They say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” In my experience, that is so true. If we do not want to see beauty, we will NOT see it. Even if we do want to see beauty, it is hard enough to see it! Yet we ought to try hard to see the beautiful in every moment because beauty is all around us, right in the middle of our lives. I do not believe that everything is beautiful, but I do believe that beauty lies just beneath the surface of things and moments. Often it just takes a second look to really see what is beautiful and is right before our eyes. In other words, if we strive to see the beauty in a moment and take the time to look again, we will see something extraordinary. I believe that is God breaking through into our world all the time.
In my experience, beauty is always close to us when we are dealing with pain and loss, wounds and scars. John O’Donohue says that “Beauty is the sister of all that is broken, damaged, stunted and soiled. She will not be confined in some untouchable realm where she can enjoy some one-sided perfection with no exposure to risk, doubt, and pain. Beauty dwells in the palace of broken tenderness.”
In these last few weeks of brokenness and pain in my life, I have seen and experienced some of the most beautiful moments of my life—views of the palace of broken tenderness. The only way I have been able to experience them is through my prayer and silence which has allowed me to absorb these fleeting moments of the extravagance of God’s love being showered upon me. I hope that you can do the same during these busy days of Advent, regardless, or maybe despite, the sorrow and pain of your life. Today we celebrate Gaudete Sunday and we are called to rejoice. We need to be able to see the joy of the present moment—rejoice here and now!
John the Baptist was asked by his would-be disciples as to what they should do with the coming of the Messiah and even wondering if he was the Messiah. He assured them he was not the Messiah and that they were to do what they should always do: share with those in need and love others. Also they should notice the beauty of the moment and be present to it. They didn’t need to go anywhere, but to attend the present reality their lives.
We are called to do the same; simply to be present to this present moment and to be aware of those in need around us. The beautiful is all around us now—we need to look no further to experience the joy of the present moment. Look again at the world around and notice the beauty of the moment and remember that beauty is the sister of all that is broken, damaged, stunted and soiled. Let’s get ready to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas and include as many as we can in that celebration.
Speaking of including others in our celebrations, I announced a few weeks ago that we are starting a new ministry of delivery of the Eucharist to those who are homebound in our community around and watching Mass livestream. If you are homebound and watch live at 9 a.m., we invite you to sign up to receive communion from one of 9 a.m. Mass attendees. Sign up here. We also ask those in attendance at 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday mornings and willing to serve in this ministry, to sign up and help those at home feel the presence of Christ through participation and reception of the Eucharist. Please sign up here.
We realize that there are many more people beyond our immediate locale who are now joining us in our livestream Masses and are not able to receive communion from us. To those, I want to assure you that we are committed to keeping the livestream ministry alive and in fact, we are investing in more cameras to improve your experience from afar. To that end, we need more volunteers to help and expand our new ministry of Liturgy Tech Ministry. We are looking for people who enjoy using the social media, and audio & visual technologies. Please sign up here for any of these ministries here.
This is a beautiful time to see the Lord at work in our community. May we slow down enough to notice the beauty of this moment.
God Bless,
Fr. Brendan