Using the Present Opportunity

“I AM WHO I AM.” Exod 3-14

If there is beauty in the forest but there is no one there to see it, is there still beauty? This variation on the “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it…” mind-bender struck me as a faith imperative while I was appreciating a particularly beautiful bit of God’s creation.

I was hiking in the wilds of the John Burroughs Nature Sanctuary near Holy Cross Monastery. The newly fallen snow revealed the footprints of, at most, two people who preceded me. But, I was definitely the only person feasting on the beauty around me. Sanctuary Pond was solid with a reflective snowy glaze that emitted a pastel reflection of the surrounding glacial rock and woodlands The freshly fallen snow gave a crisp contrast to the drab colors of the winter foliage. I was bounded by rugged beauty. Were there no one present to revel in it, though, would it still be beautiful?

My own thoughts suddenly washed back over me. “I am who I am.” (Exod 3:14) That was the phrase on which I was meditating as I walked. The theme of the weekend retreat was imagination in prayer. We were practicing using our imaginations as an assist in connecting with God, of apprehending his presence wherever we may be. The truth of what we were working with was suddenly all around me.

Every single thing, down to the smallest sub-atomic particle is a work of God’s hand. His creative nature goes on around us continually whether we notice it or not. He is here, whether we notice him or not. Our Rector Emeritus, Fr. Hartt, once spoke in a sermon of the Lord being so near, flesh upon flesh, that there is no space between our flesh and his presence. It is our individual lack of awareness that causes us to think of him as not present.

Yes, the scene in which I was immersed would be just as beautiful regardless of whether any human was there to appreciate it or not. It is the work of I AM. Therefore it is beautiful. Everything from I AM’s hand is perfect. It is beautiful whether or not a human gives an appreciative reaction.  Is there any greater expression of our creator’s omnipotence than the simple “I AM.”

This train of thought was further stoked at the Sunday Eucharist when the strains of Hymn 401 repeated reference to the majestic reign of  “the Lord, the great I AM.” And it came full circle as Brother Ronald’s sermon made mention of a Lenten antiphon from “The Monastic Breviary,” the monk’s extended version of the “Book of Common Prayer.” The antiphon says, “Use the present opportunity to the full for these are evil days; try to understand what the will of the Lord is.”

These were evil days before the specter of war rose as a shadow over the world. Poverty. Hunger. Homelessness. Fouling of the very environment upon which we depend for life. Now, on the eve of war, the days are even more evil. We have an opportunity for stewardship. Lent is a time for self-examination. “Use the present opportunity.” And “Try to understand what the will of the Lord is.” The work of I AM is always beautiful. It is up to us to seek to understand it, appreciate it, and join in it.