Like seaweed torn from its rock
Have you ever noticed seaweed that gets snagged on a rock at low tide? Its shape is beautiful and attracts our attention. But outside of water it seems so dry and withered! Now, tear the seaweed from its rock and put it back in the water: it will recover its original volume and beauty when put back into its natural element.
This is true for many other realities. Starting with Holy Scripture! At times, the Bible may seem difficult, dry, confusing… In order for it to take on all of its meaning, its density, its full “volume”, the Word of God needs to be plunged into an exchange, into a bath of relationship with a partner[1]. This partner is each one of us when we enter into dialogue with the divine Word. When we practice lectio divina, we experience just how alive and ever new the Scriptures are. We enter into a conversation with them and they speak to us like a letter that is addressed to us personally.
We are created in the image of the Word, and we too take up our full stature, we deploy our full dimension in relationships, in sharing, in dialogue. Thus, the discouraged disciples of Emmaus regained life as they bathed in conversation with Jesus, soaking up hope.
Therefore, each day, we must find the pools, the reservoirs of living water that regenerate us and help us to take on our full measure.
The Mystery of Christmas tells us something about this refreshing bath that restores life and hope. Let us allow ourselves then to be torn from our rock. Let us be submerged in a renewed relationship with the Lord and those around us. The Word was made flesh, and he shows us a way of entering into a conversation that is authentic and invigorating.
[1] The image comes from Anne-Marie Pelletier, Biblicist, during a conference given at the General Assembly of CORREF at Lourdes on November 10, 2018 where the theme was “Religious life in conversation”