The lamp of your body

God saw everything that he had made,

And, indeed, it was very good. Genesis 1:31

 

Read Luke 11:34—36

I have been woken up. Like a tired and weary sleeper, called to be awake, alert, not to return to sleep.[1] To come from hiding in the darkness into the full light.[2] To be alert to the Lord. To look for his appearing. So I am called to have a trained eye, and an eye that sees all things clearly in broad daylight rather than one that peers about furtively for what I can spy that I want to remain concealed. I know the times when I have sneaked off secretly into the hidden place. If I had done in practice what I have allowed my eye to follow, how many times by now would I have committed adultery? And haven’t I known, when the day comes, that what seemed alluring at night now seems tawdry in the day? Because the day has brought to light these things in their proper dignity. Here is my prayer, then, that I will fall for the true beauty of the day that is coming.

 

Dear Lord, you have made me with eye and ear and touch and taste and smell, and with a way to sense beauty in all its forms, and to enjoy it. All I see is filled with rich promise of the great day to come, the day of your delight, the day of light and not of darkness. It is to be a day when all things are revealed. I pray, then, that I may not hide from that day, but rather anticipate it. May I look upon the very beauty you saw when you declared all things good. Let me live in the light and for the day that is coming. Draw me and attract me to all that you intend to be a feast for my eyes.

[1] Mark 13:35—36

[2] 1 Thessalonians 5:2—8