My senses bring in so much. I see the beauty of people and the verdant landscape. I see too their suffering and its depletion. I hear words of love spoken and laughter exclaimed. I hear too the cry of the poor their sobbing cascading. I feel the softness of skin and flowers. I feel too the cold crude blade of the soldiers and the sting of their slap. I give my eyes and ears and touch to the world around me and sense that others act upon me. Those who act upon me to coerce and bully and abuse me would reduce me. They would have me think only of survival. I sense too, more so, that I act with and for others. Together, we receive much in such encounters; much joy, some pain as well. Together, we conceive; we conceive life. We conceive other ways of living, other purposes, other visions. That other is a part of us now while also a fullness of life we shall grow into. Our cries and our sobbing shall flow into our love and our laughter. Together, something new is generated. We are told it is blasphemy to question our suffering and our depletion. It is heresy to reject the blades and the slaps. And yet, I can conceive of such questioning. We all can. For in such questioning someone new is conceived.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, together, we conceive new life
Question: What is the prophetic truth I conceive?
December 15, 2019 Matthew 11:2-11 Third Sunday of Advent