OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

Rain mesmerises. Rain on a dark November evening pecking at my face, battering my hood. I duck and flinch, as if that might lessen the impact. It doesn’t of course. Rain on the seafront sets me thinking about all sorts of things. Photographs are on my mind for some reason. I’m quite vain about photos in that I tend not to like myself in them. But there is one that I like, sent to me a couple of months ago and it has me standing at the door of the church here looking outward towards the street, waiting for a wedding. It’s a happy picture and it reminds me of two dreams I had as a young priest in Tanzania. In the first I stand at the door of my soul looking out, searching for the face of Jesus, listening for the sound of His voice; in the second I stand at the door of my soul looking inward to the light, the light of Jesus. A few years later I read a book by a Cistercian monk who was instructing Novices. In it he said that each one is called to stand guard at the door of his soul, and

  Isaac is about one and a half years old. In creche the other day when he saw two boys fighting he went over to them, separated them and gave each of them a hug. And that was the end of it. There’s something about this boy! What is it that gave one so young the instinct and the wisdom to do something so mature He reminds me of Jesus Himself, He who in Scripture is called Peacemaker. Christ the King of the Universe is presented to us in today’s Gospel hanging on the Cross between two criminals. He has no palace, no power, no servants, no pageantry. The Cross is His throne and there is no need for an appointment to get near him. He is as accessible to us as He is to each of the two who are crucified with Him. Our response to Him can be like the response of either of these two men. Both seem to know who Jesus actually is, that He has the power to save all three of them. For the first that saving simply means getting them down off their crosses while the second has a deeper, eternal u