When Pier Giorgio wrote to me "God wouldn't bring you to the threshold of retirement to play a trick on you", I wrote back to him that it reminded me of a Robert Frost poem that I quoted from memory as :" Lord, forget my little joke on Thee and I'll forget Thy great big one one me." I was trying to be clever. Seeking confirmation, I googled it to find that the actual poem was "Forgive, O Lord, my little joke on Thee, And I'll forgive thy great big one on me." A subtle but VERY important difference. As if God and I have had an argument and, like Lucy, we both got some 'splaining" to do. Well, maybe we both do.
Right now, though, I am hearing God. And what I call God (okay, in my mind I still say "he'...who cares?!) is coming every day through friends, family and phone calls.
God came through the door this morning when Jack Costello came to give me Communion and blessed me with holy oil for the healing of my mind and body. We both agreed that, despite our obvious theological sophistication, et cetera, when it came to the basics we were "old school". The sacraments matter. They "do" something. The old word for this sacrament used to be Extreme Unction - meaning, more or less, the blessing to be used at the end, the last resort. Also known as the "viaticum", the blessing to send you on your way...that way being through death, to eternity...
Well, I will get "there" eventually, hopefully later than sooner..but I am glad to have it now, for this week, for the time from here to Thursday the day of my surgery. I feel surrounded and protected.
And buoyed by so much love.
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