All of us, male or female have a passion about something.
Our passions can be a sport or sports in general. We can have a passion around
art, music, dance, theater, hunting, fishing, and physical fitness. Social
justice and political causes can be a passion for people. Love is a significant
and an important passion for us, particularly for a friend, a lover, a spouse,
our children.
In John’s account of the cleansing of the Temple in
Jerusalem, he quotes Jesus’ disciples recalling these words from scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus was a man who not only possessed the human emotion of anger, as
illustrated in this gospel account, but, more importantly possessed the human
emotion of passion. Jesus was and is passionate about everything that concerned
the great love of his heart, God the Father. In the passion account of John,
this tremendous passion that Jesus had for the Father is expressed in the Last
Supper discourse. In reading the discourse, we are privy to that kind of
intimate conversation that is expressed between two lovers, a kind of pillow
talk, as it were. In the words expressed by Jesus to the Father, we hear the
deep bond of love and intimacy that exists and the promise that that same bond
that exists between Jesus and the Father, is now extended to us.
The question that we must ask
ourselves as we look at all that is passionate in our lives, is “Where is the
place of God in my passion for … ?” In that we find passion, where is God in
our passion(s)?
From my days in graduate school, I find that one of the wells from which I continue to draw is Rabbi Martin Buber's epic, I and Thou. In this small but very challenging book of theology, Buber describes the meeting places in which we encounter God. He calls these meeting places, "thresholds." The three thresholds are: nature, interpersonal relationships, and within ourselves. These thresholds were places in which we find a relationship with God, a place in which we encounter our God.
While Buber did not include sports, the various arts etc as a part of the 1st threshold of nature, I would daresay he would not exclude them. People have a relationship with sports. This is often evident when the "dumb gene" that is part of the male makeup kicks in when the favorite team for which he has a passion either wins or loses. This is particularly true in the area of professional football but can apply to all sports including tiddlywinks. The same can be said about the arts, whether it be music, or painting, photography, dance, or theater. It is possible to find within our passion for the arts, the presence of God.
The second threshold, our interpersonal relationships is, at least for me, the most profound place in which I find the presence of God. As Buber expresses it, our interpersonal relationships are windows upon which we gaze on the face of God.
And, thirdly, as especially expressed in the gospel accounts of John of Jesus' relationship with the Father, we encounter the intimate presence of God within ourselves. To illustrate two of the three thresholds, or passions, in which we can find God's presence, I would like to relate Two anecdotes from my
own life.
Throughout my entire life I have had a great passion for music. The
ability to compose music, to create music from the nothingness of meter, notes
and pitches is something akin to God forming and shaping the universe from
nothing. To fully engage my sense of hearing in listening to music, without any other outside distraction, is a way of entering into an intimate relationship with the music from which I derive great pleasure.
I remember one night traveling back from a meeting in the cities. As I
was driving home I was listening to the Suite from Copland’s Appalachian
Spring. Just following the musical variations on the Shaker hymn, “Simple
Gifts,” was a chord. As I listened to that chord, I found God’s presence in
that chord. It was overwhelming, so much so, that I had to pull over to the
side of the road and weep. In the composing and the performing of music,
whether secular or sacred, I always find God present … well, with the exception
of Country music (I know I will get push back on that) and most Rap.
My second anecdote involves the
greatest passion of my life, my bride, Ruthie. I am so passionate about this
person that as a Christmas present in 2011, I began an anthology of poetry
about her, I entitled, “The Book of Ruth.” The
poems are divided into 5 sections, namely, our courting and wedding, our
first year together as a married couple, the birth of Andy and Luke and years
we spent in Storden-Jeffers, our homeless period and our move to New Prague,
and, present day poems. The poems are all intimate glances into the
relationship that I have had and have with Ruth. It is a work in progress. In
the chronological family history I have just gotten up to the birth of Meg, our
3rd child. The present day poems continue. I figure this volume of
poems will continue to the day that I die.
This passionate anthology of
poems, and, perhaps one might call it an obsession, about one person is a
romantic way to chronicle my love relationship with Ruth. By itself, it would be something akin to the "noisy gong" that Paul describes in first letter to the Corinthians. However, it is within
this beautiful female person that I find most expressed the person of God. As I
have often expressed in wedding homilies, it is from her lips I hear God say, “I
love you. I forgive you.” It is God’s lips that touch my lips in a kiss. It is
in her embrace that I feel God embrace me in love. We often paint God, as did
Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as an old man that looks a
bit like Dumbledore from Harry Potter, or Gandalf the wizard, from “The Hobbit”
or “The Lord of the Rings.” Ruth defies all these attempts to capture God in
word and painting. The presence of God within Ruth, shows me that God is a
lover, a mother, and a grandmother. I am not only passionate about this exquisitely beautiful brunette woman, but as passionate about the presence of God which exudes from her very being.
In all the things for which we
have a passion, where is the presence of God? Without God present, our passions
are merely a passing self-indulgent fling, a one night stand. As did Jesus, let us find God
in all for which we have a zeal, so much so, that when people look upon our
passion, they, too, will find God.
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