For some reason the old Fleetwood Mac prayer/song keeps going through my head - as do these words from Fr. Richard Rohr about John the Beloved Disciple.
John is not only the archetype of the mystic, the lover, the chosen son; he is also the bearer of the agony of all chosenness. Election is seldom appreciated by others; it is seldom honored as a true touch from God. Our personal insecurity and neediness are too great to recognize and delight in the specialness of anyone else. Others are a threat to our zero-sum existence. Beloved status is almost always mistrusted, envied, judged, and even persecuted. That is the burden of being a chosen son or daughter.
Read the lives of saints and religious founders. Most of their persecution comes from their own families, and very often from church authorities. In the book of Jonah, it is the good and pious men who throw Jonah overboard (Jonah 1:14-16), while covering their attempted homicide with prayer, God-talk, and the making of heroic vows.
I think this is going to be one of those seemingly random days where everything fits but I am just not sure how: jazz, Eucharist, lilacs, family, marriage, divorce, feasting, prayer and band practice. Oh well...
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