Do you remember the sensation about the singer Susan Boyle when she performed on
"Britain's Got Talent?" She walked out on the stage, looking "dowdy"
as my mother would have probably described her. Simon Cowell, the most critical
and most memorable judge of the group, asked her what she wanted to do and she
said in her words that she wanted to be a singing star. Everyone laughed. The
cameras paned the audience and people were shown making faces and making fun. Cowell,
in his particular way, said, "Well then, sing" as he laid back in his
chair and looked bored.
Susan Boyle, looking lost and very afraid, opened her mouth and began to sing "I
Dreamed a Dream" and it was unbelievable it was so beautiful. She literally
astonished everyone in the audience. The young female judge, whose name I cannot
remember, stood up when Boyle finished and very bravely spoke the truth about
what had just occured. It was an amazing moment of confessed guilt, desired
forgiveness and generous reconciliation.
If you are not familiar with this event I would encourage you to go to www.YouTube.com
and search for "Susan Boyle: Britain's got Talent". I simply cannot,
with words, adequately describe this experience.
The night we saw the show on television Joe and I both cried. It was one of those
moments when the outsider shines and the insiders are shamed, and a paradigm
shift occurs, and it is palpable.
Today's Gospel is Matthew 10:6-7 ______ "Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the
good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near."
Fr. Richard says, "In today's Gospel, Jesus appears to be reaching out to the
"lost sheep of the house of Israel" and trying to bring them back to
authentic Judaism (not at that point, to a new religion!), but that authenticity
itself became Christianity or "the good news" for many whoe were awake
and aware. Yet now we can join "the new Israel" and still be lost
sheep all over again because the patterns of delusion are the same in every age
and every religion."
The Susan Boyle story is, for me, all about patterns of delusion. We think we know
what a singing star looks and acts like .... we think we know what a holy person
looks and sounds like ..... we think we know so much and we think we have so
many answers ..... but "the patterns of delusion are the same in every age
and every religion."
I read Richard's reflection early this morning and I've been thinking about it all
day, wondering where the Holy Spirit would lead me. Joe and I ended up in a
bookstore this afternoon and we bought the newly released album by Susan Boyle,
"I Dreamed a Dream." We put it in the CD player in the car on the
way home and cranked it up singing along with the songs we knew. And then we
heard a song new to both of us.
WHO I WAS BORN TO BE
(the chorus follows)
"And though I may not
Know the answers
I can finally say I'm free
And if the questions led me here, then
I am who I was born to be."
The Questions: What misperceptions do you have about God's kingdom? What perspectives
do you need to gain?
The misperceptions I have about God's kingdom lie in the moments when I think I know
the answers.
The perspective I need to gain is the reality that I really need to be led by the questions.
Maybe, if we can find the humility and the courage to let the questions lead, we
can be who we were born to be.
There are many lost sheep, and when we have all the answers we are they.