On This Week's Prompts for Personal Meditation
Oh, Peter! So vulnerable, clueless, headstrong, weak-minded. I'm grateful for Peter's character. I could say "let's build three booths" or "wash all of me" or "I'll never deny thee!" I denied the Christ far more than three times, and yet I'd be just as hurt if I were asked, "Do you love me?" Meditating on these texts this week I once again realized I'm far more an admirer of Jesus than a follower. But Peter eventually rises to the apostolic opportunity and sets out upon the road of service and self-sacrifice.
With the three-fold denial and three-fold affirmation in mind I chose quotes about getting a late start. Referencing Jesus' parable of the workers hired late in the day, Chrysostom proclaims the universality of the feast through the Easter mystery (meditation one). Augustine laments time lost but revels in the present embrace of the divine (meditation two). Merton reflects upon discovering that sanctity has more to do with finding our authentic, flawed selves than acquiring extraneous qualities (meditation three). Peter is a saint because of his character flaws. And so are we.
So, like the prodigal, let us enter the banquet hall of Easter. "The table is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you! The calf is fattened; let no one go forth hungry! Let all partake of the Feast of Faith. Let all receive the riches of goodness. Let none lament their poverty, for the Universal Kingdom has been revealed." - John Chrysostom
Have a good meditation, Suzanne
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Meditation One
even at the eleventh hour
If anyone has labored from the first hour, today receive your just reward. If anyone has come at the third hour, with thanksgiving keep the feast. If anyone has arrived at the sixth hour, have no misgivings; for you shall suffer no loss. If anyone has delayed until the ninth hour, draw near without hesitation. If anyone has arrived even at the eleventh hour, do not fear on account of your delay. For the Lord is gracious, and receives the last even as the first; He gives rest to the one that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to the one who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; to the one He gives, and to the other He is gracious. He both honors the work, and praises the intention.
Enter all of you, therefore, into the joy of our Lord, and whether first or last receive your reward. O rich and poor, one with another, dance for joy! O you ascetics and you negligent, celebrate the Day! You that have fasted and you that have disregarded the fast, rejoice today! The table is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you! The calf is fattened; let no one go forth hungry!
Let all partake of the Feast of Faith. Let all receive the riches of goodness. Let none lament their poverty, for the Universal Kingdom has been revealed.
John Chrysostom 347-07
The Easter Homily
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| After Jesus was arrested, Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. Poultry, Hondecoeter, detail |
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| The miraculous catch of 153 fish is reminiscent of the miraculous catch of fish early in the Gospel stories. "Depart from me I am a sinful man," says Peter. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Raffaello, 1515, detail |
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Meditation Two
late have I loved you
Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.
-St. Augustine 354-430
Confessions (trans. Henry Chadwick)
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Meditation Three
being myself
A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying him. It "consents," so to speak, to his creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.
The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like him. If it tried to be like something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore it would give him less glory.
For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self. Trees and animals have no problem. God makes them what they are without consulting them, and they are perfectly satisfied.
With us it is different. God leaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as we please.
Thomas Merton 1915-1968
The New Seeds of Contemplation
quoted from Easter, Liturgy Training Publications, Easter
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The Last Word
We are apt to mistake our vocation by looking out of the way for occasions to exercise great and rare virtues, and by stepping over the ordinary ones that lie directly in the road before us.
-Hannah More 1745-1833
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O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Collect for 3 Easter, Book of Common Prayer
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