Sunday, September 26, 2021
An Intimate Neighbor
God is the most intimate neighbor of the soul; no other power can creep so close to the heart and tangle itself so cunningly with the roots of our desire . . . Man, in other words, was made for love, the diviner part of him for divine love. By sin is all this love dried up. The parched and thirsty soul feels, therefore, the need of the dew of God, and rushes madly as the beasts that wander in the jungle looking for the water they cannot find . . . When I am feeling particularly the loneliness of life, perhaps the cause is that I lean too little upon God; perhaps it is that my sins will not let me feel that inward presence that is the sole real source of peace here below. I was created for Love by love, and when by sin I act contrary to Love, my heart must necessarily feel his absence.
This is a portion of the MAGNIFICAT Meditation for September 2 written by Father Bede Jarrett, a Dominican priest from England known for his lectures and writings on theology and spirituality. Jarrett’s words ask us to look more deeply at Jeremiah 46 through 51, these oracles that pronounce doom against many peoples who had turned from God to become self-worshipers. It is a litany of many ancient nations and yet today we might substitute individual names, the names of neighborhoods, sects, or communities of any kind. We might even insert our own name into this list on days when we have gone too far into the world of darkness that so quietly, softly and persistently calls. Blessedly, we also have an intimate friend, an intimate neighbor who calls more persistently than darkness; yet we so often forgot this force for compassion and justice in the hubbub of the day and the weariness of the night.
When we feel parched and thirsty, let us depend on the dew of God’s word and learn to lean on God a little more rather than a little less. In this time of the solar year when days and nights are nearly equal in length, let us balance our lives and review this litany of those who have condemned themselves by their own actions. As we move from one season to another, let us turn to God who is our most intimate neighbor of the soul, and let us remind ourselves and one another that . . . perhaps we lean too little upon God.
Adapted from a reflection written on September 7, 2010.
Cameron, Peter John, ed. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 7.9 (2010). Print.
Image from: http://breakopenword.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-fourth-sunday-after-epiphany-3.html
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