You have been invited to meet
The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices
To just two:
We can come to God
Dressed for Dancing,
Or
Be carried on a stretcher
To God’s Ward.
The opening poem entitled, The Invitation, written by the Persian poet Hafiz describes perhaps a turning point in life…what we are faced with at this very moment…the time of anticipation…waiting. In the Christian tradition this is the season of Advent, so beautifully welcomed by our opening music…literally Mary walked through a forest of thorns. Clearly, if we think of the story of Mary, an unwed mother, this is an apt metaphor.
Our current Advent moment is, I think, no less gripping than Mary’s situation. It is indeed an invitation to meet the friend. To connect with the all-pervading presence. Hafiz says that we have two choices…to come Dressed for Dancing…or be carried on a stretcher to God’s Ward. The symbol of Mary walking through a forest of thorns…bearing God…amid the contradictions and strife…amid the fear and anticipation of danger of her times…seems to resonate with our own times. She was Dressed for Dancing…and was not carried on a stretcher. This may be the power of this story right now. Howard Thurman put it like this:
The Madonna and Child conception suggests that the growing edge of human life,
the hope of every generation, is in the birth of the child.
The stirring of the child in the womb is the perennial sign of man's attack on bigotry, blindness, prejudice, greed, hate, and all the host of diseases
that make of man's life a nightmare and a holocaust.
A nightmare and a holocaust…Those are the words I was searching for when I thought of our current reality in this country and indeed in the world. The horrors of war…of poverty…of climate change and the loss and degradation of the natural world…of creation. Thurman says that it is the stirring of the child in the womb that symbolizes our attack on these diseases and hounds of hell. The hope of a child is a powerful symbol…of symbol of possibility and hope…of anticipation of joy…the first and third candle of the advent wreath…the second and fourth of which are peace and love. We will need all of these symbols in the days ahead…in order to welcome God into our hearts and minds…into our midst
Hafiz continues his consideration of this invitation we can extend to the divine…
The tide of my love
Has risen so high let me flood over
You.
Close your eyes for a moment
And maybe all your fears and fantasies
Will end.
If that happened
God would become an infant in your
Arms
And then you
Would have to nurse all
Creation!
Let us take a moment to envision this tide of love…envision it rising so high that it floods over us. If we prepare ourselves for this wave…this flood of divine love, we may be able to let go of the debilitating fears…the limiting fantasies of the future and rest in the here and now…in the reality of the present moment…in this case in the forest…
The peace of the present moment is a powerful reminder that we are, all of us, potential birthers of this infant…we are all equipped to hold that infant in our arms and nurse all creation. This is the hope of the seed…the seed in Mary’s womb and all seeds. I am reminded of a book by the Catholic mystic, Thomas Merton entitled, New Seeds of Contemplation. Of these seeds he wrote:
Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in their soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and will of people. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because people are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.
Merton spent a lot of time in contemplation…something that most of us do not have time for. Yet, as we just experienced, it doesn’t take a lot of time to pause…to contemplate the present moment…and this is the time…the time to set aside such moments…moments that can invite the seeds of spiritual vitality that will be needed in the days ahead. Merton says that the seeds cannot germinate except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love. The recognition of this truth is vital to our understanding of how to proceed. Without the freedom and spontaneity of love, there will be no growth.
An ancient Jewish text states:
Every Blade of Grass Has Its Angel
that Bends Over It and Whispers,
‘Grow, Grow.'
Recognizing the existence of the angel is comforting. It is the angel that is perhaps the midwife…welcoming the possibility of hope…the anticipation of joy. It is the angel that accompanies us on our journey…
Everywhere I go…we are never left alone…there is always the potential to connect with the divine that we have invited in. Everywhere I touch…all around our home…there’s an angel there.
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
May we take the divine presence up on the Invitation and may we give God and the Angels our hand, that we will not be alone in the days ahead. And may we realize our ability to Dress for Dancing that this dance may lead us through the forest of thorns that awaits. May we take inspiration, hope, peace, joy and love from the powerful example of Mahalia Jackson and may we get over with the help of the angels…
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