It seems strange, I know. I want love to look like a big fanfare and a huge project and a deep connection, but today love looks like chicken soup. Sure, you've guessed it, someone is sick in our house and so I do what I do, and it seems small and insignificant and trivial, but soup nourishes our bodies. I wonder, is it love that nourishes the soul?
I'm not good at love at all. I'm most likely a classic case for a counselor with a PhD; unresolved childhood issues, insecure at times, boundary issues, over-responsible and probably co-dependent with everyone including the dog, but I know how to make homemade Shaker chicken noodle soup. Sure, today, of all days when I am weary and worn I had thick long noodles instead of the regular Pennsylvania Dutch wide egg noodles; it wasn't perfect and that's how love is.
It is daily and a struggle.
I have clothes to wear when I cook... I put on an apron to keep me protected from the mess. I wonder. Could I clothe myself in compassion and kindness, humility and gentleness to protect myself from the mess of the world and the mess of my own humanity.
Chrysostom calls to me again, to look at my life as lived before my King, day in, day out, one batch of soup at a time, and see if each day finds me kind and gentle. Can we live in the love He has for us, clothed in His love as He clothed Himself in our humanity, so that we might bring His peace to the broken, the lost and those needing a bowl of soup?
Medicine from Sacred Scripture:
"The King is everywhere present, and observes what is done...let us show forth in our life much gentleness, much purity, for we have a King who beholds all our actions continually. In order then that this light may ever richly enlighten us, let us gladly accept these bright beams, for so shall we enjoy both the good things present and those to come, through the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ."
St. John Chrysostom
Homily VI on John 14.25
No comments:
Post a Comment