The sudden illumination
T S Eliot
During what seemed like months of rain I was carrying a tray load of food to a wormy litter of pups down at the kennels when I slipped and fell on my back, dog dishes shooting in all directions. I lay where I had fallen, half-blinded by rain under a pale sky, cursing through watery lips a God in whom I did not believe. I began laughing at my own helplessness and hopelessness, in the mud and the stench from my filthy old oilskin.
It was the turning point. My disbelief appeared as farcical as my fall. At that moment I was truly humbled.
Patrick White
Looking back on your life, can you recall any moments of a ‘sudden illumination’?
It is as if Patrick White is caught out. It is humbling.
There is an element of surprise and wonder, of laughter.
This kind of experience is inexplicable. It happens. It is a given.
And it can be truly life-changing.
White, in a letter, wrote that ‘What I am increasingly intent on doing in my books is to give professed unbelievers glimpses of their own unprofessed faith’. Many of us are professed believers – but there are (no doubt) large areas of our life we still do not see in the light of faith.
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
1 Comment
Thank you, always, Philip.