God's Center is Everywhere

The sun rose through the winter Ferris wheel on the horizon and filled me with a welcome joy. I had to shut my eyes, as the glare upon the Atlantic Ocean could damage them if I kept staring into such overwhelming light. I’d woken up too early for Sunday Mass, heading to a church I’d never attended in the coastal Maine town where my elderly mother now lived. I stepped over the lined ridges of the train tracks, reaching the sea, the sun spilling an ever-widening path upon the water. 

Winter beaches have always called to me, and now, I stood beholding the Ferris wheel perfectly parallel to the beach. In its off-season silhouette, no seats dangled. A monochromatic wheel that didn’t turn but will turn once again; a silver circle whose perfect shape brought St. Bonaventure’s words into my mind: “God is a circle whose center is everywhere.” Turning from the off-season playland, I scanned the wet sand, the footprints of dog paws, and the rest of the Bonaventure quote came to me: “and whose circumference is nowhere.” The ocean’s immense span held one single surfer bobbing. One dark human shape in the overpowering light, alone, ocean all around. The words of one of the hymns I’d been listening to in my car on the way to Old Orchard Beach echoed in my head. 

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus / Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free / Rolling as the mighty ocean / In its fullness over me / Underneath me / All around me / Is the current of thy love / Leading onward / Leading homeward / To his glorious rest above.” 

I wondered, what if this surfer is each of us? Could it be? What if...

read the rest of the piece from January's edition of St. Anthony Messenger here: God's Center is Everywhere