As we wrap up this week, thinking about feasting on the delight of the Divine, my thoughts move to the story where Moses first learns to do that. It occurs in Exodus 3:2-5. “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
So Moses is tending his flock at the foot of Mount Horeb, when he notices a bush that appears to be aflame but is not being consumed. But notice, God does not speak to Moses from the mystery of the bush... until Moses turns aside to look. Only after ‘the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see’ does God call to him. Before Moses hears God’s voice, he must first give God his attention. And once Moses has given his attention and heard the truth of what was happening in the moment, he removes his shoes, recognizing the very space he occupies as holy ground.
Richard Rohr writes that on our spiritual journeys, “We must allow ourselves to be captured by the goodness, truth, or beauty of something beyond and outside ourselves. Then we universalize from that moment to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the rest of reality, until our realization eventually ricochets back to include ourselves! This is the great inner dialogue we call prayer… The one is the way to the many; the specific is the way to the spacious; the now is the way to the always; the here is the way to everywhere; the material is the way to the spiritual; the visible is the way to the invisible. When we see contemplatively, we know that we live in a fully sacramental universe, where everything is an epiphany.”
Everything is an epiphany. Everything is a revelation. Everything burns with the fire of the Divine. Everything.
But to see it… we must stop, turn aside, and look. We are called to feast on the mystery of life, every day, all around us. The space where you sit, right here, right now, is holy ground.