Saint Teresa
of Avila, the great 16th century spiritual writer and Carmelite
mystic, tells us that we are never closer to God than when we’re immersed in
the ordinary things of daily life. She wrote something that stays in my mind
everyday: “God is in the pots and the pans.”
Those three wise ones from the East, the Magi in the Gospel for
Epiphany Sunday, were searching for an earthly king in all his splendor.
Instead they found God in the helplessness of a little baby and the dirtiness
of a manger. They had an epiphany: they found God in the pots and the pans. Where
are you looking for God?
Many years ago I had an
epiphany experience of my own. I had always been a person of faith and hope but
some bad things were happening in the world. The news was filled with violence
and war, and stories about homeless people dying in the streets and children
being abducted. It seemed as if hatred and human suffering were overpowering
goodness and love. I began to ask where was God in the face of so much pain and
suffering? I could no longer see Christ present in our world. Then one day
something special happened.
It was a beautiful
October morning as I drove down Central Park West. I had been driving in early
on Saturday mornings with coffee and sandwiches looking for people who were
homeless. I spotted a disheveled young man huddled in a red sweatshirt, sitting
on a park bench, rocking back and forth and staring into space. After saying
good morning, I offered him some hot coffee, but he didn’t respond.
Sitting down on the
bench, I poured us both some coffee and placed his cup and a few cookies down
next to him. He continued to stare into space. Sipping my coffee I carried on a
one-way conversation for a while. He began to chatter in nonsense sounds to
each squirrel that ran by.
After a while his
fingers inched over to the coffee and he gulped it down as he continued
chattering with the squirrels. I finished my second cup of coffee and said
good-bye, but he still did not acknowledge my presence. Walking to the curb where
my car was parked, I kept thinking how this young man was so badly damaged in
mind and body that he probably wouldn’t survive the winter.
Lost in my own sadness,
I pulled away from the curb. As I drove down the street I glanced in my rear
view mirror. My friend had left his bench and was standing in the street waving
good-bye to me.
My eyes welled up with
tears; I realized that what I was seeing in my rear view mirror was Christ. Not
that this man was Jesus in disguise, but rather that the Christ, the presence
of God within him, in the midst of all his brokenness, was reaching out and
connecting to the Christ, the presence of God, within me. At that instant my
eyes were opened and everything made sense.
God places a little
piece of himself inside of each of us when we are born. That little piece of God is our immortal
soul. It is the Presence of Christ within us. And like those wise ones from the East, the Magi in the Gospel,
our soul is on a journey to its eternal home with God. It is a journey that must
go through and see beyond the pots and the pans of life.
But Christ is present
in those pots and the pans just as surely as he was present in the center of
that manger. It is the Christ who dwells in the depths of our being who
surprises us and fills us with hope and wonder, like he did for those wise ones
from the East, like he did for me that day in Central Park.
It is Christ who makes
it possible for us to go home by another way.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Readers
of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on
Amazon.com:
Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday
Life
Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for
Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry
http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/
