Catholic Faith Space
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On Saturday night my brother and I were looking for our quesadilla maker. For some reason it was not in its normal spot. We searched everywhere. We checked every possible spot it could be. We checked every cupboard and pantry and the most unlikely of places. After a good chunk of time searching, we finally found it. Of course, it had been right in front of us the whole time, in a place we had checked multiple times. It is a bit like this in our lives and with our faith.
How many times do we ask where God is? We’ve all heard it before or maybe we’ve asked the question ourselves. We experience the loss of a family member or friend, the loss of a job, or the loss of something that is good in our lives. Our country seems like it has been set on fire. We experience challenges and trials. Out of the hurt and suffering often comes the question, “God, where are you in all of this?” We can go through some days wondering where God is. And while our human minds might wonder and question and search, He is right in front of us. It’s easy to see God in the good. We have no problems seeing God in our family and friends, in big celebrations, and in the experiences that make us happy. We expect Him to be in these places. What about in the places that might be a bit darker or in the places we find ourselves distracted and searching? God is in those places too. Some days we might have to dig a little deeper to see God, but He is there, always waiting for us to seek Him out. Maybe you’re struggling with something right now. Maybe you’re having a hard time seeing God. He wants you to choose Him and make Him your number one desire. Keep your eyes and hearts open throughout each day and look for him in your encounters with others and in the ordinary moments. When you seek Him and reflect on His presence in your life, it is then that you will find Him, in all of the places you look. My prayer for you today is that you would follow God’s invitation to seek Him each day and be consumed by His unending love that is right in front of you.
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Yesterday, I saw a tweet that said “are any Catholics going to give up hating women for Lent this year instead of chocolate?” Seeing this brought to mind a quote from Fulton Sheen. He says, “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” Opening up social media, consuming other types of media, and having conversations in-person regularly reveal the countless misconceptions that people have about Catholics and the Church. Sometimes, it is former Catholics who partake in sharing contempt for Catholics and misinformation about the beliefs and practices. As Catholics we cannot just sit back and watch.
The teachings of the Catholic Church are good and true. Our beliefs about the Eucharist, the right to life and dignity of every person, marriage/family are just a few areas that identify us as Catholics. It is our job to work to present our faith and beliefs whenever the opportunity arises, especially as the culture works to twist the Church’s beliefs and set forth false ideas. If we remain silent about our beliefs for fear of offending someone, then our beliefs are really not that important to us. This can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow. However, when it comes down to what really matters, we need to ask ourselves an important question. Do we value the truth of Christ or the opinions of others? Being human, we naturally want other people to like us. We want their validation and don’t want to offend anyone. Putting Jesus and the truth of our faith above what other people think is something we need to work on every day. It does not automatically happen all at once. We usually cannot change people’s minds and opinions. What we can, and need, to do when Catholic beliefs are attacked is present the truths of what we believe boldly, and most importantly, with love. We can ask others why they believe what they do and try to understand where they have gotten their information from. Our beliefs and teachings are central to the faith. They are what we stand for and they help us know God by showing us His truth. However, there will always be people who fail to understand what we believe. There will always be people who tell us we are wrong. There will always be people who have different beliefs. All of this is okay. People may always wrongly perceive what we believe as Catholics. May they never wrongly perceive who we are as Catholics; a community of people who love like Christ. When people interact with me, do they experience the love of Christ? Reflect on this question today and every day. “You have all my heart. All that is broken. I surrender all. My life into Your hands. You have all my love. All that I’m holding. I surrender all. My life into your hands.” These lyrics from Matt Maher’s song “Into Your Hands” have been really speaking to me recently. We so often think we are in control of our lives. What if we fully surrendered our lives into Jesus’ hands?
