What is...the one thing necessary...?

the one thing necessary…

Summer is in full swing…ordinary time rouses itself day to day like a stretching cat. The Church is like the bride turning her wedding ring every which way to catch every facet of the diamond her spouse put on her finger. She is wedded, and her beloved is away. Every Sunday liturgy is another facet of the diamond she wears to keep his presence ever in mind. What is that ring that keeps her bonded to him? During the waiting time one must be faithful…full of faith. All the readings are presenting aspects of that faithfulness.

We lose something precious in English translation of the Greek word for faith. It means much more than “intellectual assent.” The word in Greek is pistis and it means “to adhere to, as with glue; to cling, to hang on.” What marvelous meaning comes when we realize that faith is like a magnet on a refrigerator door…it keeps us so pressed to God that it takes quite a pull to dislodge us! Go to your refrigerator door, and physically try to pry one of your magnets loose. Enter into the “pull” that fights your effort to remove it. Then sit down to pray, and enter that same sense. The magnet does not have eyes to see the refrigerator. You do not see the God you cling to. But like the magnet, you know where you need to be.

Then the community, through its creed and scriptures, offers content for that bond. In your baptism your Creator took you for better or for worse in a relationship sealed with blood. In your confirmation you confirmed that choice on your part. In your marriage vows you “sign” this mysterious marriage of the Word with our human genome for all to see. In your religious vows you witness that all your breathing, every blink of your eyes, every heartbeat, is an act of worship to the primary Lover of us all.

Yes, we are all wedded. To be mindful of it is the one thing necessary.

                                                           My Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer,

             My Shepherd, my Guest, my God,

       I search for you day and night,

                                    My soul longs for you like a dry and weary land without water.

                                Yet all the while that I search in the protective blindness of my faith

         You grasp me and will never let me go.

           Teach me to rest in You

           As the fish rests in the water.

          Calm me as I fight against the very faith that protects me from your beauty.

            For to catch but a glimpse of you would make me like a moth before the flame.

        I would be useless to you for the task you have given me.

       Fill me with yourself.

        Then I will be fruitful…giving birth to the peace and justice of your reign.

                   Teach me that my inseparable bond with you is

           The one thing necessary.