Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Eastertide
Acts 5:17-26 | Psalm 33(34):2-9 | John 3:16-21
And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God. (John 3:20-21)
I walked into my kitchen late last night to get a drink, snapped on the ceiling light…and nearly dropped my mug. A couple more steps, and I would’ve trod on a cockroach.
A roach. Why did it have to be a roach?
Evidently, the insect was just as startled, by my sudden footfalls and the blinding white light overhead. It immediately turned away and scurried underneath the kitchen cabinets, probably headed for the dank safety of the kitchen drainpipe.
I only realized how much I’d tensed up when I took a cautious step forward…and immediately crumpled from the pain of a pulled ligament in my foot. OW!!!
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
The movie trope of a guilt-ridden man perpetrating some naughty deed, while nervously looking around him for curious witnesses, is familiar to us all. The Truth that we Catholics acknowledge deep in our hearts is that God is that curious witness, always watching, always knowing what we’re up to.
Dan Schutte reminds us of this with his classic hymn You Are Near, and with these words in particular:
Where can I run from your love?
If I climb to the heavens You are there;
It I fly to the sunrise or sail beyond the sea,
Still I’d find you there.
There’s no escaping God, and why would we want to? No matter what we’ve done, no matter how many times we’ve done it, He’s just waiting for us to stop, set aside our misplaced pride, and say: “Lord, you know what? You’re right, and I’m wrong. I can’t do this alone, please save me from myself.”
O Lord, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.
As for cockroaches, I’ll screw up enough courage some day to swat them into oblivion. In the meantime, I’ll settle for reminding myself daily not to act like one.
Amen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAtfAZ4pcvQ