Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Thursday, June 15, 2017

A Crowd of Christs

Thursday, June 15, 2017
Sometimes we’re given special little gifts of faith and insight that cause us to see things in ways that we usually don’t see them. I was given such a gift yesterday.

I was in Boston at the bus-subway-train transportation center (South Station) and there were a lot of people going about their travels, hastening to and fro, checking schedules, grabbing a bite to eat, carrying backpacks, suitcases, carts, strollers and toddlers with them. All sorts of sizes and shapes and colors and nationalities, and I was happy to see that because living at Saint Anselm College, I rarely get to see any signs of diversity (although the situation is slowly improving).

I was very happy and content and things looked beautiful to me. People looked beautiful to me. Each person in his/her noble individuality, each with a personal history or story, none of which was known to me, people in joy or even in distress because the work of traveling is often a stressful task. And I kept noting to myself how beautiful everyone looked, and then suddenly I realized that what I was looking at was a large assortment of Christs all around me. God sent us Jesus so that in him earthly matter and divine reality could be brought together as one, and through Christ that one-ness becomes our reality as well—each of us, all the time, even though we are so often unable to realize it.

It is not a question of good or bad, of worthy or unworthy, of merit or deficiency or of anything else of that sort. No. What I was experiencing was a totality which was perfect in and of itself. There was no room for judgment or evaluation, for fault-finding or assessments. None of that figured into the particularly graced vision that was given to me as I made my way to my own destination. This was truly a gift from God.

I wish some of those who are prisoners of bigotry, or who extol divisiveness and hatred, could be given a few minutes sharing the vision I was given.  

May it be yours as well.


God bless you!

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