Amazing Grace
Grace has been on my mind ever since the President’s amazing sermon in Charleston, North Carolina. There has been much discussion about what Grace really means, especially among my Jewish friends. There is no doubt that there are differences between Christian and Jewish theologies relative to what Grace means and requires of us.
I found in this time once again an insight into The Actual Dance from the stirring words of the song and the President’s invitation to all of us to realize where we have been blind and to see something new and different. A blessing of insight that can lead us to peace.
The Actual Dance is also about a journey from the blindness of fear and dread to the ultimate gift of Grace — infinite love. It teaches that there is a place of our own unconditional love and that love itself is an unmerited gift of the divine.
When first confronted with the prospect of holding Susan’s hand as she took her last breath I did not have the faith that I could do it. “I just can’t imagine that I can do what I know I have to do,” is the line from the play.
What I learned as the time got closer, when all hope of her survival seemed lost, was that rather than tragic and devastating, the privilege of being with the one you love at that ecstatic moment of transition would be the ultimate consummation of love.
A love not like that of “two twenty year old” kids. Rather a love that is a granted and unmerited gifted from the divine and available to anyone whose heart is ready to receive it.
I was blind to the gift of being with someone I loved as they took their last breath; and then I saw “that the Actual Dance will be the ultimate consummation of our love.”
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.
