Conscience and devotion are two themes that weave into Saint John’s—but how do they weave into each other? When, in the ecstasy of the light and the warmth of the sun, the senses and the soul move out, expand, ‘lose themselves’ and we unite more with the selflessly becoming world, when we can escape naturally because we are open, yes, permeable, the cosmos becomes a receptive vessel. It awaits us in the high time of light. The summer rush is human grace, not divine grace. It lies in the joy of being able to give everything now because I don’t have to be so close to myself. Whatever we humans have created unconsciously and consciously in the past year now pours out into space. It becomes a gift for the cosmic world. Unlike at Christmas, we are called to give, to show grace. The question that sank into our souls on Christmas Eve will bring forth answers. What these answers weigh is not for us to decide, but a scale can stir within, a knowledge that has yet to be born into wisdom: conscience. Not the petty conscience that is cultivated to measure people. Rather, an awakening in the moment of emptiness. When we have emptied ourselves of ourselves and connected to something ‘higher’, surrendered to it, we awaken to the value of our actions. We can see what of it was useful for the unfolding of our humanity, what sparks will ignite light and what still needs to be burned to become new within us. On St. John’s Day, the only high feast day that has a human individual or humanity as its symbol, it is our sparks that fly to the sky.
