The Holy of the Now

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We humans are a competitive lot, aren’t we? This isn’t bad either. Being competitive makes us strive higher, work harder, uncover competencies we never knew we had. There is a joy in achievement and a contribution in making the world a little better because of our competitive achievement, even in sports! I thought of this while listening to Michelle Feynman, the daughter of the late Nobel Prize physicist, Richard Feynman, describing her irascible, mercurial but lovable father in a recent interview. Michellehad found a letter her father had written to the Nobel Prize Committee explaining why he would not appear in person to collect his award. (He never sent the letter.) He claimed to abhor awards because scientists worked for the good of civilization and one discovery leads to another and another, so forth. The goal is the good of humanity, and, according to Feynman, all scientists work for that good alone, not the acknowledgement and rewards of another community.  

Eventually, Feynman relents and attends the ceremony to receive his award. Despite his recalcitrance, Feynman had a veneer of humility under his brash and contentious exterior. You have to admire someone who just loves the work or the mission and has no desire for the accolades. Whether he realized or not, Feynman’s attitude of working simply for the good of others is a holy attitude. The mystics taught us about such holiness. Think of it this way: If God is in everything by way of created love and wants to bring us to eternal happiness through everything created, every person, animal, tree, flower, on and on…well, is not everything holy in its creation? The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures taught it, and Genesis says, “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” Genesis 1:32. 

But here’s the catch. To realize the holiness of life’s moments, we need to prepare ourselves to see this. Each day we need to prepare the mind through a type of offering. We say to God: Let me be sensitive to how you are speaking to me during this day. “Dear God, I will get distracted and maybe even absorbed in my work so much so that I forget you in the process of my working. Please help me remember that all I do today is for others through you.”

If you bless the moments that come through a prayer like this, you will be surprised how often during the day God will appear to you and you will be reminded that this moment is a holy moment. We call this cosmic awareness of God, something Richard Rohr often refers to in his writings. It means that through your prayer you will develop an awareness of the presence of God in your life. Suddenly, washing dishes, changing diapers, feeding an elderly person, become special moments rather than obligations or half-hearted responses. Today, for instance, the ninety-year-old with whom I live needed my attention. Her primary care giver had to be elsewhere. This happens often. But I was working and three flights down from her room. At first, I was unnerved. But then I realized this is a holy nowmoment. It’s holy because even though I’m caught unaware, I remembered that I had placed such potential moments in my prayer this morning; I had thought there would be a holy moment. And there was.

Mystics teach us that every moment is holy, we have only to tune into them. As we go along living our day, we need to make ourselves conscious of the moments that become very trying as well as some that are joyful and simple. These are the holy moments. They often occur when we are not prepared to expect them. Once we recognize that they confront us, we can offer them to God while praying for the grace to handle them the way we should as Christians. In our multi-verse, this massive, immeasurable existence of creation, every moment is holy simply because it exists and praises God. When we tune into that existence, it suddenly demonstrates its importance. If you are immersed in cleaning house or the garage or washing dishes or doing tedious computer spread sheets, and a fleeting thought of God or beauty or peace slips in, stop and honor it. You are having a holy now moment. You are recognizing God’s place in this action you are engaged in. Instead of being disturbed that the house is in disarray or the garage a mess, pause and let God in. God will help you change a simple action into a holy now; God will let you see that no action is worthless, and all action is holy when God is recognized as present.

Reflection

I often think of the phrase the writer Mary Rose O’Reilley shares about a young teacher who struggled with connecting her teaching to world issues. She asked, “Is it possible to teach English so that people stop killing each other?” The short answer is yes. But it requires deep reflection on how much I infuse faith and compassion into my teaching. How often do I grasp the moment of the holy when I sense an inspiration of the Spirit fleeting past?  

For the remainder of Lent, let’s try to be more cognizant that the ordinariness of daily life is really full of moments of the holy. As you review your day each evening through the Examen, try to recall the moments you recognized God as present and give thanks for that inspiration.

Can you recall anytime when you stopped to savor a moment that was holy? Have you tried to be more conscious and aware of such moments now?Quote from Mary Rose O’Reilley cited in “Imaginative Contemplation and the Gift of Compassion,” by Bo Karen Lee in Contemplation and Community, edited by Higginbotham and Smith, p. 112.