Following my first glider flight I’ve had a chance to reflect a bit and see that flight of my own experience. PlainFoolish has a great post about lying fallow. I think somethings have to lie fallow for a long time and some for a shorter time and others we keep going back to time and again and seeing them in different lights. In listening to Fr. Dan Riley’s homily this morning it occurred to me that I am surrounded by forces. These forces are the love of God. I might not always define those forces in that manner but whether I define them that way or not does not diminish their power. Relying on this force can be liberating if I choose it to be.
I once read a book entitled “Conquest of Fear” by Basil King. It’s a part of my small library and I refer to it from time to time. It was written and first published nearly 65 years ago. The author was about my age or a bit older and was beginning to experience a loss of sight. He felt a need to encounter this experience of fear that had dogged him since birth. I think fear is one thing that dogs most people although some might not define what is bugging them as fear. You can read “Conquest of Fear” online at the Gutenberg Project.
On page 9 of Chapter 2 Basil King writes, “But to an Infinite Mind bathing me round and round I must be as much the object of regard as any solar system. To such a Mind nothing is small, no one thing farther from its scope than another. God could have no difficulty in attending to me, seeing that from the nature of His mental activity, to put it in that way, He could not lose sight of me nor let me go. When an object is immersed in water it gives no extra trouble to the water to close round it. It can’t help doing it. The object may be as small as a grain of dust or as big as a warship; to the water it is all the same. Immersed in the Infinite Mind, closed round by it, it was giving God no extra trouble to think of me, of my work, my desires, the objects with which I was living, since by the nature of His Being He could do nothing else.
As I’ve pondered my ride in the sailplane yesterday I’ve thought again of these words in “Conquest of Fear”, “When an object is immersed in water it gives no extra trouble for the water to close round it. It can’t help doing it.” The air around our craft and indeed around me has no choice but to embrace me and so to I am surrounded by the love of God. It is all encompassing and pervasive. It can’t not be so. There can be no limit to its presence. I can live in ignorance of these facts but that does not make them untrue. Will I choose to live aware of this presence and to revel in it and to help others to revel in it also. Could this be akin to St. Bonaventure’s “fountain fullness” of God? I think so. Peace.
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