A Story of New Life. What is Yours?

“How much greater is the God we have than the one we think we have.  Behold the One who can’t take His eyes off of you.  Marinate in the vastness of that.”  Gregory Boyle S.J. founder of Homeboy Industries and shepherd among the gangs of Los Angeles. 

“God can get tiny if we’re not careful.”

Advent is upon us.  For centuries now, Christmas has come and gone.  And yet, the season of Advent like the seasons of nature, it never grows old.  Paradoxically, the season offers new life during a time when nature is at rest and sunlight diminishes.  As I’ve matured, I’ve grown to consider Teilhard de Chardin’s words.  We must “trust in the slow work of God.”  Ours is a God who waits.  Who are we not to? 

Among the festivities, social gatherings, and holiday cheer, God can get tiny if I’m not careful.  I can reduce him even more as I romanticize and commercialize the nativity event.  In a season of anticipation and waiting, one action in all of the scriptures consistently strikes me; Mary’s move to “ponder.”  Advent invites us to intentionally set aside time regardless of our emotional state or life’s busy-ness … to ponder.

The beauty in pondering is; I never know where it will take me, what I will discover, what gift I might receive, what gift I might give. 

Between the proclamations, mysterious visits by the magi, angels everywhere, near escapes, virgin birth, healing, the nativity story makes for good foundations in creative fantasy fiction as inspired by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  Forever skeptical, I’m in good company with a pair of skeptics in Joseph and Zechariah.

Zechariah resigned to the fact; Elizabeth might never have a child.  Young couples fearing the possibility they may never give birth to children may feel intense pain, loss, threat to separate, inadequacy, hardships beyond what I’m able to describe.  Joseph, on the other hand, prepared to divorce his young wife, Mary, for she had conceived a child, a child Joseph knew was not of his doing.  Imagine his broken heart, distrust, anger, confusion, loss, uncertainty, betrayal, disappointment ….  And yet for both, angels came to their aid.  Angels!  Angels?  I’ve pondered on many occasions what that must have looked like then and what it might look like today. 

 

Luke 1:5-25   Angel to Zechariah

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.  Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son …”  Elizabeth would bear new life in John.

Matthew 1:18-25 the Gospel during advent and for the Christmas vigil Mass

Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a son and …  Mary would bear new life in Jesus. 

The Gospel reading for both Christmas day and for Easter, new life at birth followed by new life with resurrection

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God….

What came to be through Him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it. 

For many, Advent is not an easy season of joy, but I have found it to be a season of hope.  I recently heard Fr. Greg Boyle S.J. speak to a standing room only crowd at St. Louis University’s Global Center.  He spoke of the suffering and dignity of homies, gang members in Los Angeles.  As I listened, I couldn’t help but throw the three passages above into a spiritual blender.  Fr. G described his personal event that, for me, shed light on events leading to the birth of Jesus. Fr. G shared this account from his book “Tattoos on the Heart.”

            On numerous occasions, Fr. Boyle offered rehabilitation to Pedro, a gang member of rage and resentment submerged in alcohol and cocaine abuse.  Pedro had always turned Fr. G away … until one day Pedro accepted.  The gang member began the “long, hard, slow work of returning to himself.”

            Thirty days into treatment, Pedro’s younger brother, Jovan, who fought his own drug demons, succumbed.  One day, to stop the pain, Jovan put a gun to his head and committed suicide.  Intense pain penetrated and overwhelmed Pedro’s core.  Was rehabilitation worth it?  How much longer could he continue, could he hang on? 

            Fr. G appeared on time to drive Pedro to his brother’s funeral.  Without words, Fr. G trusted the “value of simply – showing up.”  The Jesuit feared a relapse or Pedro’s possible surrender to return to the streets.  In the car, Pedro insisted on sharing a dream he’d had the night before.

            “It’s a trip, G (Fr. Greg Boyle).  I had this dream last night.  And you were in it.”

            And in this dream, Pedro and Greg are in this large, empty room, just the two of them.  There are no lights, no illuminated exit signs, no light creeping in from under the doors.  There are no windows.  There is no light.  He seems to know that Greg is there with him.  A sense, really, though they do not speak.  Suddenly, in this dark silence, Greg retrieves a flashlight from his pocket and slides it on.  Greg finds the light switch in the room, on the wall, and he shines this narrow beam of light on the switch.  He does not speak.  He just holds the beam steady, unwavering.  Pedro says that even though no words are exchanged, he knows he is the only one who can turn this light switch on.  He thanks G for happening to have a flashlight.  He makes his way to the switch following the beam with some trepidation.  Pedro arrives at the switch, takes a deep breath, and flips it on.  The room is flooded with light.

            As Pedro completes telling the story, he says, “And the light … is better … than the darkness.”                                                                       

            Pedro bears new life.

“The slow work of God.

            We hope, we wait, for this astonishing light.”

When have you discovered new life?  What is your story?  What new life will you discover?

“How much greater is the God we have than the one we think we have.  Behold the One who can’t take His eyes off of you.”

             

Marinate, ponder in the vastness of that!

Being vs Doing

“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor
is the holiest object presented to your senses.” 

