God works in mysterious ways in our lives.
You may have heard the story about a nun who worked for a home health care agency in West Virginia. Making her rounds, she ran out of gasoline. Luckily a gas station was nearby, and she walked to it for gas. But the attendant had just lent out his only gas can.
The nun walked back and looked in her health care supplies for a container. She spotted a bedpan, used it to fill with gasoline, walked back to her car and poured it from the bedpan into the tank. Two Baptists saw this, and one said, “If that car starts, I’m becoming a Catholic.”
Yes, it’s amazing the many ways we can influence people.
The word of God today takes us back to the 6th century before Jesus. The second section of the Book of Isaiah describes a mysterious servant of God. This servant, despite getting all kinds of physical and verbal abuse, carries on the mission God has entrusted to him.
The early Christian community saw in this servant Jesus, the suffering Messiah. The author may be inviting us to persevere in our life of discipleship despite the “noise and dissonance” that may surround us.
The letter of James challenges us to practice what we believe. Our faith in Jesus should compel us to reach out compassionately, generously give time, talent and yes, some of our treasure to those in need.
I considered Mark’s Gospel as we celebrated Saturday’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” He begins to confide in the disciples about his ultimate purpose: he must suffer the agony of the cross so that he can experience the ecstasy of the resurrection.
When Peter balks, Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan.” Nothing will prevent Jesus from fulfilling God's purpose: re-connecting us to God.
Now, Jesus may be asking us: who is Jesus for me? What do I mean to Jesus? The early Christian community initially saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of ancient Israel. And so, they called him the Messiah, the Christos, the anointed one.
The more they reflected, the more they saw Jesus not only as the fulfillment but the foundation of their hopes. The eternal Word! The Gospel according to John captured this magnificently: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Yes, Jesus was the foundation and fulfillment of their hopes and ours as well.
So, who is this God-man Jesus seeking our friendship? He was a real historical person, flesh and blood. He experienced, as we do, fatigue, hunger, satisfaction, joy, friendship, anger, disappointment, loneliness.
He was a teacher, a prophet preaching that the kingdom of God was breaking into our lives. He worked signs and wonders, proclaiming that good ultimately would triumph; he possessed authority to forgive wrongdoings; he promised eternal life.
He had a unique relationship with God; in fact, he was one with God, true God and true man. He was crucified, died and then raised up in glory. And he is alive in our midst today.
Jesus taught that we can share in this kingdom of God by living a life of discipleship.
How? The Our Father can be our guide. By living prayerfully in the presence of God (Our Father); by seeing in Jesus the Word made flesh, the face of God's Son (hallowed be Thy name); by recognizing that our lives do have an ultimate purpose (Thy Kingdom, Thy will); by reaching out generously with our daily bread; by experiencing the presence of the living Christ in the Eucharist (forgive us our trespasses, illuminate us in the scriptures, and transform us in communion); and by being ready to let go of our earthly life so that we can be one with God in glory forever.
Our compassionate God is always near each day to guide us.
Jesus challenges us to “take up our crosses.” To this end, I share an old story about a mother in China whose only son died suddenly. In her grief, she pleaded with a monk: “With what prayers, what magic, can you bring my son back to life?”
The monk told her: “Find a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use that seed to drive the grief out.”
So, the woman set off in search of such a seed. Wherever she looked, she found one tale after another of misfortune. She became so involved in helping these other people that she forgot her own grief. Her quest and relationships had driven the heartbreak out of her own life.
We, like Jesus, will experience the gamut: love and friendship, pain and disappointment.
Jesus challenges us to follow him, to become the kind of person today that Jesus was in his day. He tells us his yoke is easy. We may face our doubts, but let's follow him. For the only Gospel some people may ever know is you and I and how we live our lives.
