Today, we sometimes stand mute, gazing upon the Milky Way glowing in the night sky or waves dashing themselves upon rocky coasts or mountain summits scraping the sky.
But thin places are not confined to the physical. There are thin places of the mind and of the soul, where the earthly encounters the transcendent.
God’s creation is intense with his divinity. Divinity embraces us and reveals itself if we but recognize it: a friend’s smile, an infant’s finger, a stranger’s kind remark.
An act of mercy, too, can bring a bit of paradise to earth, when we respond with charity to the beggar’s outstretched hand, the eyes of a starving child, the immigrant seeking refuge.
We hear in the gospel story of the morning the apostles came in from fishing to find Jesus—whom they had seen crucified—waiting for them with a hot breakfast. None of them asked, “Who are you?” They stood in mute silence, because they realized it was the risen Lord, extending, in the form of a meal, his inexhaustible mercy.
Our prayer today:
Peter W. Yaremko, a former journalist, is the owner of Executive Media, Inc. and is a specialist in executive communications. He attends St. Peter the Apostle Church in Provincetown, Massachusetts and blogs at peterwyaremko.com/paradise_diaries.