A Mystic Blessing
"In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever."
Beneath these words, the 16th president of the United States sits immortalized in marble as an enduring symbol of unity, strength, and wisdom.
It is always an honor to be asked to express words of grace and words of peace. Every February as our nation celebrates President’s Day, an observance of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays, Jersey City specifically celebrates February 12th as Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
As an Episcopal Priest I’m grateful that we remain connected to wise leaders. Shakespeare said, “What is past is prologue.” If that’s true, our past can help offer us guidance for the future.
It is another writer, a long time New Jerseyan, whose funeral was held at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, and whose birthday is also in February, February 18, Chloe, Toni, Morrison, who offers me a window to better see the spiritual gifts of past leaders, particularly Abraham Lincoln.
Morrison told a story in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech of arrogant young people. They thought they could fool a wise elder by holding a bird in their hands. They asked the elder a riddle, “Is what I hold in my hands dead or alive?”
If the elder answered, “alive,” they would crush the bird to death in their hands.
If the elder answered, “dead,” they would release the bird to fly away.
Their goal was not to seek wisdom or guidance. It was ritual humiliation. They thought would prove by their cleverness; the future does not rely on bygone wisdom. The elder, perhaps someone as wise a Lincoln, and knew about the tricks of those who do not care about life, but care about themselves, paused. The elder took a deep breath and answered, “I do not know if what you hold is alive or dead. But I do know it is in your hands.”
This is the kind of wisdom Jersey City poet laureate, Melida Rodas, celebrates in her poem Mystic Lincoln.
Artist, actor, and life-long Episcopal Church member Sam Waterston was asked as a young man to portray Abraham Lincoln. One of the ways Sam prepared for the role was to visit the Library of Congress, the Librarian agreed to help. Rather than give the actor a stack of books they asked him to, “Hold out your hands.” Then the contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination were put in his into his palms. The actor said as he held a pair of eyeglasses, a watch fob, and a billfold which contained negative reviews by Southern newspapers he felt a kind of electricity.
May we too hold in our hands a current which connects us with the past. May we be channels for peace, love, pardon, union, truth, hope, light and joy. May these gifts of grace—gifts from our Creator—offer us kinship with one another, in the past, in the present, and in the future. May a mystic blessing be within us and flow to others from our hands.