The Third Person

 Recently, we had a visiting priest who told us that the previous day, he had said Mass for the local boys high school, and he had asked them to promise him something before he told them what it was.  Of course the boys were pretty hesitant about commiting themselves to an unknown request, but they did it reluctantly (if perhaps insincerely) when he insisted.

He asked them to pray every day for 3 people:  someone they liked; someone who seemed lonely or isolated; and someone they did not like.  I can only imagine that after the boys heard the request, at least some of them would not have minded agreeing to it at all.

And then the priest asked us to pray for 3 people from the parish daily -- he did not place the same specifications on the prayer, thank goodness.  Immediately, two people came to mind that I would pray for, and I figured Jesus would show me the third person before too long.  On my way out of church, I saw one of our parishioners who I had not seen in quite awhile --- and she looked as if she were suffering greatly.  She was waiting for Father to anoint her with oils and pray over her.  Several of us who knew her stopped to pray with her as she was anointed --- a usual practice if we know the person.  Immediately, I understood that this was my third person to pray for. (She has stage 4 kidney failure).

This morning, I awoke at 3 am -- a not unusual occurrance these days-- and I decided to pray the rosary for my 3 people.  I remembered one of the original two names I had chosen, and of course, I remembered the woman who had been anointed.  But I could not remember the third person -- one of the two original choices.  I prayed a decade for each of the two I recalled, but the name of the 3rd would not come to me. 

 In the ensuing mental search, I started remembering other people that needed prayer, or that I wanted to pray for:  first, one, and then another, and then one more, and then another.  I had ended the rosary, but the names kept coming to me.  I started laughing, thinking that God was using my poor recall to sneak in all these other people that I should be praying for.  To this moment, I still cannot remember the name of the third person I had decided to pray for.

But maybe that's how it's supposed to be.....who knows how the Holy Spirit gets the job done these days?

Small Epiphanies

 This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany in our church.   It seems to me that all of us, whether lowly shepherd or princely king, have epiphanies, or revelations, in our lives.  And it also seems to me that, when we do have an epiphany, the experience is not complete until we are able to tell someone what we have "seen and heard."  

For example, someone just told me that rice, normally a high-glycemic food, is no longer high-glycemic once refrigerated.  I didn't know that, and so, for years, I have been trying to choke down brown rice, a food I don't really enjoy, just because it is not as high in sugar as white rice.  I also learned that LSU agriculture has developed a low-glycemic white rice available for purchase.  Now, these are not earth-shattering epiphanies by any means, but knowing these facts help me to enjoy a food I have tended to avoid somewhat for years.  In my "joy" over this "epiphany," my first thought was to tell my sister, who has also avoided white rice for years.  I wanted to share "the good news" with someone else who, forgive me the analogy, was "suffering" in ignorance.

Epiphanies, no matter how small, always bring a measure of joy --- and our joy is not complete until it is shared.  When we experience profound beauty, or stillness, or goodness, we immediately want to say, "Do you see that?"  or "Look!"  One time, while visiting Sicily, my son took us "cross country," so to speak, to see a still-preserved Roman villa.  On the way back, I found myself so moved by the combination of the history and beauty of the country that I could not hold back the tears.  I wanted to share the experience with someone else; I wanted someone else to see and feel what I was seeing and feeling.  The people I was with had been living in Sicily for some time, so they had already been through their own epiphanies of history and beauty.

St. Therese once said, "Beauty opens my soul and makes room for God!"  Any kind of epiphany, small or large, has that effect on us.  And that is why the church is so important.  I don't mean "going to church," for that may or may not lead to epiphany; it might be just a social occasion.  What I mean by "the church" is called by St. Paul and St. John "fellowship," a word that carries more import than "friendship," although it certainly includes friendship.

It is when we can share our experience of truth, beauty, and goodness with at least one other person, and that other person reacts from the heart --- is touched for a moment with the same truth, beauty, or goodness --- that we experience fellowship with one another.  And our joy is then complete, when the other person sees and knows what has touched us so deeply!

One of the things I love the most about my husband is that he loves the church as much as I do, and, as a historian, he sees it from a different perspective than I do. He continually explores what is happening in the larger church from a historical perspective---something I am not inclined to do.  And I continually explore the truths of our faith from a spiritual perspective.  So on a daily basis almost, we are able to share our "epiphanies" with one another, both perspectives enriching our experience of our church.  

In the weekly bible study with a small group of friends, we explore our individual insights and inspirations with one another, constantly opening and enriching our experience and understanding of the Word of God.  No one of us, no matter how deep or profound our personal epiphanies, has the whole truth, the whole beauty, the whole goodness for which we are destined by God.  St. John says, We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete (1 John 1).

If we want our own epiphanies and joy to be complete, it would help to find fellowship with at least one other person, as did the shepherds and the kings, who spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed (had their own epiphanies ) at what the shepherds said to them (Luke 2).