There is a Presence in my life that is not human. Being human is being alive, like waking up in the morning and going through the day, eating, working, resting and sometimes having fun. Yet, there are moments during the day I realize there is more to living than what I am doing at that particular moment. I eat to stay alive. And yet, there are moments when eating is such a joyful experience as when I share food with people close and dear to me. Then, there are also moments when it brings me so much happiness to prepare food to share with others. I work to get the things I need in order to eat. But work can be such a pleasure when I do it with others. Sometimes, we work not just to keep alive but to keep alive the beauty and the happiness we feel inside and share among ourselves.
This Presence also move things in my life for me. Right now, we are in the midst of the preparation for Macky’s wedding. Everything is inexorably rolling to the final denouement tomorrow. The love story of Macky and Lani has been some ten years in the making. It must have been a difficult one as they had both to struggle through medical school even as they kept the flame of their love burning brightly and strongly. Maybe its the flame of their love that fueled their stamina to successfully complete and finish their medical studies. Or, maybe it was the Presence we all feel and share that made all of these to happen and culminate in a beautiful wedding tomorrow.
“The Lord is with you.” No declaration can be more reassuring. Sometimes, He comes in a dramatic manner like this upcoming wedding we will be celebrating tomorrow. I am sure He will be there as He was at that wedding in Cana. At other times, He comes in quiet and peaceful moments like yesterday morning as I watched the sunrise come up over the mountain ridges at Pico de Loro. Initially, there was the faint glimmering of the dawn as total darkness slowly gave way to the coming sun to slow reveal the silhouette of the ridge. Then the glimmering slowly became light streaking across the horizon, driving the darkness away. The first white ligth of dawn quickly became the bright warm yellows and oranges of a brand new day. As all of this was unfolding, sparrows started dotting the morning sky, flapping their weeks and filling the air with their joyful chirping. The acacia trees nearby slowly opened their leaves and the lotus plants in the nearby pond slowly opened up their flowers. The earth with coming back for another day, announced by the sweet scent of the blooms opening up and stretching out their petals.
An extraordinary event with all the panic and the drama. An ordinary event that happens everyday we hardly give it notice. In both instances, and in may other instances beside, the Lord is with us, with me, with my loved ones. He is present. Here. Now. I often do not need to be reminded of that truth. But when I forget, He send His angels to tell me: “The Lord is with you!”
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’
Luke 1:26-31,34-38