COMING HOME

SOUNDS OF SILENCE 

Robert Trabold

Sounds of waves crashing on shore

fills whole landscape – hear it coming

from distance. Lovely day not too

cool despite sharp off shore breeze.

I sit on a bench – my eyes scan

seashore.  Dark –bright colors

alternate as sun travels through clouds.

Sunshine brightens sand – glimmers

around me – in the distance

bright borders to blue ocean.

Dark sea full of mystery!

I sit on a Jones Beach bench

dedicated to Pasquale Siccurella

passed away 2013. Wonder if he comes

back at times to enjoy ocean view.

Life goes on – one year after another.

Flow like ocean tides – waves.

Some years are calm – others rough.

Happy I came to the sea

grateful dreadful winter finished.

I can come now to the ocean – listen

to waves.

Sounds of waves wash over me swirl

around me. I sit in mystery – leave busy

city behind me – take a day off.

Mystery of life washes over me

noise of city life – endless wars of my country

cries of poor hungry people looking for work.

Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee

surprised his disciple – awed.

He will come again - walk on

waters of Jones Beach

surprise me – hold me together.

Take me by the hand – give me hope

for a safe landing.

                             

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COMING HOME

Robert Trabold

            In religious traditions, eternal life and God are spoken about as the goal of our human life, as going home after our pilgrimage on earth. It is a place where we will be unconditionally accepted. Jesus spoke of this when He told his apostles that He is leaving in order to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house. In the eastern religions, this desire to go home is expressed in the three steps of our life’s journey. In the first 25-30 years, we are busy growing up, going to school, learning our work and profession, etc.  After that from 25 - 55, we are occupied in the world working in our profession, getting married and having our family and using our talents to accomplish our responsibilities.  After 55 – 60, the eastern religions describe this time as when the leaves fall off the tree, we are no longer so active in our tasks and obligations. Time opens up for us and opportunities arise to get closer to the transcendent. These years of semi-retirement and retirement can be times of growth in contemplative prayer and God touches people to grow in a deeper relationship with Him/Her. If we look at the contemporary contemplative prayer movements in our country such as the John Main Movement and the Centering Prayer Movement, many of the members have been touched by God to enter this deeper relationship in their later years, in the third stage of their life. In a very real sense, we are preparing ourselves to enter into the house of our Father that Jesus said that He would prepare for us. We are going and coming home.

            This desire to go home is also present within us in our younger years and especially felt in our growth in contemplative prayer. At the heart of contemplative and mystical prayer is the entry into silence, darkness and emptiness where we encounter a presence – the presence of a Beloved one who woos us to love Him/Her. This divine presence at our center is more intimate to ourselves than we are to ourselves, yet it is also transcendent and a mystery to us always slipping through our fingers. As we grow in mystical prayer, this divine presence becomes the rock of and defines our life.  In a very real sense, this desire on our part to go home, to encounter and receive that unconditional love begins on earth. This divine presence at our center is our home because we know that the earth that we live on is not our true one. Our life here is very fragile. Sudden illness can burst in on us and deprive us of many things, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis threaten us and human relationships come and go, wars, etc. The universe we live in, in its human and material dimension, can be very unfriendly. If we anchor ourselves in contemplative prayer, however, and hear the call of the divine presence at our center, we begin to get a taste of the home to which we are called  - our Father’s house.

            The mystics in their deep relationship with God which they grew into in contemplative prayer have tasted this ‘coming home’ for which we yearn. Their relationship with God was central and defined their life.  Despite the unfriendliness of earthly life which they also experienced, God touched them giving them a calmness of being home. Theresa of Avila had this sense of coming home and being at peace in her Father’s house and expressed it beautifully in her famous poem ‘Only God Matters.’

‘Do not let anything disturb you.

Nothing should bother you.

Everything will pass on.

God does not go away.

With patience

It will all work out.

To those who have God

Nothing will be wanting.

Only God matters.’

            Theresa of Avila’s poem expresses the goal of our contemplative prayer and path. As we get closer to God and feel the divine presence at our center, we will share Theresa’s confidence. We will have that sense of coming home and experiencing that place of unconditional love that we desire despite the ups and downs of our life on earth which will someday end. We will taste that coming home which we will fully possess someday when we reach eternal life.

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