My roommate and I drove to my girlfriend’s family place in New Hampshire the summer after freshman year. ‘Jennifer,’ my girlfriend, had a cute sister, so we had the perfect long weekend planned. And my buddy’s dad loaned us his convertible—it doesn’t get better than that. The only problem was that a Maine State Trooper stopped us to find out why we were in a hurry:
“Slow it down, boys, the girls will wait.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Jennifer’s family, meanwhile, had a super, classy home in the White Mountains, on a lake of course. So late the first night Jennifer takes me aside and suggests, “Let’s go for a swim!” What a major league idea!
No moon or stars and black as pitch. I heard the lake slapping the shore more than saw it! Jennifer didn’t say a word. She sped down the dock’s wooden planks, dove and disappeared into the water. But I couldn’t see her then until she laughed, “Mark, come on in the water’s great!”
Now here’s the problem: when I take off my glasses I can’t see my hand, yet take them off I did. But now I could not see where I was going. How deep was it? What if my dive came up short? I saw me on a backboard and in a neck brace. And were there sharks? Piranhas? New England crocodiles? But from the darkness her joyful voice, “Come on!” Fear fled. I will aim for her voice, do it!
I ran, plunged in, and surfaced a few feet from her. Wow! She was so right. The water was great!
St. Francis de Sales frequently used the Canticle of Canticles (or Song of Solomon)—a heady, biblical love story. It shows up prominently in the Treatise on the Love of God, where the hero, the mysterious heavenly spouse, enthralls his beautiful beloved. He murmurs, Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
While this mystical imagery resonates with our human experience, Francis saw it as a mystic metaphor. The voice is Christ’s, the Holy Spirit, attracting the soul into His loving embrace. What storm-like power there is in our lover’s voice! It can conjure a typhoon of emotions in the heart of the beloved. Washing over us, it can cleanse us of our fears. It can hydrate the desiccated soul. Francis thus wrote, “The soul melts with pleasure hearing the voice.” (Treatise on the Love of God, iii.ix)
The difference between immature, emergent teenage love and the ferocity and faithfulness of God’s love for us is incalculable, but the principle is the same. Jennifer’s loving voice converted my hesitation into action. I knew that voice and I trusted it so I plunged into the dark. So it is that hearing and attending to God’s voice in Christ routs our self-absorption and empowers self-gift.
During Lent, catechumens around the world hear that Voice in liturgy, scripture, and in the coaching of mentors as they prepare to plunge into the waters of baptism. I too want to dive into Lent and the Triduum with urgent focus. How about you? The water is great!
“Over the Waters”
The voice of the Lord is over the waters. Listen! (Ps 19.3)
Preparing for her intense immersion
Into the living Christ and the awe of culmination.
Deep in the waters that Christen.That the Word dwell in her richly, Col 3.16
Nudging her toward ablution.
Cleansing sin’s diversion.
Deep in the waters that Christen.If you hear his voice harden not your heart! Ps 95.8, Heb 3.15
He murmurs her soul’s healing –
A voice that claims her heart in a holy sealing!
Deep in the waters that Christen.
Fr. Mark Plaushin, OSFS
Love. Learn. Serve. Charlie Mike
