dec 13 devotional

December 13:  The Feast Day of St. Lucy  - It has always seemed a bit morbid to me that the feast day for a saint is on the day of their martyrdom or death, and they often become patron saints of things related to that which had been their torture. St. Lucy was a young woman who had her eyes gouged out, and she was made the patron saint of eyes and light in the dark season of winter. St. Lawrence was burnt to death and is the patron saint of grilling. It all gives me a bit of the chills. And, yet, it also makes a point. The things that wound us can become the thing that heals us or perhaps eventually ends up being the thing that defines us. Homeopathy is a system of healing that sees the cure as possibly coming from the cause. There are things that I have tried to master and be good at, and offer to others so that they might see how great I am. This does not often impress as much as when I am able to express my vulnerability and weaknesses. There is an old song verse: “I am weak, but He is strong”.  St. Lucy lost her sight while she held onto her oneness with God, and in doing so reminded us that losing anything apart from God is endurable, but losing our sight of God is unendurable.