Joy and Delight at the Wedding

My son was visiting yesterday. He is planning to get married in a few months. His fiancée has selected her dress. He is excited about her, for her and about the celebration. It is an anticipation of a love filled celebration.

In Celtic spirituality there is a concept known as a ‘thin place’. This is a time, place or event in which, for a very brief moment, our humanity is embraced by the mystery of the divine and we are filled with the wonder of God (Chezzi, 2010)

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary compare the love of the Creator for the Creature to the delight of the marriage couple for each other. The place where we encounter the Divine may be in the joy of the couple who are getting married. The celebration of that event is certainly a time to witness the delight and joy of love and to demonstrate that love in daily life to the couple. At Cana, Jesus quietly revealed the boundless generosity of the Father towards his children. The giftedness we see in our intimate friends is another glimpse of the mystery of the hand of the Divine in our lives.
Chezzi, A. (2010, January). 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Living with Christ , p. 101.

Delight in the children

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary on this day before the day before Christmas remind us of the preparation for increased intimacy with the Divine. Luke completes the story of the Birth of John the Baptist with the naming of the special child with a special name. He is to be called John. Earlier Luke revealed that one of the missions of John was to reunite people of Israel and God. A particular mention is the restoration of the relationship between parents and children. John’ s mission and that of the prophet Elijah are very similar according to the text from Malachi. The mission of Elijah was also to restore relationships between parents and children. What is the nature of the parent child relationship that within it there is a possibility to prepare for intimacy with the Divine? One aspect that psalmist and authors have identified is the “delight” of God for Creatures who are children is dimly mirrored in the “delight” of parents in their children. Our imaginations and hopefully recent experience of this “delight” will herald a renewal for our relationships this Christmas.