Pandemic: Presence in Absence

I have been interested in presence in absence which is paradoxical but I think that is the way a lot of theology is done. In liturgical churches worshipers lament the absence of real presence, that reality of Christ's presence shared in the Eucharist. It has led me to think of God’s presence in absence. Once, a dear one was seriously ill, so much so that it felt to me as though God was not there. My prayer was paradoxical. It went: “God, I’m not sure that you are there, but I am going to move forward in my life and trust you to catch me if I fall.” I suspect the “absent God” gave me the energy to go on.

Artists capture this awareness of presence in absence. I think of Rothko, his black canvasses and the Rothko Chapel in Houston. The canvas of dark paint absent of color takes us within and allows us to go beyond, inviting us to look at the infinite that has become present to us.                    

The Welsh poet R. S. Thomas also evokes presence in absence in a poem entitled, “Sea-Watching.” To spot an uncommon bird, binoculars resting on a tripod, one waits. The bird's absence was its presence:

Ah, but a rare bird is

rare. It is when one is not looking,

at times one is not there

                                                that it comes.

You must wear your eyes out,

as others their knees.

          I became the hermit

of the rocks, habited with the wind

and the mist. There were days,

so beautiful the emptiness

it might have filled,

                                      its absence

was its presence; not to be told

any more, so single my mind

after its long fast,

                             my watching from praying.