Seeing Christ in all things

It is easy to see God in the beautiful moments of life.  I can’t help but be inspired to be a part of God’s creative spirit each time I acknowledge the end of a day signaled by a wondrous sunset at our beach house. I saw God in each of my baby’s angelic sleepy face each time they nursed at my breast. When I paused to admire an astonishing work of art like Michelangelo’s David, God shone there too. The times I have visited a reverently magnificent and peaceful space like St. Peter’s Basilica I was affirmed in God’s glory through man’s creativity.  Each Sunday with my community at Incarnation Church as I gather for Mass I feel God’s smile of reconciliation.  All of those moments for me have been moments of communing with God on a very intimate level.  I didn’t have to work too hard to feel God’s presence in those experiences.   All it took was an open and seeing heart.

 

Yet, as a Catholic, I am taught that Jesus did not come to comfort the already comfortable….he challenges me to see him in those areas in my life where outward beauty is not present.  Lately, our new Pope is reminding me of this too.  Look for Christ not in the majesty of our environments or in the richness of our communities only….look for Christ in what seems dead, in what the world says is useless or ugly, for he is surely there too!

At Mass this past Sunday I looked around our sanctuary, I noticed the beautifully white clean and tidy altar cloth which beheld the gold chalices that would hold the precious blood of Christ, the beautiful fresh flowers that adorned the altar of our Lord, the large leather Book of Gospel with the regal gold embossing on the cover, illuminated by the flicker of the large Pascal candle, a symbol of God’s light in our world. Seemingly suspended in the air my eyes gazed at the amazing hand carved wood cross of our Resurrected Christ, boldly reminding us of God’s greatest miracle.  I became aware of the beautiful families, many of them my friends, who gather with me each week, laying our weakness at the altar of our God, and giving thanks and worshiping our God together.  I noted our altar servers so eager to serve our priest, a deeply devoted man who mystically takes on Christ in the consecration of the bread and wine; I heard God’s word proclaimed by our priest, reminding us that after Christ resurrected he appeared to his friends, yet his own disciples didn’t recognize him at first. And then I realized maybe they too, like me, look for him in the beautiful, the glorious, the wondrous, and the momentous. In This Sunday’s gospel St. John tells us our resurrected Christ was patiently waiting for the disciples on the beach fixing them a humble morning meal.  This is our God….patiently waiting for me to see him calling out to me in the daily routine of my day. Can I learn to see him there too?

God’s message to me this week is this: As I learn to follow our Lord, I will find him in all areas of my life. I may be surprised that he cares about the simplicity of my day, that he is in the dirty face of the bearded homeless man outside my grocery store who asks me for change, he is the annoying woman who cuts me off in the carline at Zac’s school, he is the suburban creek overrun by trash that I so casually drive by each morning, he is the black vulture that feeds on the dead gopher on the side of the road, he is the alcoholic who frequents our parish asking for money to pay his rent, he knows the heavy burdens I carry,  he asks to heal my wounds, our wounds….He is all that and more. 

 I am realizing I must open my heart even more, that is where my challenge lies; that is where God patiently waits for me. I will follow you Jesus, because it will lead me beyond myself and you will teach me to see you in all things. You will teach me to trust. You will teach me to share your love more and to love my brothers, sisters and all of creation deeper than I have ever imagined.