Dear Friends,
I was headed to lunch in downtown Omaha this past week with Dave and Diana Neubauer. Driving down Farnam street as we approached the construction on the new Mutual of Omaha building, we witnessed two portable latrines take off from the ground and fly through the air as they were being hoisted to their new location higher up in the tower construction. Dave chuckled and said, “Well there is something you wouldn’t see in small town Iowa, flying toilets.” He said he started a list of encounters, when he first moved to Omaha, of things you wouldn’t see in Ogden, Iowa. While you might see a construction outhouse in small town Iowa, you would rarely see them fly.
Sometimes seeing unusual sights requires us to be in the right place at the right time. And, sometimes, being able to see unusual sights requires us to be still and focused on what God is regularly doing but we are too busy to notice. Both really are spiritual disciplines – being in the right places at the right times and being still enough to truly see.
Much of Scripture, through stories of the holy ones and through the prophets, admonishes us, “Wait! Be silent!” However, we humans tend to be in a hurry and when we are in a hurry we lose sight of God. Indeed, isn’t it restless, noisy hurriedness that most often leads us to unwanted places? We don’t listen well and overlook the real questions and miss real responses; we write down questions incorrectly and end up with inappropriate answers; we rush through problems and skip steps in our eagerness to come to a conclusion. Along the way we get off track and cannot quite seem to pin down why. We are in a rush to grab what often ends up being inadequate. In our urgency we also leap over the momentous experience of seeing God himself.
How many times did God reach out to his people but they were too busy to notice? Think of how Jesus came into our world the first time and how he promised to continue to come into our world to this very day. Today, in our speedy trajectory towards an uncharted future, many have forgotten that God still promises that he is present – if we but slow down and listen, if we could just see.
The recent solar eclipse reminded me of other celestial occurrences where I needed to be in the right place at the right time. Halley’s Comet, for example. Back in 1986, if you looked into the western sky on a dark night you could see the heavenly blur that was the comet. It will not be seen again until 2061. If you never took the time to get away from the brightness of city lights, then the comet never became part of your experience, even though it was there. The full experience of the solar eclipse required us to be in those parts of the country where the moon fully blocked the sun. From downtown Omaha it was not even as dark as a hefty cloud makes it. The eclipse in 2017 required just a short trip south to experience darkness in the middle of the day. Right place, right time, patient waiting to see.
For disciples of Jesus the practices of stillness, of waiting, of seeing beyond first appearances, of spending time preparing for holy encounters, and of regular prayer bring us to the point where God’s presence can be easily encountered. Sometimes the encounter is brief and light and other times it will be deep and long.
Things you wouldn’t see…unless your spirit is ready. Maybe you should make a list of yours.
Peace,
Fr. Damian