Nativity Catholic Church
|
Isn't This Nice?
A "FIRESTARTER"
Spiritual Essay by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Berinti, C.Pp.S. Sometimes it seems that the only responses we can give to an inspiring experience are a lot of “oohs and aahs”! Perhaps not the most linguistically descriptive words (if they even are considered “words”) in the English language, but they suffice when one is on the edge of being speechless—which normally follows the pronouncement of a certain number of oohs and aahs in a row. The first time I ever stretched out underneath a swaying palm tree on the island of Maui, lathered in tanning lotion, and sipping one of those umbrella-festooned drinks that look the color of a melted crayon, all I can remember is lots of exhaling…and numerous oohs and aahs. Fortunately, I was nearly alone on my only-the-locals-know-about-this swath of Polynesian paradise, so no questions were raised about my sanity. Kurt Vonnegut, one of our country’s most rambunctious and rabble-rousing writers, reminded me of such “ooh and aah” experiences when he wrote about an important lesson he learned from his Uncle Alex. In his recent book, A Man Without A Country, Vonnegut recounts a savory line his Uncle Alex would say while they were sitting under an apple tree, chatting and drinking lemonade: “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” For Vonnegut, Alex’s wisdom is worth clinging to when all else seems in despair, or at least tired and run down. Vonnegut puts it another way: “please notice when you are happy.” We all can quickly identify when we are NOT happy—and we usually make it known to people around us (although some choose the passive-aggressive method, which they think “hides” their displeasures). If I were to ask the reader to stop at this point…grab pen and paper…and quickly jot down, without much thought or analysis, when you have been unhappy in the past two weeks—my sense is that we would all be well underway in our list-making even before I said “go”! Now, if we were asked to turn the tables, again my sense tells me that the list might take a little more concentration to produce, the “happy” items wouldn’t leap from our minds and hearts as quickly as do the disappointments. Indeed, it is important to not only remember past happiness, but more importantly, to NOTICE it and NAME it when it is blossoming, as best we can (even if our vocabulary is stuck in the ooh-and-aah gear), especially since we seem to be so generally unconscious of these flashes of grace when they appear. The evangelist Matthew’s Jesus seems to be reminding his followers of the value of noticing as he strings together pearls of practical “dos and don’ts” following the Sermon on the Mount. In the closing lines of chapter 6, we read his instructions to “worry” less and “notice” more—birds of the air and lilies of the field for starters. Jesus himself appears to be a great “noticer,” as his parables reveal his incomparable ability to see the depths of the Father’s Kingdom in the smallest and most common of daily activities, relationships, and objects. For Jesus, everything could reveal something of the nature of God’s vision, for everything carries the seeds of the Creator. Many of us aren’t too good about “noticing” things for very long—our attention spans have shrunk while our expectations have grown. We move so quickly through any given day, or we are so consumed with the limitations that have been imposed upon us by health or happenstance, that we let things pass us by as though we were nothing more than glaze-eyed, mass transit window sitters making our way to or from work for the thousandth time. We “see” little as we disengagedly stare at the familiar surroundings of our daily commute. Vonnegut’s Uncle Alex knew not to let any worthwhile, satisfying, touching, gracious moment (even a shared lemonade under an apple tree), no matter how fleeting it might have been, to escape without notice…and an acknowledgement: “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” It was his way of twirling a rope and lassoing the pieces of happiness that often roam around us, grazing in the fields of our lives without our ever noticing much. Jesus had his own, albeit, longer version of Uncle Alex’s “prayer”: “Father of heaven and earth, I give you praise, for what you have hidden from the wise and the clever, you have revealed to the merest children. Father, you have graciously willed it so.” While the Lord’s prayer is beautiful and touching, I still like Uncle Alex’s simpler statement of faith. What a wonderful mantra to find oneself repeating in the days to come: “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is!” May we all notice reasons to pray it often.
|
