NOW HAS COME THE MOMENT OF JOY
John A. Grant
To those who attended his Saturday night talks, Francis
Brabazon had always stressed the importance to a country of
having the living Avatar set foot on the soil of that country.
There is no record in history of this previously ever having
happened in Australia. Shortly before Meher Baba was due
to arrive in Australia Francis read to us a poem that he had
composed to commemorate this much longed-for event in
our lives and this important event in the history of the nation.
He also had copies of this poem printed 'in commemoration
of the visit of Shri Meher Baba to Australia in August 1956'.
NOW HAS COME THE MOMENT OF JOY
Francis Brabazon
Now has come the moment of joy in this land,
The moment it has waited in woman-waiting through the ages,
The moment of BABA and the touch of His feet on her earth,
And the rivers of His silent Word to her thirsty lips and the cry of her soul. Now has come the moment of joy in our hearts,
And the leaping in dance of our souls in the steps of His feet,
And the breaking of bonds of our hearts, and our heart's breaking
Into laughter of flowers of love and greatfullness,
And our soul's surge no less than the ocean in the direction of His glory and human-ness. Now will begin our history:
Of the withholding of the axeman's hand from the axe
And the mad career of our senses after a vanishing wish
And the rivers of their waters to the sea:
A converting of the blow to the opening of areas and districts in the heart,
A reducing of the senses to the sense and the scent of the soul,
A channelling of the waters for the wheat-fields and orchards of God. The books of this history will tell the stories
Of obscure men and women lost of all else but love, and in love well lost.
Of heroes of pastures and crops, and farmers on wide seas storm tossed,
Of adventurers who work at a bench
And housewives who go forth with shopping baskets to find God. But now is not the history, but the moment...
The moment of God and His advent in this Land of Australia:
The touch of His feet on this earth, and the breath of His Word on the breeze and in the breath of our lives;
The moment long waited, the moment of joy and apprehension ...
When each one ... when each leaf and piece of earth and stone
On whom and on which falls His glance,
Must decide the issue of surrendrance, and lay down that much of his life as he will.
PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY WITH MEHER BABA, pp. 19-20
1985 © John A. Grant
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