Sometimes in odd moments I think about what I would say if someone came up and asked me to describe the whole monastic enterprise in a single sentence. I think it would have to be “learning to discover God in Jesus everywhere that might be”. As though God were a large, new country that we still live only on the shores of, God in Jesus waits to be discovered, known, lived in. And the measure of our discovery cannot be told in quantities of mileage or volume, of length, height or depth, but in the acuity of our observation, and the degree of our availability to grace.

This is something of what always comes to mind in the feast of the Visitation—the thought that the promised portion, the land that Israel was and is always seeking to be in possession of is not so much geographical space as it is Person, as though the ground that Israel inhabits is only the signifier of a more complete belonging. And this, as the prophet Zephaniah says, has something to do with presence, with the Lord God in the midst of the City.

In this very homely encounter with Mary, Elizabeth’s recognition of the mystery of God taking flesh is the beginning of this understanding. "How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" At that moment Elizabeth’s prophetic insight sets something loose in the world that can never be got back into the jar.

In our life, of course, God pushes these homely encounters every day, sharpening our senses through all kinds of ordinary practice to discern God’s presence, to perceive what is true. Maybe the most challenging part of discovering Jesus is the fact that Jesus chooses where and whom and what he will inhabit, and how. So we ask for the grace of availability, the readiness to discern truths that might in other circumstances seem much too small to see. We ask for the grace of hospitality in all its forms—never mind that getting it will always be completely convenient.

This adventure of discovery sets before us the possibility of living, here and now, in heaven—which is to say, discovering Jesus in the midst of the unlikely—Jesus here in and amongst us, and we all enclosed in him. And we get there (where we already are) by discernment of truth, that is humility, and by purity, that is, unalloyed contemplative attention.

Through humility Mary was ready to receive Jesus. Through purity Elizabeth was able to perceive Jesus at Mary's coming. If, aided by the Holy Spirit, by grace of attentive availability each of us becomes another Mary, another Elizabeth, then even this homely ground we live on will become sacred space, life, and peace. And blessed are they who have believed that God’s promise to them would be fulfilled.

+   In Nomine  +