Christ as Lyrical
Gleanings.
Reading and savoring, over many months now, a beautiful and meditative commentary on the Gospels by a Cistercian monk named Father Simeon (Erasmo) Leiva-Merikakis. Today I was quite taken with his description of Christ as lyrical.
Christ as lyrical. I don't always think of Jesus this way. Often the Sermon on the Mount seems no more than a list of admonitions to my eye and ear - the result of having heard them so many times with the self-delusionary certitude that I actually HEARD them.
The passage I was reading asked me to ‘consider’. Father Simeon points out that this word in Greek is far more nuanced than the English meaning. The word means "cast a long glance at" - A long glance. And the thing we are asked to cast a long glance at are the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. We are also commanded not to be anxious - we are told quite emphatically not to worry.
Not to worry about worldly things. What we are to eat. What we are to wear. Adding to the portfolio. Being the most 'in the know' mom at the parent meeting. Maintaining an image underneath of which we quake at being found out as an imposter. Depending way too much on what others think of us for our daily happiness.Being the perfect one. Never making mistakes. Seeking to maintain our precarious position in the inner ring of a popular figure. Worrying if we have offended. Worrying why people act as they do. Worrying why we didn't say something when we should have. Worrying that we said too much. Worrying about our children's future. Worrying about our past. We have no end to the list. Our worries are legion.
Anxiety. Worry. Jesus says to STOP it. But how? How do we stop it?
His answer is simply 'look out'. Look out beyond the world of men and its dealings. Consider - cast a long glance at - the sparrows, the lilies of the field. The word here is long. Spend enough time away from the world of men to find out where your place is in the universe. Learn how to linger in it. We are not alone. We are surrounded by an entire creation of which we are only a part, albeit a beloved and important part to God. It puts us in perspective. And perspective melts anxiety.
We are not created by a machine that spits us out. We are not man made. We are created by a God that thinks in lilies. In colors that we try our best to imitate but never quite can. We were created by a God who thinks the birds of the air into existence so our spirits might contemplate and understand the freedom of being unfettered when watching them fly. A God who gave us touch that we might feel water running over our feet after a long, hot hike. He created squirrels who chase their tales round and round until we laugh out loud and wonder if that is what we look like in seeking happiness where it cannot be found. He created wind. Just that alone is marvelous. The sound it makes in the trees which seem to whisper lovely secrets to each other. The feel of wind on skin.
If we consider with a long glance and actually spend time immersed in the created world, we discover who God really is and who we are not. We are not that important. We are not vital. We are not necessary. But we are children. His children. And all this creation is for us, so we will know what it means to be His child. That He is creative. kind. makes us laugh at ourselves. enfolds us in beauty if we will only let Him. And we find through this long unhurried glance, that His beauty casteth out anxiety. It is the antidote. It speaks to us like a song. It is the voice of the lyrical Christ.
Jesus weaves this loveliness around us through His living word that is as new right this moment as it was to the ears of all who sat on that hillside. Father Simeon says it better than I can. When I read this the first time I was sitting in a Holy Hour that began with worrying about many things. It did not end that way because Jesus wove a garden all around my heart by simply asking me "to consider". Thank you Father Simeon.
"....ah, the sweet persuasiveness of the Lord's approach: all of this makes not only for an unsurpassable lyricism, it represents nothing less than God, in his Word, at work building up suddenly - around the distrust and skepticism of our gray spirit - a paradise of delight, and Eden of color, burgeoning life, freedom of flight, carelessness of song....Jesus is attempting to persuade our soul of the dazzling glory, the enchanting beauty that attends poverty of spirit, another name for the freedom enjoyed by the children of God"
-Father Simeon Leiva-Merikakis
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