You never enjoy the world aright, till you see how a sand exhibiteth the wisdom and power of God…..
Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father's Palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as Celestial Joys…..
You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars….
Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table….
Yet further, you never enjoy the world aright; till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it…..
There is so much blindness and ingratitude and damned folly in it. The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no one sees it.
Thomas Traherne reminds us that there are a variety of ways of viewing the world and life. A grain of sand can be seen as a speck, a piece of silicon, or it can be seen as an object of wonder, as revealing the wisdom of God. Life can be seen as a chore, or as an expression of heaven.
William Blake captured the same sentiment when he said,
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a
green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and
deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the
man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself .
One person, if they see anything, sees a green thing, while another sees a thing of beauty that drives them to tears.
Traherne and Blake remind us that we human beings are subjective creatures; that our understanding and appreciation of life are in part produced by the set of lenses that we use to look at them.
As I understand it these lenses are the product of a number of factors. They are crafted, shaped and honed by life experience, by life choices, and by other factors, such as our genetic inheritance and culture. They are shaped too by the people with whom we interact. On All Saints’ Day we acknowledge the affect that those who have died have on the shape of the lenses through which we look at the process of living and at the world. They may have died but their influence over our lives remains. Today we acknowledge that who we are and the way we approach life has been shaped by our parents - for good, for ill or for both - and through them by the inheritances that have been passed down via ‘the family way of doing and seeing things’. We also recognise that the shape of our lenses has been affected by the folk with whom we have interacted over years: school teachers, clergy, neighbors, friends, stars of stage and screen, public figures and work colleagues.
Today we also acknowledge that our lenses are being shaped by the honouring of the profound moment in history in which we find ourselves; a moment that has invited many of us to look back and recognise the legacy of so many:
Those who were the builders of this Cathedral, and the visionaries Webber and Pearson who imagined it;
Those who felt that the time was ripe in the 1960s and the 1980s to have another bash at completing it;
And those who have shaped our life here.
For many here this historic time has caused powerful memories of the past to be revisited; an experience that has been intensified by the presence over the past few days of so many who have played a role here. Over the last few days and weeks Cathedral and Diocesan folk have been telling me of this or that Dean who played a role in their life, and of the role played by various Precentors and Directors of Music, wardens, servers, choristers, vergers, councilors and parishioners. Rich stories of formation and deformation; of joy and sorrow; of hard-nosed people and gentle folk.
Today as we come to the end of our Consecration festival we also begin to ask in a new and intense way the question: what now?
A question that invites us to recognise, in my view at least, another factor which can shape our lenses; our corporate lenses as well as our personal ones. A factor which can save us from being simply the product of the action of others.
That factor is the story that shapes us, the story of God’s goodness and of God’s love; the story of God’s purpose in the world: purpose for this place and for each of us. The story that we take ownership of in our Baptism – or should I say the story that takes ownership of us at our baptism. The story we affirm week-by-week in the Creed, and the story we reflect in this act of worship as we make Eucharist. The story that invites us to develop a deep gratitude for the gifts of life and living.
In the wake of the Consecration of this magnificent building we are invited, as we rededicate ourselves, to choose to be shaped by the great story.
And to that end, may Thomas Traherne’s words encourage us and challenge us.
Yet further, you never enjoy the world aright; till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it…..
There is so much blindness and ingratitude and damned folly in it. The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no one sees it.
May the beauty of this place, and the ministry we engage in together help others to see the infinite beauty of God, so that they can be transformed and enlived by it.
+Amen
© Peter Catt
From The First Century, Thomas Traherne, Centuries Of Meditations, edited by Bertram Dobell, see http://www.spiritofprayer.com/01century.php
William Blake, 1799, The Letters
From The First Century, Thomas Traherne, Centuries Of Meditations, edited by Bertram Dobell, see http://www.spiritofprayer.com/01century.php
