Bible reading
"… as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing
in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with
that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’ As in my anger I swore, ‘They
will not enter my rest.’”
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of
you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,”
so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first
confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as
in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3. 7 – 15)
Meditation
In Deuteronomy 30 we read of Moses saying to the
Israelites, “today … I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses”
and exhorting them to “choose life.” Similarly, in our reading from Hebrews we
have heard that, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts …” Later
on in Hebrews we read that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever” but the emphasis here is on today.
One reason for this emphasis is that, as Simon Small has
written, “There is always only now. It is the only place that God can be found.”
Each moment we are alive is unique and unrepeatable. As songwriter, VictoriaWilliams, has put it: “This moment will never come again / I know it because it
has never been before.” We live in the present. Therefore, we can only
encounter God in this moment, in the here and now, today.
Jean Pierre de Caussade was a French Jesuit priest and
writer known for his work Abandonment to
Divine Providence and his work with Nuns of the Visitation in Nancy,
France. De Caussade coined a phrase to describe what we have just been talking
about. He called it ‘The Sacrament of the Present Moment,' which “refers to
God's coming to us at each moment, as really and truly as God is present in the
Sacraments of the Church ... In other words, in each moment of our lives God is
present under the signs of what is ordinary and mundane. Only those who are
spiritually aware and alert discover God's presence in what can seem like nothing
at all. This keeps us from thinking and behaving as if only grand deeds and
high flown sentiments are 'Godly'. Rather, God is equally present in the small
things of life as in the great. God is there in life's daily routine, in dull
moments, in dry prayers ... There is nothing that happens to us in which God
cannot be found. What we need are the eyes of faith to discern God as God comes
at each moment - truly present, truly living, truly attentive to the needs of
each one.” (Elizabeth Ruth Obbard, Life in God's NOW, New City, 2012)
Simon Small has noted, however, that “Our minds find
paying full attention to now very difficult. This is because our minds live in
time. Our thoughts are preoccupied with past and future, and the present moment
is missed.” He goes on to say that, ‘To pay profound attention to reality is
prayer, because to enter the depths of this moment is to encounter God ...
Contemplative prayer is the art of paying attention to what is’ (Simon Small,
'From the Bottom of the Pond', O Books, 2007). In saying this, he echoes de
Caussade’s idea of the sacrament of the present moment and the thinking of SimoneWeil who said that, ‘absolute unmixed attention is prayer.’ All these confirm
the thought in Hebrews that today is the moment for encounter with God.
Prayer
Lord God, our thoughts are often preoccupied with past
and future, meaning that we miss the present moment. Enable us to realise the
uniqueness of each passing moment which is unrepeatable. Enable us
to live in the sacrament of the present moment by giving absolute unmixed attention
to the reality of what is in the here and now. Today, may we hear your voice in the sacrament of the present moment.
Lord God, give us the eyes of faith to discern you as you
come at each moment - truly present, truly living, truly attentive to the needs
of each one. May we discern you in what is ordinary and mundane, in the small
things of life as in the great, in life's daily routine, in dull moments, and in
dry prayers. Today, may we hear your voice in
the sacrament of the present moment.
Lord God, keep us from thinking and behaving as if only
grand deeds and high flown sentiments are 'Godly'. Teach us to value the doing
of small, mundane actions recognising that you are equally present in the small
things of life as in the great. Enable us to show your love through our actions
as we do our common business wholly for the love of you. Today, may we hear your voice in the sacrament of the present moment.
Blessing
Realising the uniqueness of each passing moment, hearing
God’s voice today, living in the present moment, discovering God’s presence in
the here and now. May those blessings of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.
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The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning.
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The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning.
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