Wild Voice
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea… ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” — Matthew 3.1 ff
THE WILD MAN knows the (Wo)man of God because he is on the outside. Inside the illusion of “the real world”, it is hard to see the One who comes with freedom on his lips. The “real world” plays on the fears of humankind, massaging her/his ego until the illusion wipes away the root of something (s)he knows, instinctively, deep inside, means so much more.
John is wild and he knows the Christ who is among us, God who is One with us and calls us home. Whether we travel or just stay right here, God has made his home in us and God will be known to us the moment we let go our programmed minds.
Advent is a thin place. It is a time to look into the mist rising from the Marsh and to walk among the winter shadows of the naked/evergreen trees. It is a time to breathe deep the chilled sea breeze and to contemplate a year fading, a new one beginning and to notice both these too are illusion. Here. Now. This is real. Here. Now. You. Gower. Thin place too.
Touch the earth with your naked hand. Roll the leaves, brittle, crackling in your palm. Smell the natural. She is life, breaking and renewing, dying and rising. Can you see a little clearer now?
Is the veil fading for you in the mist and the leaves and the earth? Can you yet perceive the One who calls out your name? Ah yes… “may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”
Tangnefedd. God bless you.
Fr Tim
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 