Dear Divine Ma,
What Do You Want Me to Learn Today?
I’m sitting once again with Francis’s beloved disciple, Chiara. At least, she used to lie here, one foot away from where Lahari and I are sitting—for 600 years! The empty coffin is just a short flight of stairs up from the place where her body is displayed now. The original coffin is made of concrete, or well smoothed grey stone, and the slab for the coffin’s top looks to be natural stone 5 inches thick. How humble concrete can absorb vibration, I can’t explain. But every time I come here, Chiara is present. There is power latent in this seemingly empty tomb, just like Jesus’s tomb in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. No one could ever say that spot in Jerusalem has lost its power just because Jesus walked away from it. It’s enough to blow your socks off! Likewise, here at the Basilica di Santa Chiara. The stillness. The vibrant peace. Chiara isn’t gone. She lives. We can feel her all around us. Through her empty tomb, she teaches still.
She Teaches Still
