Blessed Assurances

[ The image which accompanies this posting is a bronze sculpture of St. Francis sending birds off into flight. I photograhed this in the chapel of Correymeela, a retreat and conference center located in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. For me it speaks of grace and redemption; a blessed assurance of God's presence within and among us]

I have been a devoted fan of Niall Williams ever since I stumbled upon his book As It Is In Heaven during my first visit to Ireland in the late ‘90s. There is a wistful search for significance and for that elusive experience of grace in his prose that I have found quite compelling. In his most recent book Only Say the Word, he writes these words:

I think that out of collapsed faith, out of hurt from the absence of response from God Himself, I write the words the way I used to say prayers, that something may happen, that the pages and their words be a kind of redemption. It is outlandish, I know. I would not say it out loud … but I want [a book] that is in fact a quiet kind of sacrament, a slow ritual of telling, of confession, say, and offering and consecration, that brings communion of a kind and grace with it."

Williams is an Irish writer who draws upon his Celtic heritage as well as the Christian traditions which he and his family practice. What the main character “Jim” is struggling with is the writing of what he describes as “a short book about love.” But really it is about coming to terms with the experiences his life journey has provided as a husband, a father, and with a sense of failing to be what he most wanted to be. So, in his writing, he is searching for redemption.

Two months ago, I turned 65, and instead of retiring, I took a new call as a parish pastor, and do not plan to retire any time soon. The number “65” used to have a certain iconic significance with respect to being over the hill, out to pasture, etc. But that is no longer the case. However, it is a benchmark in my own faith journey to look at my life in a way similar to the way Niall Williams looks at the lives of his characters and to say that I continue in the ministry “that something may happen” and thus lead me to an awareness of “a kind of redemption.” I came to the awareness while we were out in California that all of life is – or can be – sacramental. That is to say that the lives we live and the people we encounter along the way can be handled in such a way that we remember, that we reconnect with the holiness of our faith and know that we have been blessed in this life and in the people who populate these lives of ours, even when there is tragedy; even when we fail. Being blessed is not about having adorable children, a perfect golf swing, a trophy spouse. Blessings in a life that is lived sacramentally will also include, but not be limited to, heartache, loss, stress, or anxiety. The word "blessing" recognizes the existence and deity of God. It tells us that we can be aware of His existence and have inner happiness because of who and what he is, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing to his good friend Eberhard Bethge, noted that Biblical persons who received God’s blessing also endured a great deal of suffering:

“…but this never leads to the idea that fortune and suffering, blessing and cross are mutually exclusive and contradictory.”

These words were written while Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, was imprisoned by the Nazis in Tegel prison in Germany. Within a year he would be executed just weeks before the war in Europe ended. For this martyr to the Christian faith, blessing always includes the cross. The Blessed Assurances that we seek from within our faith must take into account the elements of sacrifice and suffering. Sacrament in our faith, takes the elements of life – the bread, the wine, the water – as that which God consecrates as he continuously builds on the relationship between the sacred and the profane. Like the blessing that was bestowed upon Abraham, he was blessed that through him, all nations might know of the blessings of God; we too have been blessed to make his name and his nature known beyond our little corner of the kingdom. In writing to some people who occupied powerful positions in Italy, Francis of Assisi stated:

“keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creatures. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more.Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received … but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”

Offering a blessing for anyone, even those we do not know, comes from a spiritual attitude of love and appreciation for that person. God makes the initial move towards us because of an innate attitude to love. He provides us his graciousness, his gift of salvation, his spiritual gifts, all of which are manifestations of his love towards us which we receive sacramentally. Or at least we should receive them as such. Maybe each of us in some way is writing our own “short book on love;” maybe we see this in a cathartic way as a means for redemption for all the times we have fallen short in the relationships that really matter in this life. "65" is not a bad place to be; and it is better than the alternative of not “being” anywhere! For those of you who are younger and those of you who are older, maybe this posting will help you in your own quest for redemption. We all of us have a love story to tell – or to write – and for many of us there is a need for absolution which opens us up to receive the redemptive love of God. Only then are we comfortable with where our stories are taking us, and the blessings that surround us.