Dog Days of Summer

"G. K. Chesterton once wrote: “There comes a time, usually late in the afternoon, when the little child tires of playing policeman and robbers.

It’s then that he/she begins to torment the cat!” 

Mothers, with young children, are only too familiar with this late afternoon hour and its particular dynamic. 

There comes an hour, usually just before supper, when a child’s energy is low, when it is tired and whining, and when the mother has exhausted both her patience and her repertoire of warnings: “Leave that alone! Don’t do that!” 

The child, tense and miserable , is clinging to her leg. 

At that point, she knows what to do.

She picks up the child.

Touch, not word, is what’s needed. 

In her arms, the child grows calm and tension leaves its body.

That’s an image for the Eucharist. 

We are that tense, over-wrought child, perennially tormenting the cat. 

There comes a point, even with God, when words aren’t enough.

God has to pick us up, like a mother her child.

Physical embrace is what’s needed. 

Skin needs to be touched. 

God knows that.

It’s why Jesus gave us the Eucharist."

Ron Rolheiser

Paintings of Cornish scenes by Walter Langley : Mother Love and A Village Idyll