Message of Grace
Eugene H. Peterson died in 2018, but he lives on in The Message, his inimitable rendition of the Bible in contemporary language! The Message has been my daily reading for many years. Peterson’s pastoral understanding of Jesus has formed me. Besides, he uses words that matter, words that have power to get under my skin to convince me that I am—you are, we are—smothered with grace from the beginning of time, from our own specific beginnings, and that grace will continue to seep into every moment of time, whether we notice it or not! Grace pours itself out not only at a requested time, he might say, but we are swimming in grace all the time and like a fish in water opening its fins, we need only open our minds, hearts, ears and eyes to become conscious of such gentle, continuous presence.
We are graced, blessed, loved in every possible way and continuously so! It may be in a scene outside a window when we open it to watch the dawn arrive, or in the bubbles on the oatmeal we cook, or in the one who opens the car door to laughing children, backpacks in tow for the first day at school. Grace could be the nine black crows pecking at left-over grain in the field alongside your house, or in the blue, blue sky of a new day. Grace makes you smile when the phone rings and it’s your friend inviting you to lunch or to a bicycle ride on a sunny afternoon. These days it’s the experience of an unexpected joy in the politics of our country or on the faces of the recipients of gold medals in Paris!
But grace is also present in other ways: an assassination attempt, a failure to measure up in a competitive event, or in a child’s not finding a friend in school. Grace is everywhere—that’s the message! You may wish to have a copy of it on your coffee table or desk, especially if you are a respecter of language, a poet, or one who loves the way Eugene Peterson gets under your skin with truth and metaphor. He would convince you that everything is spiritual, that the words—God, Allah, Yahweh—are too small or that we, like fish in water, swim in grace!
Renee Domeier, OSB
Photo: Fish in the Koi Pond at the College of Saint Benedict. Taken by Sister Laura Suhr.