3/2 Saturday in the Second Week of Lent

Psalm 27:10-18

10        Hearken to my voice, O LORD, when I call; *

    have mercy on me and answer me.

             

11        You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." *

    Your face, LORD, will I seek.

             

12        Hide not your face from me, *

    nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

             

13        You have been my helper;

cast me not away; *

    do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

             

14        Though my father and my mother forsake me, *

    the LORD will sustain me.

             

15        Show me your way, O LORD; *

    lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

             

16        Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries, *

    for false witnesses have risen up against me,

    and also those who speak malice.

             

17        What if I had not believed

that I should see the goodness of the LORD *

    in the land of the living!

 18       O tarry and await the LORD'S pleasure;

be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *

    wait patiently for the LORD.

An offering from Rob Leacock

I recently read Thich Naht Hanh’s book on mindfulness Peace is Every Step (recommended to me by our colleague, Amy Skinner).  In this classic book on mindfulness, Nhat Hanh talks about the practice of smiling.  I confess that from my thoroughly Western perspective, it seemed a bit silly and Pollyannaish.  How could walking around all day grinning like a buffoon really help one progress in one’s spiritual development?  Of course, that isn’t what Nhat Hanh is suggesting.  He writes, “Everything around you is keeping your smile for you. You don't need to feel isolated. You only have to open yourself to the support that is all around you, and in you.”

I began to reflect on it more as a meditation on the face of God.  I thought, how wonderful it would be to see the face of God, and that if I looked for God’s face in my life, I might find it.  And if I did find it, if I did see God’s face in the many faces I encounter in my daily life, I would probably be very happy to see God’s face.  And I would smile.  Wouldn’t you?

As I read this portion of Psalm 27, where the Psalmist writes, “You speak in my heart and say, ‘Seek my face.’  Your face, LORD, will I seek.  Hide not your face from me,” I am reminded that I am often in search of God, in so many ways.  My spiritual struggles often are about worrying that God is far off when I yearn to see him face-to-face.  Truthfully God is closer to me than I could understand or imagine.  His face can be found in the faces that I see in my life and work, at SAS and in Austin, in friend and stranger.  I recall a brief snippet from a book of daily meditations I once read that has stuck with me: “I try to remember now that the people I meet in the course of my day are as close to God as I am ever going to get while on this earth.”

And I smile.

Prayer

There is a little known feast day in the Roman Catholic tradition called The Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus.  It always falls on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.  Here is a prayer for that feast day:

Almighty and ever-living God,

whose splendor on Sinai was such

that Moses was obliged to veil his face

made radiant by the brightness of your holiness;

remove the veil from our faces,

and open our eyes to the knowledge of your glory

shining in the face of Christ,

that we, with the gaze of our hearts fixed on him,

may, by the power of the Holy Spirit,

be changed into his likeness

and so praise you forever

in the company of the saints in light.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.