“You cannot see the forest for the trees” is a widely known saying that can bring wisdom to our understanding of our journey. Often, our sight becomes limited to what is immediately before us. We lose touch with lessons and experiences from the past and promises and hope for the future. As human beings, we have the privilege of being able to choose things. What I like and don’t like, want, and don’t want can be major preoccupations of our minds and hearts. Our preferences and desires begin to define us more than the simple fact of our being. Who we are matters more than what we are or what we have. If we don’t move beyond the external and superficial stuff to what really is of essence, we risk becoming very unsettled, disorientated, angry, and unhappy. We fail to see the bigger picture of hope and promise that lies ahead and the Divine Presence that has sustained and carried us before.

We like it when the “now” time of our lives satisfy us. Even the people who witnessed Jesus feed the five thousand got confused and distracted. It felt good when thousands of people were able to eat. They wanted to know what they could do to get this to happen again! But Jesus quickly reminds them that this is not the point of this sign. As much as the now time of our lives is of concern, it is not what is ultimately important. We need to learn the difference between being and doing, drawing more strength from who we are and who God is rather than what is happening around us and the choices we can make. Jesus is the true bread that came down from heaven. Jesus is the very incarnate presence of God who sustains life and assures us that we will not perish. This is not easy to understand and feel. We have to practice being in the presence of ourselves, others, creation, and God. We are brought to a holy place when we encounter the sacredness of being. This is real prayer.

Then, we learn to trust. It is when we cease trusting that we start to become afraid, uncertain, apprehensive, and doubtful, and overly self-concerned. We even start to grumble. God has our back. That is the essential powerful message of the living bread come down from heaven. God, who is alpha is also omega, the beginning and the end, and has everything in between in his care as well. A woman once remarked that her most powerful God moment happened when she and her husband cuddled with their new baby for a time. Without exchanging words and using only the affection communicated through sight and touch, they rested in being with each other. This brought them to the sacred, where they realized that a greater Being was with them. It was real. They knew that they were part of something bigger, intimate, and profound. When we rest in the Living Source of life, we will find that our souls are no longer hungry or thirsty.

©LPi
 

St. Oscar Romero said, “We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is the beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.”

There were a group of ladies many years ago who made quilts. They were beautiful creations reflecting inspirational designs artfully composed from the simple scraps of fabric each woman would bring to their individual pieces. There was no plan for the finished project as each finished work became the combined creation of what each woman contributed. They abounded in vibrant colors and dazzled the beholder with intricate patterns and their myriad textures. They were so beautiful that they became coveted family treasures passed from generation to generation. Those women never realized the power of their work. Countless babies rested in the comfort of those quilts warmly nestled in the legacy of tradition they were fortunate to inherit. They adorned countless homes with their beauty and brought joy and solace to many faces.

We cannot do everything. We are not meant to. Our work in life is to contribute our individual piece, a piece that reflects the unique thumbprint I claim as my own. We only have to do small things well. Then, as St. Oscar Romero reminds us, the Lord’s grace will enter and do the rest. We have to trust that this is true just as those women trusted in the eventual beauty of their final work.

Eucharistic blessings are blessings that start small and multiply. We all come to life with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish. Not any single one of us has all that it takes to transform our world. Who knows what God will do with the little we have and how many will benefit from our kindness, compassion, wisdom, courage, conviction, love, warmth, zeal, faith, and hope? That young lad never dreamed that his few leftovers would do all that they did. God shows up in unexpected ways! Where would life’s adventure and fun be if it were any other way? Being able to be part of bringing God’s creative, transforming, healing to the world opens us up to wonder, awe, and excitement! We can all bring our little piece to the bigger work of God that can result in being a coveted jewel passed generation to generation. This is good news indeed!

Bread and wine transform into Christ’s Body and Blood and we become what we eat. Trust that.

©LPi

There’s an ordinary pine grove located on a tree farm not too far from town where life’s stresses and demands seem to melt away. It is here that all that seemed so important out there no longer is and one can get lost in the rows of trees and majestic beauty. God is here and all is good. We need to connect with the Divine Source of all that is in order to understand what it is we are doing and why we are doing it. Otherwise, things stop making sense and bitterness can overcome one’s spirit. It’s okay to play once in a while and to discover that place of profound life and peace. People always have needs and there is constantly something to do. And while all of that is necessary and we are needed, there is also that inner solitude within that needs to be celebrated and released.

We all need a pine grove. It’s that little place we can go and leave all that consumes us behind. It’s a place where technology can be set aside and wonder, and awe given some time. We don’t have to text, calculate, or orchestrate anything in the pine grove. It is a somewhat deserted place where all of that can be set aside and we can just be. The anger, frustration, exhaustion, discouragement, helplessness, and occasional apathy, all can fall to the ground like all of those pine needles that once held their place on the branch of a Frasier Fir. The needles can let go. We can let go. We are beings connected with Being and we all need to remember what really matters, who really matters and what life is truly all about. We need to find that place where we can rest and let go of all of the barnacles we accumulate. Rest, breathe, seek, and love.

