Daily Reading for April 3 • The Fourth Sunday in Lent and Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 1253
Day by day, dear Lord, of you three things I pray:
to see you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
follow you more nearly,
day by day.
Amid life’s changes and uncertainties we long for some clarity of vision. In the midst of perplexities we hope to see and to know what is to be prized above all—what is worth life’s service. Richard of Chichester and many others have aspired to see more clearly the longed-for goodness and beauty at the heart of existence. Circumscribed by mortality, we, too, pray to know some purpose in and for a creation. We ask why there is a world and life at all—what could it be for? As life goes on, buffeted by loss and tragedy, we yearn for coherence—a logos or reason and center that might hold things together, a story for life. Hearts hope for a beginning and goal, and at least a glimpse of the One who might sustain and inspire the human adventure. . . .
Yet no one has ever had a clear vision or knowledge of the Lord of all life. . . .“No one has ever seen God,” the evangelist reminds us. “It is God the only son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (John 1:18). When Richard prayed to see and know God more clearly, it was this clue to human life—the Word, this parable of God’s Spirit—that was foremost in his heart and mind. . . .
How do we love God, whom we cannot see? By loving one another—honoring our sisters and brothers, caring for friends and strangers, feeding those who are hungry, and healing those who are sick. . . . Seeing like this will always be a challenge. Living with such vision, as was true for Jesus, means living as if loving really matters most.
From Day by Day: Loving God More Dearly by Frederick Borsch. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com