Sometimes (too many times) when I read the Bible I have "Bible glasses" on that keep my reading too fixed on the immediate context of the passage. Like today's first reading from Zechariah. It's a promise of a restored Jerusalem with old people chatting in the squares and children running around playing in the streets. I always imagine people in flowing robes, and dusty streets (with the occasional camel or donkey) and yet there are people in this city of Chicago who would immediately recognize the beauty of Zechariah's promise, and who long for it. Their old people don't feel safe sitting and talking on their front stoops; they don't let their children out of their sight (never mind running freely and playing outside), for fear of stray bullets--or of their precious sons and daughters getting caught up, as one geeky teen was this week, in someone else's battle, collateral damage in a gang feud.
I need the Lord's help in taking off the "Bible glasses" so that I can read his Word as spoken to us, here and now.
Canticle of Simeon Third Millennium
ReplyDeleteDo I experience your fears
As I lay awake at night
And feel the rumbling of the earth
Jolted underneath
Of atoms cracked awide.
Do I express your restless
Control of all you know
In dreams that stir my peace
And wonder that things are such.
We await the Savior.
Do I, as I prophesy that ‘all is well’,
Ignore the captured fears inside
Of man and woman
For the child to be.
A hand atop a womb to sooth
The pain and the coming, anticipated joy,
The ultimate plan of peace.
Now this servant beholds
A pierced heart
And beyond to birth that
Renews the universe.
I stand recreated
Before me is the salvation.
I can rest—my eyes have seen
The coming light of nations
Your Word fulfilled
Stirs in Mary’s womb
The glory of your people!
1998