The Eyes of Our Hearts Be Enlightened

Dear Friend,

A highpoint of this past week for me was the chance to hear the Marcus Roberts jazz trio playing the music of George Gershwin, accompanied by the Santa Barbara symphony - or was it the jazz trio accompanying the orchestra? No matter, it was an amazing experience for my ears and for my toes and feet which refused to sit still under my seat.  

And it was more than “toe-felt”, it was a heartfelt experience, too, brought about by the power of music to bring to life what is “old” (in this case Gershwin’s 90-year-old score) while connecting it to something completely new - in this case the head-spinning improvisations and “riffs” with which Mr. Roberts and his companions spun out from Gershwin’s gorgeous themes.

The Australian theologian Anthony Kelly has written that in a certain respect “the church” can be defined as “that part of the world which has come alive to the extent of God’s gift” - and what an extensive gift that is! This week, as Jesus comes fully “to life” in his relationship to the Father, he “ascends,” having inaugurated a mission of love now extended to us through the Holy Spirit. As in the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, so now in the Ascension, heaven and earth are inextricably joined by love - and the earth, like Mr. Roberts’s grand piano in the Granada theatre, has come alive, as an instrument of beauty. Something “ancient” has been made new. 

As disciples, we are “witnesses” of these things, and I pray, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, that “the eyes of our hearts be enlightened” by the hope at the center of all this. And who knows, maybe even our ears and our feet will get into the act!  

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor