WATCHWORD:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
Meditation:
God in a Mask
Today, everyone is wearing a mask, or should be. When we wear a mask, we may find breathing a little more labored, sometimes we consider it quite a nuisance. But in this day and age we need to embrace this new normal, even though it is temporary. We have seen other people trying to have fun with masks with all kinds of sayings, sports teams, etc., and I think, that’s the spirit!
The mask is a good symbol because it represents distancing and barriers. In a time of pandemic, the threat posed by another person in terms of spreading the virus takes on exaggerated importance and threatens to counterbalance the opportunity for human connection. We have to be trained to look at the world through the eyes of a germ-a-phobe. We keep our distance and we don’t shake hands, but the mask goes even further than that.
Think how much communication is nonverbal. Your expression often says more, and says it more eloquently, than your words could ever express. It makes a big difference smiling when they talk, or frowning, or even snarling. The differences are subtle but unmistakable, and the more you know someone, the more you can read ever- so-slight ‘tells’ of their mood, just by looking at them. With the mask, we have to go by their words, and we should all take care with the words we use.
The problems with people wearing masks illustrates a spiritual problem we sometimes have in our relationship to God. We get the communication of content without sensing genuine connection. Since The Fall, nobody can look on God and live. So, God interacts with us from behind masks. He cares for us behind the mask of doctors and nurses, caregivers and parents. From behind the mask of jobs and difficulties that we overcome. From the mask of friendships expressed in so many ways. He teaches us and loves us from infancy. He protects us from enemies behind the mask of government. Only by knowing the person behind the mask can we properly understand our own interactions, with God and with other people. So be it.
Bulletin Board:
I don’t think I would be too far off if I were to speculate that each of us has an anniversary date that represents a loved one who is with the Lord. I was reminded of this by a loved one whose mother, Edith, passed away five years ago, yesterday. For her, November 22 has deep and emotional meaning. We each have a date that carries the same precious meaning, whether in November, or March, or July, or January, makes no difference, when that day arrives we honor our loved ones with memories of their life and ours, together. We know with all of our being that that life changed ours, and in a real sense prepared us to live the life that God intended for us. So we honor our dearly loved one with memories every year on that day.
“i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)”
― e. e. cummings
Closing Prayer:
Dear Father God, I come before You with a grateful heart for the many blessing that You bestow on us day by day, and praise You that Your mercies are new every morning and You have provided for all our needs, and more besides. You are a great and generous God. You are so good to all Your creation and have faithfully supplied all our needs, according to Your riches and grace, just as You have promised.
I love that hymn that says, “count your blessings, see what God has done,” and Father, I do count the many blessings that come from You day by day. Please forgive me for the times when I have taken for granted the many gifts and graces that come from You. I could not draw another breath unless You give me the strength, and yet moment by moment, I am being kept in Your love and sustained by Your grace. I Praise Your glorious name, for ever and ever, Amen.
