In October 2009, I wrote a poem inspired from one of my experiences while running. I was thinking about all of our loved ones who have gone on before us and what it must BE like for them NOW… As I mused about this I became aware of the mighty presence of the oak trees that lined the streets I was running down, and then I noticed how the wind blew through the leaves and branches of the trees.
I was struck by that whole idea of the invisibility of wind and yet the undeniable force that it is. What is wind? Who is wind? Then the image of the “fluttering wings of angels in treetops” came to me – perched above us and really all around us, our loved ones are just waiting to engage us in the love they now live.
We celebrate the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael today. As much as each of these angels represent the glory of God operating in the lives of the biblical characters, I think there may be a subtlety that angels provide us on an everyday basis that is just as important and perhaps even more tangible in our lives. I wonder if this is connected to what is going on in John’s Gospel today (JN 1: 47-51).
When Nathanael approaches, he is completely astonished by Jesus’ greeting,
“Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.”
Nathanael is so surprised by this greeting that he asks Jesus, “how do you know me?”
Jesus replied “…I saw you under the fig tree”
As I have mentioned in another reflection on this gospel, this sense of Jesus seeing Nathanael “under the fig tree,” seems to capture Jesus ability to SEE people in terms of the deepest longings and most authentic giftedness in their lives. Jesus is affirming an identity that he sees in Nathanael that goes far beyond outer appearances and judgments.
What would it be like to begin to see this way, to really see each other “under the fig tree,” i.e., all the life and love waiting to be awakened and engaged in each person we meet. How would it be to really engage with each other as if we shared the same life and world, not in spite of, but in communion with each other’s uniqueness? It can happen and does, even in small ways, every day!
When we do this, our lives open like the sails of a ship when the wind blows into them. We can begin to move and be led by God in each other. We are, yes, then guided by angels – by the angels in our lives that we can physically see, and YES, also by the angels in the treetops that create the sometimes gentle, sometimes terrible winds created by the love of their wings. And when we see each other in this life-affirming, authentic and embracing way, this “under the fig tree” manner, WE are angels.
Then we can see, as Jesus says ”….the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” – i.e., on US!
Peace
Thomas