The world will need us again when we leave the pine grove. It will all be waiting for us, beckoning for our attention. But we will have prayed and will have marveled at the silence and the beauty of goodness. We can go back, ready, and eager to listen, to help, to heal, to cry, to embrace, and attend to all that is asked of us. But, having let go of the distractions in that deserted place we will have a renewed sense of purpose. We will know better Who it is we serve and what we are meant to do. It will all be clearer now that we have been Divinely touched and refreshed.

©LPi

Maybe the work is best left to the professionals. That’s how many people view the preaching of the Gospel. That’s the stuff priests, religious, deacons, lay ministers, and other professional Church people do. It has little to do with me. Well, that’s not really true. The fact of the matter is that preaching the Gospel has everything to do with you, with all of us who are baptized members of the Body of Christ. Nobody gets off the hook from that job. The question is, however, how do we do it? Well, there’s a safe way, which many choose, to preach the Gospel — and the risky way.  The safe way pretty much keeps the Gospel in church and around like-minded people. I say my prayers, go to Mass, contribute to the food pantry, tithe, and attend Bible Study. That pretty much covers the bases, right? Wrong.

The risky way is the more challenging way and for many, the “road less traveled.” Imagine those first disciples going out and into people’s homes. They must have had some amazing conversations with folks about God’s kingdom, changing their hearts, forgiving sins, and looking at the world differently. They must have met people who were hurting, exiled from their communities, neglected, lost, or living self-insulated lives in a society that served the rich and neglected the poor. While there were many who welcomed what they had to say and the conversations they had, there were others who no doubt rejected them and literally tossed them out on their ears! The Gospel, while being a message of joy and hope, is not always received well by those who are very comfortable keeping things as they are.

The risky way involves example and conversation. We have to take the Gospel from church and carry it with us wherever we go. What kinds of conversations do we have with others? We interact with those closest to us, in our work, social circles, institutions, corporations, in politics, and beyond. Our conversations with others reveal a great deal about how we see things and what we consider important. If we are really interested in seeing God’s vision for the world succeed, then we will talk about it. It will become a part of our everyday conversation and find its way into our interactions with others. How will we preserve the dignity of human life and encourage others to have a relationship with God? We must be the example, live value centered, virtuous lives, stand against injustice, combating racism, and learn ways to resolve conflicts without violence.

If we are going to succeed going forward, we have to find a way to bring our prayer centered lives into the marketplace. Our conversations have to change. Not everyone wants to hear what the Gospel has to say. That’s a risk God asks us to take.

©LPi

It’s all so ordinary that we can easily miss it. The seagulls hunting and diving for mollusks at the beach offer a display of determination and precision as they gather their food for the day. It’s simply what these creatures do. Yet, there’s a magical artfulness and skill to their work that speaks volumes about the One who breathed life into their being. This is pretty much the way it is with God’s presence. God comes in common ways through common things and ordinary people. Sadly, we are so engulfed in our little worlds of order and ideas to notice the beauty and wonder of it all. Many have numbed themselves to the Divine spark at the essence of all life because that’s just the way it is. What’s so special about it? A sunset is a sunset and a seagull is a seagull. That’s precisely what they thought about Jesus too. After all, isn’t he just the carpenter’s son? What merit can his words possibly have?

If we’re looking for God to come in an event that is so dramatic and intense that it knocks our socks off, then think again. When pondering God’s relationship with His people and God’s action in our lives, we have to go back to the stable and the recurring, creative, unending power of God’s presence. It was a quiet, run of the mill kind of night. There was nothing spectacular or extraordinary. To the naked eye, a woman gave birth to a child and there wasn’t anything extraordinary to see. We have a hard time understanding God’s ordinary-ness.  Jesus grew up in an ordinary town, had neighbors and did normal human things. Perhaps that’s why we don’t always like the Gospel. It doesn’t dazzle us with extraordinary things but simply challenges us to take a different look at our ordinary stuff. That makes us uncomfortable. We prefer things as they are. Our lack of faith can even cause us to take offense at what Jesus says and does, dismissing it as folly.

God’s life-giving presence continues to sustain that seagull in flight and keep all things in being regardless of whether we have the faith to see and understand this. Our personal agendas, preconceived ideas, misconceptions, and expectations can often cause us to be hardened and blinded to what God is doing or desiring to do. While God continues to do what he has done for all eternity, faith is needed for God’s presence to bear fruit. The blinders we wear and the expectations we bring to life can often prevent us from seeing graced moments that radiate with God’s graceful presence. They also prevent God’s transforming, healing, and hope filled vision for our world from being realized. Without faith, God won’t be able to do much for us either.

©LPi