Devotion for today: A vision in the subway

Scripture for meditation: Acts 17:28
…for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'

Scripture for reflection: Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Caryll Houselander tells us: I was in an underground train, a crowed train in which all sorts of people jostled together, sitting and strap-hanging workers of every description, going home at the end of the day. Quite suddenly I saw with my mind, but as vividly as a wonderful picture, Christ in them all. But I saw more than that; not only was Christ in every one of them, living in them, dying in them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them – but because He was in them, and because they were here, the whole world was here too, here in this underground train; not only the world as it was at that moment, not only all the people in all the countries of the world, but all those  people who had lived in the past and all those yet to come.  I came out into the street and walked for a long time in crowds. It was the same here, on every side, in every passerby, everywhere – Christ… The “vision” lasted with that intensity for several days…. It altered the course of my life completely.  Christ is everywhere; in Him every kind of life has a meaning and has an influence on every other kind of life. It is not the foolish sinner like myself, running about the world with reprobates and feeling magnanimous, who comes closest to them and brings them healing; it is the contemplative in her cell who has never set eyes on them, but in whom Christ fasts and prays for them - or it may be a charwoman in whom Christ makes Himself a servant again or a king whose crown of hides a crown of thorns. Realization of our oneness in Christ is the only cure for human loneliness. For me, too, it is the only ultimate meaning of life, the only thing that gives meaning and purpose to every life. Caryll Houselander: Essential Writings, edited by Wendy M. Wright.

Prayer: Looking  for God in all the wrong places

I searched for God in my heart, not quite convinced

I’d find anything of worth or holy there.
And I was right – or so I thought.

I looked for God in my home with greater doubt

the Lord of Hosts would dwell amid such messy madness,
no matter how great the joy or strong the bonds of love.
And sure enough the Lord eluded me again – or so I believed.

So I took my quest to fields afar, confident the farther I went,

the more desolate the desert,the starker my surroundings,
the greater my chances of finding the One
who alone could make me whole.

I climbed each sacred mountain,

I fasted and prayed and offered sacrifices before various altars at sundry shrines.
I chanted, sang or kept silent, doing works of charity along the way
 – all to no avail.

Tired, sad and discouraged I gave up my quest

And mourned the passing of a dream.
Then a child, curious, poor,
Watched me – and smiled.
A woman, too, older than the hills, nodded approval.

So I gave the child my dream, and handed the crone

My empty, broken heart…
And in that instant
Angels filled the sanctuary and rocked the Temple with their eternal
“Holy, holy, holy!” – Joseph R. Veneroso, M.M. from God in Unexpected Places.
(Both of the above selections were taken from A maryknoll Book of Inspiration, Michael Leach and Doris GHoodnough, Editors, Orbis Books, Ny 2010)

My thoughts: There was a song out several years ago which contained the line “I was looking for love in all the wrong places….” How appropriate that is for so many of us! Although the poet in the above passage searched for love throughout the world, he found it in the child and woman on the street. Caryll Houselander sat staring at the people on a subway and saw the love of her life existing in them. Christ is love; He is not filled with love, nor is he willing to display love. He is love. Christ, as love, fills every single person of the world, whether they choose to recognize it or not. And this is true whether we choose to recognize this fact or not. Rich is not more worthy; elite is not more worthy; far and exotic is not more worthy. Christ is found in the poorest of the poor, in the oldest of the old, and in the neediest of the needy, just as much as He is found  in you and me. Now it is our choice. We can keep love, which is Christ, buried in our hearts; we can search endlessly for a way to experience love, which is God, in the world, or we can simply look at the person next to us, and say, “Good morning! I hope you have a lovely day.” Talk about angels rocking the temple (or the subway)!!