— C. S. Lewis

I am a creature of habit. As an engineer, my habit is looking at everything as a problem that is in need of a solution. This approach of course is very effective when there actually is a problem to solve. Difficulties arise when all of life's situations are viewed in this light. Experience has shown me that this attitude is actually a detriment in many situations, as it puts me in a mode of activity, a mindset of 'doing.'

One area where this approach has caused real issues is in my relationships, especially with the people I know the best. I am so keen at noticing the splinters in their eye. My habit kicks in, and all of the sudden I have a plan on how to help them remove it, which usually looks something like this:

1. Help them recognize the splinter (subtly if possible, but overtly if necessary)
2. Offer advice on how to change
3. Remind them when the splinter shows up again

You can probably guess (or know from experience) how that plan usually plays out...

The Incarnation

by Fred Vilbig

In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul wrote that Christ emptied Himself of His divinity, taking the form of a slave, and became obedient even to death, death on a cross, a most painful and humiliating death. Philippians 2:7-8.

It is impossible for us to grasp this dynamic or to understand what Jesus sacrificed just to become one of us. We tend to think of Jesus in very human terms, but that is a profound mistake. Jesus was and is God. God created the heavens and the earth. With a mere “word,” He created the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. He created the most immense stellar formations, the smallest biological creatures, and all of the subatomic particles and forces that make up creation. And that is only what we can see. He also created an almost numberless number of angels and other spiritual creatures who in their own right are more powerful that you and I can possibly imagine.

And it is Jesus by Whom and through Whom all of this was made and even continues to exist. If we truly believe that Jesus is God, then we have to realize that in becoming one of us, Jesus sacrificed more than you and I can ever grasp. That is why we bow at Mass when we say “and by the Holy Spirit [He] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” All for love of us. At each Mass I am reminded of this whenever the priest prays, “By the mystery of this water wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” In this short phrase, the mystery of the incarnation is brought to mind, and we should reflect on that often. God loved us so much that He actually became one of us in all things but sin. What a great and loving God we have!

The End is Near!

I’m over at my brother’s house, watching him putting food in mason jars to prepare for the apocalypse. I ask, “ Do you really think you are ever going to have to use any of this stuff?” He proceeds to tell me in great detail how our world is at the brink of collapse. "The world is going to Hell in a hand basket! Look at the media! Look at our politics! Look at war, famine, poverty. Look at the recent, senseless killings of innocent lives."

Later that night, I turned off the news because it was depressing. The radio in my car wasn’t much better, so that got turned off as well. Just then my phone started sending me alerts about our galaxy preparing to collide with another galaxy in 4 billion years. Bottom line - we are all doomed.

It’s easy to look around you and lose hope. Do you ever catch yourself longing for simpler times? When the world was less violent and people we kinder to each other, and God and faith were paramount in our lives?

You’re not alone. But let me offer you some good news. We are living in the best time this world has ever seen. Let me explain...


Poverty

In 1820, 1.1 billion people lived in the world with more than 1 billion living in extreme poverty. Now, for the first time in history there are discussions about the possibility of completely eradicating poverty in our lifetime.

Violence

The notion is that we live in a violent age. In reality, we could be living in the most peaceful time in our specie’s existence. Look back through history and see what life was like in Europe during the 14th century. Violence was a way of life.

Disease

With advances in medicine disease has also seen significant declines. AIDS, Ebola, Cancer and other threats that had headlines comparing it to the next Black Plague, have all been success stories for the medical community. As someone who has lost family to disease, I recognize we still have work to do, but the progress in the last 25 years has been amazing.

Religion

Well, what about our faith? If you ask people on the street, they will tell you "God is Dead. People are leaving the church in droves. Giant cathedrals are empty."

Are they? Pew Research Center did a recent study where it showed only modest drops in church attendance over the last 10 years (2-3%) and found that “religiously affiliated Americans are as observant as before”. In 1910 34.8% of the world was Christian. 100 years later? 32.8%. (Todd M. Johnson, Brian J. Grim, International religious demographic statistics and sources World Religion Database)

I’m sure there are those who could grab there own statistics to debate the above points. All of us have personal examples where life has gotten worse, however if we look at it from a historical perspective, we should be proud of how far we’ve come.

We have the capacity for sin, just like our great grandparents did. We might have new mediums and tools, but the corruption of man has been with us since the beginning. When we were adolescents, we lived fairly carefree lives. Once we started families, we were hit with responsibility and hard work. Then in our golden years we become more aware of the world around us, it’s short comings and think back on simpler times. All generations have that reflection. I wonder if our nostalgia for the past is less about a special time in our country’s history, and more of a testament to a special time in our own personal history.

I know that God created us with the ability to worry. It protects us from dangers and allows us to resist evil and grow closer to Him. But be on guard my brothers. Like any God given virtue, evil can distort and corrupt. Feeding our appetite for worry is big business, and we are all lining up to buy. Let’s take a moment away from the nightly news, and look at how far the human race has come. There has never been a better time to live on the planet earth than now. Take that in for a minute. Rather than pointing out that we still have inequality or failings, we should be giving thanks that we are blessed. Once we take our hope back, we will be in a better position to be grateful and continue our progress. My prayer is that once that happens, our culture’s heart will fully open to God.