sun was breaking out bright and glorious in the East by Pompadour and Pilot Rocks, the rain continued heavy.  From where I was at my house, I could see no rainbow, because the rain was between me and the sun.  But suddenly I realized:  people at Mountain Meadows, or up on the hills east of the city, looking toward us, would have seen a glorious rainbow.  In fact, our house would have been at the proverbial pot of gold where the rainbow touched the earth.  It was all a matter of perspective, of the place from where you were looking. 

 As we prepare to begin Lent next week, it is important to reflect on the beauty in our life, on the scenes where we see God’s hand at work, or at least which give us grounds for thanks and hope.    All creation, ourselves included, comes from our loving God, and God’s beauty and love is reflected in us and the world.  If we have distorted the image of God in us—and we all in one degree or another do distort God’s image in us—or if we have abused creation, sometimes we find ourselves in a place where it is hard to see the light and beauty of God.  But again, it is all a matter of perspective.  Looked at from another angle, that rainbow might just be surrounding us.

Lent helps us change perspectives, to see clearly the distortions, but also to see the light of God, sometimes hidden but ever present in us and others.  Our Lenten communal practice this year at Trinity “Finding our Voice” is to try to help us find our own grounding, and be able to tell our own stories of faith, thanks, and hope so that we might help ourselves and others change perspectives and see beauty more clearly too. 

Coming to Church, hearing the old, old stories, regular prayer and meditation, and receiving the Holy Eucharist—these all are ways to help us shift perspectives.  The following poem by Mary Oliver describes it well. 

The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist
By Mary Oliver

Something has happened
to the bread
and the wine.

They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward

to receive the gift
from the priest’s hand,
then the chalice.

They are something else now
from what they were
before this began.

I want
to see Jesus
maybe in the clouds

or on the shore,
just walking,
beautiful man

and clearly
someone else
besides.

On the hard days
I ask myself
if I ever will.

Also there are times
my body whispers to me
that I have.

Grace and peace,  Fr. Tony+