“A sacrament is physical, and within it is God’s love.”(Dubus 220) Anything physical can be sacrament. Sacraments are God’s love manifest on earth. We need sacraments we can receive through our senses. Thusly, if we can see the extraordinariality of the ordinary events that happen in our lives, we can see God’s love in them, and then these extraordinary ordinary events become sacrament.
When I was a short person (a child), I would come home from half-day kindergarten, and my mom would tell me to go take a nap. I never wanted to, though. I hated taking naps and always tried to use the excuse “But I’m not TIRED!” to get out of them. So, Mommy, being the smarter one of us, would tell me to lie down with my tiny little head in her lap. She would lightly tickle my back until I fell asleep. Usually, this happened within minutes, and by the time I woke up Mommy had made my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
To this day, I still remember the look, feel and smell of the couch and pillows on it, the noise of the TV in the background, the feel of mommy’s fingernails lightly covering each cell of the skin on my back and the feeling of the whole room spinning as I would fall into dreamland.
I believe that it was more than the actual physical touch that relaxed me and lulled me to sleep. I believe that it was her loving energy that poured through her fingertips into my seven-year-old body. This is my favorite memory from when I was a short person. Every time someone else will lightly caress my back, or arms, I re-member my “Scratch-back Naps.”
I am a people person. For me, God’s love is shown through the love of others. When someone shows me that they care, to me, it is God’s way of showing that He cares. God puts people into our lives to show us his love. He is not here, so he must send his children to be messengers of his unconditional love.
Each time that I re-member my “scratch-back naps” I am renewed. The memory and love comes rushing back to me, and I re-member mommy’s love. Through this love of mommy’s that I re-member, I am shown God’s infinite love. Not only is the care of the person who touches me pour through the fingertips, but the love of my mother and the love of God do as well.
“We may feel tempted to break all ties with religious symbolism. But if we actually do that, we do not simply make a break with an important religious treasure; we also close the window of our own soul. The symbolic and the sacramental are profound dimensions embedded in human reality.”(Boff 2) These “Scratch-Back Naps” explain some things about my personality as well. I have an excessive need for human touch. I love it when anyone tickles my arms or back or face or hair. Sure, these things may seem normal, and seem like most people enjoy them. But for me, it is sacramental. I feel love in them. I feel the love of God in them.
God speaks through people. God speaks through events. God speaks through sacrament. God speaks to attempt to communicate his infinite, unconditional love. Can you hear him? I can.
