God in the Familiar
Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
August 23, 2017
“O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (BCP, Collect for Proper 9, p. 230-31)
We often hear in church a call to stretch ourselves, to reach
out beyond our previous limits, and practice pure love or charity by welcoming
and serving those most unlike us. But
it is important to note that in addition to this, the Prayer Book and scripture
talk regularly about the gentle natural love or kindness we feel for the
familiar, affection. This can be for
people regularly about us, but also for familiar objects, pets, and
activities. One story from the Desert
Fathers tells of an elder making a rope who is asked: “What
must one do to be saved?” Without looking up from his work, he replies: “You
are looking at it.”
God in the familiar is as important as,
if not more important than, God in the overwhelmingly strange. All creation comes from God, and God is in
evidence in all his works. “In Him we
live and move and have our being” says St. Paul (Acts 17:28). The reassurance we feel at the neighbor
greeting us from over the fence, at the dog who licks our hand or curls up at
our feet, or the gentle (or not-so-gentle) snores of our life companion in bed
next to us—all these little bursts of affection are actually our souls
responding joyfully to reflections of the Creator in creation.
Life in the Church usually is marked by
affection (Greek: storgé) and family-like love (Greek: phileia). In the degree that our common life is filled
with these feelings, it is a sign of the God’s presence in creation When the kindness we feel for each other
through familiarity is stressed because of bad behavior or puzzling and
challenging difference, we see the limits of natural affection. This is the time when our faith requires us
to lean on pure love or charity (Greek: agape).
Often described as a “supernatural” (above-and-beyond-things-present-at-birth)
gift of God, such love transcends our desire to have our needs met and is
embodied in a disposition of the will to work good in the life of another
person.
That said, we must remember that natural
affection itself is a gift of God in creation.
Being with friends or family, and truly being with them, counts. The spiritual practice of focusing on the
task at hand, even if the task at hand is merely keeping silence, of losing
oneself in the present moment, of “being present,” helps us experience the joy
and peace that come from being aware that we are in God’s presence.
Grace and peace.
--Fr. Tony+
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