The WORD in Other Words by Fr Roderick Salazar SVD (Philippines)
Friday Week 2 in Ordinary Time
The quiet mystery, Denise Levertov writes in Primary Wonder. She begins, “Days pass when I forget the mystery…” and continues, with “and then once more the quiet mystery is present to me …”
The phrase hooks me – silenced and awed. Like the poet, there are days and nights when I am so busy or lazy or troubled or happy or sad that I forget what I am living for, supposed to be living for – in the boredom, doubt or fear; with the activity, beyond the assignment, after the work, at the end of an event. Thankfully, like Denise Levertov, I too am shaken and stilled by the quiet mystery that I realize is before me, or better yet, in me. Not all the time, for I am not always attentive. But this time, yes. As I read Your Gospel Word for today, O Lord.
You go up the mountain. You summon those whom You want. They come to You. You appoint twelve whom You also name apostles for two reasons, I understand. First, “that they might be with You”. And second, “that You might send them forth “to preach”, and “to have authority to drive out demons.”
What You did to Your apostles then, You do to me today, to each one of us. You created me. From all eternity You knew me, loved me, wanted me, named me. And because now I often do this and that, for You, I claim the kind of attention I want or appreciation I think I deserve, I forget that the primary reason for Your calling me is that I might be with You, that You and I may be together, be one. Otherwise, nothing else in life really matters. All is lost.
It is this mystery that quiets me now. Help me, Lord, to understand even just a bit of it, to appreciate its depth and its beauty, and with its power live with my sisters and brothers. The quiet mystery of this world, my life, and Your love. The quiet mystery.
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