
Radiating christ
I first met Sr Catherine at Lisieux where she works with pilgrims and tourists giving talks. I couldn’t tell you a word she said, but I can tell you meeting her was an encounter with Jesus. This little nun in her mid sixties radiated Jesus in a way that is hard to understand, even for me who stood in the glow of the presence of God in her. I think I just kind of fan girled her, grinned weirdly and didn’t leave her side till it was too awkward not too. If I freaked her out she never said. At another retreat she sat a few pews behind me during adoration, I could physically feel her praying for me.
I think if I told Sr Catherine how much she radiated Christ I think she would have been surprised, maybe she knew nothing else but being filled with Gods presence.
We carry an energy round us always don’t we, an unspoken sense that communicates something of our internal disposition. It amazes me how attuned we are to picking that up in others without even realising.
“Everything ok?” We ask our colleague “yeah, fine” they reply with a smile but we know instinctively that somethings up. It takes a master of deception to completely hide what’s at our core.
Teresa of Avila once said “From sour faced saints, God deliver us” Amen to that! I sometimes wonder if the last thing we Christians look like we have to offer is good news. Where is the appeal of an angry, bitter or miserable Christian to someone who has yet to meet Jesus? The faith within us should be as obvious on the outside as the supernatural brightness of Christs clothes in today’s Gospel. We need to be seeking the joy my friends!
So how do we radiate the joy of what we have?
I think we have to know it and believe it first and foremost. If we are just ticking an external box of rule following, that’s what will be radiated. BUT If we seek out those blessings that fill everyday yet go unnoticed or look hard to find the good in each other and give thanks in all times then something else shines from us. Remembering we are deeply held and loved is a great start, perhaps we will find through this and His grace, our hearts have been transfigured.
In the meantime let’s be seen for our radical love, our revolutionary generosity, our progressive compassion and empathy. I’m not going to lie…I find this hard, but we do all this in the power of His grace. So let’s look flippin’ happy about it too. Our glass isn’t just half full it’s over flowing.
I’m wishing you a joy filled lent, and if you find me just following you around grinning, well there’s a good chance you are radiating Christ so be patient with me and thankful to Him.
St John Henry Newman leads us out…
Dear Lord, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you,
oh Lord! Stay with me, then I shall begin to shine as you do;
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, oh Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine; it will be you shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you.
Amen.
St John Henry Newman
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