To the Moon: A Reflection

So “Captain Kirk” is flying into space… a flight only possible for the wealthy or those who have connections. I often wonder what our Creator must think of our silliness (yes, in the most silly of Monty Python ways). However, I digress… as I watch Sister Moon make her way across the night sky, my heart is happy. I have watched her make this journey all around the world. Tonight, my sweetheart and I watch her from Georgia and Alabama. We are symbolically connected through her much as Fievel Mousekewitz and his sister Tanya (in the animated movie “An American Tale”) were connected even though they were physically separated from each other. Somewhere Out There

In his book, Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century, Thomas Merton had the following to say about sailing to the Moon—What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it all the rest are not only useless but disastrous.

I would add to that the following: not only the abyss that separates us from ourselves, but the abyss that separates us from our neighbors in the sense that Jesus calls us to love all of our neighbors.