Alleluia! Alleluia!May 17, 2021

“Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it.”
~Meister Eckhart

The German theologian, philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart lived in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. As a Dominican preacher and university lecturer, he helped to shape the lives of many. This particular quotation caught my attention recently; it speaks to me both of the Incarnation and Easter.

God shares life with us and in us. It is God whose presence calls us into holiness, God who sent forth Jesus into our world. The more we become one with Jesus the more we are in touch with our true self and the more we can live from this truth.

Awareness is the first step to recognizing this mystery. How interesting that Eckhart uses two related verbs, “announce” and “pronounce,” as the next steps. Perhaps he wanted to emphasize the importance of communicating our awareness, not keeping it to ourselves. Announcing Who is within me makes this knowledge public, pronouncing it implies a certain degree of formality or solemnity. Indeed, how solemn is this truth!

Once announced and pronounced, the truth of our oneness with God springs out in how we live our lives. This unbelievable reality cannot be restrained! Here’s where Easter comes in. Just as the power of the resurrection of Jesus does not end with the joyous announcement and pronouncement of it by Mary and the other disciples, the power of my awareness that God has chosen to dwell with me inevitably impels me to action. Once I have announced this mystery, I am called to live from it. I am called to reverence the other, in whom God is present as God is in me. I am called to respond to the needs of the other. I am called to give my life for the other.

As we near the end of the Easter season, let us proclaim this truth to the ends of the earth. Let us praise our God who chooses to be one with us.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Sister Virginia DeVinne