When I was celebrating the Eucharist on the Sunday after the Haitian earthquake I was caught by the words in Eucharistic Prayer C: “This fragile earth our island home.” This is indeed a very fragile earth and we are a very vulnerable people. I don’t know if it’s personal experience or just something I’ve always been aware of but I have always had a deep sense of that vulnerability. When someone said to me after the events of September 2001 that they no longer felt secure, I was a bit surprised that they ever felt secure. I certainly don’t live my life in fear but I have always been profoundly aware that this earthly life is tenuous at best. That no matter how much we try to guarantee our security, things can happen at any time to rock our world; an earthquake, a terrorist attack or something less catastrophic globally but just as shattering personally, like the loss of a job or the illness of a loved one. In an instant everything that made us feel secure can be gone.
Remember that you are but dust and to dust you shall return.
In the middle of this month we will come face to face with our own fragile nature. Ash Wednesday reminds us of this as it simultaneously reminds us of our profound need for God. No matter what we may lose here on earth there is one thing we can never lose and that is God’s steadfast love. This is our only true security. Perhaps as we begin our journey through Lent we can remind ourselves that even though money, success, our health, are all very important they can never give us true security. Not here on this fragile earth. Our true security comes from the God who will never leave us abandoned even if everything else and everyone else is gone.
Please continue to help the victims of the Haitian Earthquake by making donations directly to Episcopal Relief and Development www.er-d.org.
God’s Peace,
Eileen+
The Rev. Eileen Walsh, Rector
