Saturday, March 03, 2007
From AscensionNYC
Saturday in the First Week of Lent
Psalm 119:1-8
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew 5:43-48
"Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord," the 119th Psalm begins. I can't claim a blameless life, but as it rolls on, I do perceive more clearly the blessings our Friend bestows on those who seek him with their whole heart.
During my recent illness, I knew that the Lord couldn't come to my bedside, phone me, or send me a note to comfort me. But of course I needed him, sought him with my whole heart, searching for acknowledgment a sign that he even knew who I was ("Let's see, Collins, Collins"), let alone what I was going through.
I know now that he trusted you, my friends and fellow parishioners, to carry out that work for him each time I found one of you at my bedside, or in a note, or on the phone, or I thought of you intoning the Prayers of the People, I felt he was there with me through you.
I know that he relies on all of us to embody the truth that God is love, and we are conduits of that love when we reach out to comfort, reassure and support one another. Because he made the point to me time and time again, sending many friends to look after me, cheer me on, and pray for me, I'm welcoming the year 2001 with a special understanding of that charge, anticipating a change for the better in my spiritual as well as my physical health.
Of course I'll keep on trying to live a blameless life, no doubt failing miserably from time to time. But when I think of myself as a conduit of his love for all of us, and that I worship alongside others ennobled by the same responsibility, my whole heart is his indeed. And the task of living a blameless life seems less and less remote a possibility.
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew
"Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord," the 119th Psalm begins. I can't claim a blameless life, but as it rolls on, I do perceive more clearly the blessings our Friend bestows on those who seek him with their whole heart.
During my recent illness, I knew that the Lord couldn't come to my bedside, phone me, or send me a note to comfort me. But of course I needed him, sought him with my whole heart, searching for acknowledgment a sign that he even knew who I was ("Let's see, Collins, Collins"), let alone what I was going through.
I know now that he trusted you, my friends and fellow parishioners, to carry out that work for him each time I found one of you at my bedside, or in a note, or on the phone, or I thought of you intoning the Prayers of the People, I felt he was there with me through you.
I know that he relies on all of us to embody the truth that God is love, and we are conduits of that love when we reach out to comfort, reassure and support one another. Because he made the point to me time and time again, sending many friends to look after me, cheer me on, and pray for me, I'm welcoming the year 2001 with a special understanding of that charge, anticipating a change for the better in my spiritual as well as my physical health.
Of course I'll keep on trying to live a blameless life, no doubt failing miserably from time to time. But when I think of myself as a conduit of his love for all of us, and that I worship alongside others ennobled by the same responsibility, my whole heart is his indeed. And the task of living a blameless life seems less and less remote a possibility.
Dave Collins (2001)
