“Sacramental Moments”

After the Russians sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space, Nikita Khrushchev claimed that though Gagarin had looked, he hadn’t seen God ‘up there’. Maybe that was because Khrushchev was expecting God in the wrong place – ‘up there’ not ‘here’ ‘now’ ‘in me’. In our lives there are moments when something greater shines through our physical and emotional world. Wonder, awe and love can overcome us at the birth of a child, the gesture of a grandchild, a tree or any of the myriad of things that can expand our mind, heart or vision. These are ‘sacramental moments’. The physical world becomes a doorway to the divine. As Catholics we treasure the physical so much that in our communal prayer, the Sacraments, we use the most basic things, water, bread, wine, oil, words, gestures, to convey the reality of God’s love.

So why aren’t we overwhelmed by the reality of God’s presence. We’ll maybe we are. Maybe we go through life like owls in the noonday sun, blinded by the light. Our ‘sacramental moments’ are when we notice a glimmer. Those moments we should treasure and ponder so that we can notice more often the God in whom we live move and have our being. We need to stop looking for God ‘out there’ and affirm the divine presence ‘here’ ‘now’ ‘in me’.

Loving God, in you we live, move and have our being. Send us your Spirit that we may relax into your presence and see you shining in the ordinary things of life. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb