A Journey of Trust

 

Epiphany

Is 60:1-6, Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13., Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Gospel: MT 2:1-12

Lesson of Christmas - God Loves you!

When the 3 wise men came to find Christ, they did not know where to look.  They went to where they thought he would be but discovered him where they did not expect to find him.  They finally encounter him in Bethlehem, not at the hospital, or an inn, or the house of a relative, but in a stable, a manger, a cave.  The wise men discover Christ has come with a heart of humility.  They discover that God is willing to enter into our mess so that he can love us.  He wants to show us that there is no place in our existence that God does desire want to be.

Welcome Christ with Trust this Christmas

How Mary Trusted God

Do we Trust God?  Are we willing to subordinate our will to His?  Do we trust that His will is being worked out here today?  When Christ chose to be born, He trusted that Mary and Joseph in their freedom would accept Him, parent Him, form Him.  When Mary accepted Christ - she trusted Him with her life, her plans, her desires, her joys.  She trusted that God was using her in His plan in a way that brings about the salvation of us all.

How St. Joseph Trusted God

When St. Joseph trusted God, and trusted Mary, he put his faith in God and accepted the mission for which He was chosen.  That meant moving his family at least 3 times - from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Egypt and from Egypt back to Nazareth.  This is in a time before cars, planes and the comforts of modern life.  It meant moving your shop and finding a new place to establish yourself. 

How do I trust God?  How do you trust God?  

In my very first year of formation as a Deacon - they told me that a group of eight people whom I didn't even know would meet with me once, and then make a recommendation to Archbishop Chaput if I should continue on in formation or not. We heard about this on our very first day of class, and the meeting with the vocations committee would not take place until late the following spring.  For 8 months I struggled with Trust in God.  Do I trust in God’s providence for me, for the Church, for the World?  Do I trust in God’s ability to bring good out of evil and to lead us to our eternal salvation.

Does God Love Me?  Do I Love God?  Where is the proof?

The challenging part of this question is that it is bound up in other questions - Does God love me?  Do I love God?  If God loves me then why did X, Y or Z happen to me?  

What we need to understand is that God is different from us, and that He chooses to love us in His own way, and not as we would love ourselves.  

At the end of the day we are confronted with the question - “Do I Trust that what God is doing in my life is an act of love - that will bring me closer to Him in holiness?”  Oftentimes that question cannot be answered in a short time span, but requires years for us to realize the trajectory we are on.  

The day of the Meeting

After much time of worry, anxiety, and struggle the fateful day arrived when I was to meet with the committee that would decide my fate - either recommend me to Holy Orders, or not.  I entered the room and met the men and women that Archbishop Chaput had selected; a priest, a deacon and 6 laypeople were there to interview me.  I knew none of them - they were all strangers.  None of them knew my story, my history, my journey, my discernment.  

Prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit

Then they asked me if I would open our meeting with prayer, so I bowed my head and began to pray.  It was at that moment that I felt the Holy Spirit rushing upon me as it must have done for the Apostles and Disciples at Pentecost, and God’s love simply flowed into that room as we prayed together.  Christ sent his love to comfort me, to console me, to give me what to say - and I was no longer worried, or concerned about if I would be a Deacon or not because I knew that God had brought us to that moment to encounter Him.

Trust requires Humility and Docility

During Formation one of the points that they emphasized was a docility towards the Holy Spirit, and a Humility - a recognition that I don’t know what is best for me.  Docility - is an openness to accept that God works in our lives in ways that we don’t perceive.  That means that when we work with one another we recognize that things won’t always go the way we want them to go. 

Trust leads to Faith

Knowing that progress in our Journey towards Christ is measured over long time spans means that we need to reflect from time to time to determine - am I walking with the Lord in a way that leads us to Holiness.  As we reflect we can begin to see if that is true or not.

When we Trust that Christ is with us, and then we experience that He is truly with us - not as we want Him to be, but as He truly is, in His own way our relationship with God changes, it grows and we are transformed, and changed by that encounter.  In that way we as His disciples grow more and more to imitate Him.

Do we have the confidence that the wise men had to set out on a journey to encounter Christ?

The wisemen from the east had to in some way struggle with these questions - The King of Heaven is being born.  Do we trust God that he would invite us, pagans into His story?  That he would use us, pagans to proclaim his goodness, his mercy and his love?

When they get to Jerusalem, where this King should be, and not find them - did they Trust God - He is not here where we expected, and in the way we expected.  Do we trust Herod, and the scribes of the Law?

It is interesting to note that the star that appears at the birth of Christ is not visible from Jerusalem, yet when they move forward again from Jerusalem the star re-appears and leads them on to Bethlehem where they encounter the Messiah, and offer him their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

When we Encounter Christ - we are converted and our paths change.

When the wise men encountered the Lord, their lives were altered.  They worshiped him, gave him gifts and then returned to their homes by a different path - avoiding Herod.  Having known Christ, the Messiah their world view is different and upon returning home they began to prepare the way for the Church in their own homes.

Where do we encounter Christ?  In the Scriptures, In the Eucharist and in one another.

In that same way, when we encounter Christ He changes the trajectories of our lives.  As I reflect on my time here at St. Anthony’s I see that I have encountered Christ in my ministry here in many ways.  

• I have encountered the diversity of the Church, a glimpse of heaven with enthusiasm - in how we worship God.

• I have encountered piety - in visiting the sick, aged and dying.

• I have encountered honesty - in sinners confronting their own weaknesses.

• I have encountered devotion - in the many different communities of this parish that strive to serve God.

The Last Altar Server Class

This past Tuesday I taught my last Altar Server Class.  Afterwards I had a moment of heartfelt prayer before the tabernacle.  My heart was filled with both sadness and gratitude.  Sadness because I am leaving you. [PAUSE] Gratitude for the relationships we have had over the years.  Gratitude for the ways that I have been able to witness the presence of Christ working among you.

Archbishop Chaput…

I was ordained a Deacon by Archbishop Chaput.  In his final Mass at the Cathedral, he shared the following farewell address which I think is fitting for today’s occasion.

“Next month I will be offering the mass … for a new people - but how can I forget you?  So I promise you I am going to remember you in my prayers.  I ask you to remember me.  

And then when we meet again, I am sure I will meet some of you before this, but when we meet again, at the end of time, before the judgment seat of God, we will be able to claim one another as partners in God's great merciful act of salvation.”  

What God has begun in us, we ask Him to bring to completion."