Somebody to Everybody

Spirituality is about relationships. Every man, woman, and child bears to us the presence of God.

— Fr. Daniel Homan, Radical Hospitality

I heard this Reba McEntire song on the radio this morning, “Somebody”. It is about this piece of advice this guy gets about looking for someone to fall in love with.

At a diner down on Broadway they make small talk
When she brings his eggs and fills his coffee cup
He jokes about his love life
And tells her he’s ’bout ready to give up
That’s when she says,“I’ve been there before
Keep on lookin’
’Cause maybe who you’re lookin’ for is…”

Somebody in the next car
Somebody on the morning train
Somebody in the coffee shop
That you walk right by everyday
Somebody that you look at
But never really see
Somewhere out there is somebody

Across town in a crowded elevator
He can’t forget the things that waitress said
He usually reads the paper
But today he reads a stranger’s face instead
It’s that blue-eyed girl
From two floors up
Maybe she’s the one
Maybe he could fall in love with

Somebody in the next car
Somebody on the morning train
Somebody in the coffee shop
That you walk right by everyday
Somebody that you look at
But never really see
Somewhere out there
Is somebody

[Hear a clip of this song.]

—>

The song goes on for another stanza, but there is a message here. Something happened to this guy that caused him to look at other people in a new way. He did not see others as just plain old people anymore. He shifted his view of people as objects to people as individuals. He made a conscience effort to look beyond the surface, to look deeper into their humanity. He began to look for wonder and possibility and love in others.

Granted this guy was looking for someone to fall in love with, but he was moving in the right direction that all of us should be going. Jesus calls us to do this for everybody, not just for somebody that might fit our specific needs for a specific moment. We are called to remove the conditions and be unconditional. Everyone bears to us the presence of God, and we need to be open for it. We need to look for it. We need to risk reaching out for it by opening our hearts. We need to see the world in a different light, His Light, the light of the heart, not the feeble light of the created world.

“The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.” Make every effort to shift your affections from things that you can see to the things you cannot see, for people who live in the world on its terms instead of God’s, stain their conscience and lose God’s grace.

— The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 1

If you look at people and just see people, you are missing something.

Day by Day

Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee
Three things I pray:
To see Thee more clearly,
To love Thee more dearly,
To follow Thee more nearly,
Day by day.

— St. Richard of Chichester (thanks to Karen)

How Do You Greet the Morning?

Do you greet the morning sun each day with your to-do lists?
Or do you greet the sun with prayer and silence?

Do you greet the morning with clenched hands stuffed with your own devices?
Or do you greet the morning by extending an empty hand to the world and waiting for wonder to happen?

How do you greet the morning?

Mary, Our Lady

Some things to think about on this day, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary—

From Fr. Ken:

Mary, the mother of Jesus, enjoyed all the joys of being a mother.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, suffered all the sorrows of being a mother.

She accepted them both because of Jesus.

She accepted them both when she said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

From Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation:

The genuine significance of Catholic devotion to Mary is seen in the light of the Incarnation itself. The Church cannot separate the Son and the Mother. Because the Church conceives of the Incarnation as God’s descent into the flesh and into time, and His great gift of Himself to His creatures, she also believes that the one who was closest to Him in this great mystery was the one who participated most perfectly in the gift. When a room is heated by an open fire, surely there is nothing strange in the fact that those who stand closest to the fireplace are the ones who are warmest. And when God comes into the world through the instrumentality of one of His servants, then there is nothing surprising about the fact that His chosen instrument should have the greatest and most intimate share in the divine gift.

Mary, who was empty of all egotism, free from all sin, was as pure as the glass of a very clean window that has no other function than to admit the light of the sun.

Father, help us clean the windows of our hearts so that we may admit the light and love of Your Son into the world around us. Amen.

Faith’s Fishing Boat

on this deep sea of sadness
faith’s fishing boat
trawls the solemn depths
and in my nets joy collects
like slow fish
fat from feeding
in the deep darkness

— H.J. Hughes (via Raw Faith)