A man goes to the doctor and says, 鈥淒octor, you鈥檝e got to help me. If I touch my arm, I feel a terrible pain. If I touch my leg, same thing. If I touch my head, fierce pain. What can I do?鈥�
鈥淚 think I can help you,鈥� the doctor says. 鈥淵ou have a broken finger.鈥�
Sometimes we are the broken finger as we react to the world around us. Everything we see is a problem. Everything we encounter needs fixing. Everyone else is imperfect.
鈥淵our love has a broken wing if it cannot fly across the sea,鈥� said Maltbie Davenport Babcock, 19thcentury American poet and clergyman. Consider also this quote: 鈥淭ime is the longest distance between two points鈥�. These two quotes set me thinking.
Love and time are not separated. Picture Jesus Christ, a naked scapegoat nailed to a man-made wooden cross. Abhorrent with our sins which he took upon himself, it seemed even heaven abandoned him at that hour.
Yet he did this for you and for me. He absorbed our sin, purifying us so we could rise with a resurrection joy. Yet how often can our love not even reach across the table to a family member? To a spouse? Our love should reach across the sea, to the refugee and the persecuted.
A journalist asked Pope Francis, 鈥淲ho are you?鈥� The Pope鈥檚 simple response, 鈥淚 am a sinner. I am a sinner.鈥� But what the Pope went on to say afterwards was critical: 鈥淚 am a sinner saved by God's love.鈥�
In a homily entitled 鈥淚 am a Sinner鈥� Father Brendan McGuire says, 鈥淭hat is our starting place - God's love. When we come to our own personal prayer and can honestly say to God: 鈥楲ord, I am a sinner. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your grace.鈥欌��
Then a grace will come upon us, McGuire says. Then we will be able to serve in kindness. We will be a part of God鈥檚 kingdom of love and forgiveness.
Perhaps the two funerals I attended this past weekend are making me think of finalities, but time and love are what age is all about. Sometimes realizations hit those who are old. As you grow older, may you be 鈥淕od-smacked鈥� 鈥� beyond flabbergasted.
Gratitude is the hallmark of age. 鈥淭hose who are awake live in a constant state of amazement鈥� -Jack Kornfield.
鈥淲hoever does not see God in every place does not see God in any place.鈥� 鈥揜abbi Elimelech.
And while I have the time to share another gem from Ralph Waldo Emerson, 鈥淭o know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.鈥�
St Theresa of Lisieux said, 鈥淲ith love, not only do I go forward, I fly.鈥�
