In moments of awareness we discover the soul

"If all hearts were open and all desires known - as they would be if people showed their souls - how many gapings, sighings, clenched fists, knotted brows, broad grins, and red eyes should we see in the market-place!" Thomas Hardy

Revelations can happen at the most unexpected time, especially when the eyes of the heart are open to God. Last night was an example.

After a special dinner at the shore with our oldest friends, four of us walked the two blocks to where our car was parked.

Ever the entrepreneurs, my friend Rose and my husband, Frank, stood on the street corner for a few moments discussing the possible profit margin of a newly built set of condominiums. Her husband John and I stood by the car watching in awe as a fiery sun drew ribbons of molten light through thick purple clouds.

"The promise of eternity in a sunset," John mused quietly. When I turned to look at him, he was smiling broadly at the vision he was encountering, as if it were the very first time he had seen so breathtaking a sight. I was not surprised.

During the more than thirty years of our friendship, I had learned that John possessed the soul of a poet, a depth I wasn't sure many people had been privileged to see.

Tonight, with his awareness of the divine so obvious, he seemed a far cry from the often times "distracted" young man of years ago who had one day run into his future father-in-law's house with his future father-in-law's car.

It happened one fine evening when Eddie French asked John to back the car out of the driveway to make room for another visitor. Eager to oblige and make a good impression, John promptly made his way to the car, put the vehicle in reverse and proceeded to smash into the foundation of the house. The building shook, plates fell off the wall. Twenty minutes passed and John could still not bring himself to get out of the sorely mangled car, knowing no words could ever makes sense of what had just happened.

Finally, Eddie strolled out of the house, walked up to the driver's side of the car and said through the open window, "I just have one question."

"What's that?" John muttered sheepishly.

After a serious pause, Eddie asked, "How fast was the house going?"

It was a moment of grace, a moment of compassion, a moment of forgiveness, and a moment that John would never forget!!

Perhaps it was one of those moments, like a shared sunset, that allowed John to "see" a little more deeply into the man who could have berated him severely for his carelessness but chose instead to reveal a soft spot in his nature.

Sometimes, in a privileged moment of honesty, trust and vulnerability, we are blessed with an experience of insight into the true nature of another person. This is a moment to treasure and one for which we should be attentive, because to reveal to another even a small part of our true selves, to make known our deepest desires or greatest fears, is to make ourselves vulnerable as Christ was vulnerable.

It was at Gethsemane that Jesus revealed the depth of his love and faithfulness, as well as the true agony of a fear that caused his soul to be "sorrowful even unto death" - but his friends slept.

To share in such moments with another person is to experience God, but we need to keep the eyes of our heart open so we don't miss the revelation.

____________________________________

Mary Morrell is the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers and several reflection journals available through the Metuchen Office of Religious Education.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religioius Education, 732 562-1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

awareness

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