Image via WikipediaIt seems that I have missed a step or two the last couple of weeks. Fall has seemed to put more deadlines into my life, and it has come apparent that I need to learn, and learn again, a sense of balance in my life. This week we hear in the first reading, (Is 55 6-9) “Seek the Lord where He may be found, call Him while He is near.” So much of our life is filled with appointments and deadlines, things that we want to do because people are depending on us, and so hours go quickly by, then days and then weeks. We begin to realize that perhaps those things that are MOST important are the things that go onto the back burner. It is in these times that the Devil finds his opportunity to sneak into our lives and create his destruction. The destruction of our relationship with our Father makes the Devil very happy.
God is with us, He is right here next to me, right next to you, calling us to a relationship with Him. Not a relationship that is superficial, but one that is filled with love, truth and hope. How many times do we fail to recognize that call? How many times do we take a moment to slow things down and realize our true reason for being and ponder on our true calling? I would dare say, not enough.
As we enter into the Fall season, as the parish DRE I am very busy putting together a program that will teach the members of our parish the faith. In my mind the Spirit is close, keeping me creative and excited despite the obstacles. As we look for volunteers and parent participation, it becomes clear where God falls on the priority list of many families. It is amazing that even in this world, where we should be scared to death to send our kids outside the door in the morning because of the unbelievable strength of the world’s negative influence, parents are not “seeking the Lord where He may be found”! Why does it feel that for so many in the world God seems hidden and for others the love of God seems as close and real as the computer that I am typing on? It makes me realize that a relationship with God is such a gift and for those of us who have a sense of that relationship, no matter how new the relationship may be, or that we don’t get it right 100% of the time, it is a gift; it is hard to articulate where it comes from, what keeps it strong and why God reaches out to us every moment of the day. It is a gift that, I know, I wish that everyone had.
“…call Him when He is near” … reminds me that in the moments in which we feel God’s presence, no matter how small and quiet, we have to hang on and believe, calling to Him like a trusting child, not being able to explain it but trusting that He is hearing us and caring about us. Does God weep for the moments in which people do not want to touch Him when he is near? There is nothing closer in which we experience Christ than in the Eucharist, and how many people in today’s world truly believe that Jesus is present in this Sacrament? I can’t answer that question because I am not in the hearts of those around me, but one can see through body language what is being said about God. Folded arms, slouching, young people who do not join in the recitation of prayers, half hearted signs of the cross … are we bringing our best to God when we have opportunity to be close to Him? In the second reading, Paul writes to his people in the Letter to the Philippians, while he is in prison, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether in life or in death.” He tells Jesus’ followers, that he would like to depart from this life, to spend his time with Jesus in heaven, but he also knows that he has work to do and a purpose in this life. Even Paul doesn’t know which he would choose if given a choice. We are here on earth, and are we using our bodies, our language when we do not speak, as something that magnifies God. Do we present ourselves, not only at church, but in the world as someone who is a Christian, do we attend Mass as someone who is a Catholic? For we Catholics are the few who believe in transubstantiation, the real presence in the Eucharist. Do we posture ourselves with reverence and dignity toward the Divine? Or do we go to church like any other social function, checking some obligation off of our checklist? It is not always easy to know that as good Christian Catholics, we must be the vehicle in which God travels through the world, do people recognize our love, and our respect for God? Do we exude the Spirit into the world?
This week, we respond, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him”, He is here, He is next to you as you read this, He wants to share His love with you, he wants to quench that thirst that you have that nothing in this world will satisfy. Reach out, listen to the quiet voice, He is there, and allow that God who dwells within you transform you so that you will have the courage and strength, as Paul did, to transform the world.
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