Whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
when I get home.
St. Francis of Assisi
Field of flowers, Silvestri Matteo
"Well said, teacher,” the man replied (to Jesus). “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Mark 12:32-24
Love makes the world go round.
Many things will fall away but love remain, writes the apostle Paul. Where love is there is God, chimes in the apostle John. However it's this Gospel account that I want to look more closely at. 'From then on no-one dared ask him any more questions'. Why would that be?
In the face of love are we quietened? Before the rightness, nobleness of love are we stilled? No-one dared ask.
St. Francis says more.
“Such love does
the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,
I have to wring out the light
when I get
home.”
~St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Just standing in a field. With the sun stroking the man's cheek Francis is bathed in the light of God's benevolent, generous, earthy love; so full of the love of God that it pours out of him. The love of God wrung out or over flowing from us toward others.
How about imagining yourself in a sun bathed field drinking in the warmth of God. Then where does it pour out to from there?