Guess Who's Here!

          We had a community retreat last week led by Sr. Karen Joseph, OSB, from our daughter house in Ferdinand, IN. A number of her quotes and phrases struck me. One of them was this: We are always guests in the house of the Lord. When I heard it, the first thing that popped into my mind is that here, in this community, in this monastery, I live in the house of the Lord. I am a perennial guest. 

          I let my mind wander about what this might mean.  Here are a few musings:

• If this is God's house, then God is the host who sees to my needs and wants me to feel at home.

• If this is God's house, then all of us here are guests; this adds another aspect to the complex realities

       of relating to each other.

• If this is God's house, then nothing is really mine; it all belongs to God.

• If this is God's house, everything here is holy and must be treated with reverence. 

          I was realizing how integrally all this relates to St. Paul's theology of our being the Body of Christ and how much it sounds like Benedict's Rule. Then my mind took another turn.  I realized that everywhere is God's house ... this city, this state, this earth, this cosmos. God is the universal host, and in every aspect of my life I am a guest. 

          Now, if I apply my earlier conjectures to this line of thinking, I come up with questions:

• Does the way I use the earth and its gifts change if I see them as belonging to God?

• Does this realization affect my perspective and responsibility re contemporary issue like government

      (local, state, national and international), ecology, economics, justice, etc., etc., etc.?

• Do I have a different accountability to others if all of us equally are guests in God's house? 

          One realization emerging from these mental meanderings is that if everywhere is God's house and all of us are guests, I should be able to use this awareness to experience God in any place, time, or circumstance. This Host is all-embracing and always present in some way within me and in each person I meet. All of us are guests at the same "house party" because the Host who invited us loves each of us with equal intensity. 

          The challenge for me in all this: Within the people and situations I encounter, can I find elements of the divine love that brought us together? When I find people really difficult, does it help to remember that we are equal guests of God on this planet? Will it help me to remember that in no circumstance will I have to guess who's there with me? It should. God the Host has welcomed me. I am here! God is here!

          Sr. Colleen Winston, OSB