We like to think we can plan out everything in our lives. We can make decisions on our own and choose what we want to happen. The idea we have that we’re in control is all just an illusion. It has always been and will always be God who holds the control of our lives. He knows what He’s doing, even when we think our ideas are better. We often spend time stressing about the daily occurrences in our lives. Everything needs to happen a certain way, or else the world feels as if it is ending. We try to do everything on our own and in our own ways. People often grasp tightly onto the things in their lives that are perfect, or maybe what they perceive to be perfect. As long as we hold onto these things very tightly, we will not lose them because we’re in control, right? Maybe it’s that perfect job. Maybe it’s a relationship or our health. It might be as simple as your daily routine. What happens when these things change or are taken away? We will be left lost and searching. There is uncertainty in life. It is hard for most of us to face the uncertainties. We want to know where we’re going, what we're doing, and when it will happen. We cannot obsess over different situations or let ourselves be consumed by fear of the unknown. We think we know what is best for ourselves and we wander around holding onto all the things that we think we have control of. We need to open our hands and let go of everything we are so tightly clenching. We need to hand it all over to Jesus. Sometimes it seems as if we put Jesus in a corner, a corner of our lives. We give Him certain parts of our lives and leave Him out of the other parts. “He can be in this part, but not the others,” we tell ourselves, almost as if we are putting Him inside of a box. We sometimes try to separate our faith life from every other part of our lives. The problem with this is Jesus cannot just be a part of our lives. He needs to be our whole life. Through the joys and sorrows, tears, and laughter, good times and suffering, we need to give it all to Jesus. Jesus wants our whole hearts and our whole lives. He knows what we need and what is good for us. What if we stopped trying to figure everything out on our own and just let Him guide us through each day? Life is not always easy. We will often be uncomfortable, but Jesus will never abandon us. My prayer for today is that we would surrender all our lives and all that we’re holding into His hands. My birthday was on Saturday. Over the past few days, I reflected on how blessed I am to have made it to 24. To me, 24 years seems like a long time, yet I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone. I have grown and learned a lot along the way but there is so much more to learn and so many more ways to grow. Through my reflecting, the main thought that kept occurring to me is that life is truly a gift. Sure, most of us know that life is a gift but do we truly appreciate it? Do we wake up each day just trying to survive and get by or do we wake up, grateful to be alive and breathing and ready to fulfill our mission?
God has given us the precious gift of life. How do we treat the gift of life that has been entrusted to us? I think we often wish time away. Maybe we go from day to day, desperately grasping for the weekend. We might tell ourselves every week that we just have to make it through this week. Other times, we try too hard to fast-forward to the future, failing to focus on the present moment we are in. Whether we are experiencing big moments or the small, ordinary moments of each day, we are invited to live life to the full. Jesus came so that we would have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10). Are we following God’s will for our lives and fulfilling our mission and purpose? I think sometimes we can get so caught up in discovering what this is that we become overwhelmed. Rather than being consumed by this huge question, we can scale it down to a smaller level. Someone wise once told me that we should wake up each day and ask, “Lord, what is your will for me today?” I want to wake up each day and ask God to open up my eyes to see His blessings more clearly. I want to open up my heart more deeply to love in a greater capacity. I want to ask God how I can serve Him better and love Him more than the day before. Whether you are 14, 24, 54, 74, or somewhere in between, your life is a gift and has purpose. You are a gift to the world. You are a blessing to others in a way that no one else can be. Lord, we are your servants. Help us to seek your will each day. Help us to recognize that our lives are the most precious gift you have given us. Give us the grace to say “yes” to you so that we can fulfill our mission to serve you and love you. May we always remember that, whether we are “young” or “old”, to be alive and breathing is enough. A few years ago I came across a Word of the Year Generator that was created by a Catholic speaker and author. A few days ago, I once again came across this word generator and decided to have a random word generated, just for fun. The word that came up was “still.” Curious about what other words would come up, I decided to generate a second word. The second word that came up was “presence.” While I had no intentions of having a “word of the year” and did not plan on giving much thought to the random word(s) generated, I quickly realized that I needed to see these two words, still and presence, as an invitation and a goal to work toward, especially if I want to experience more depth and growth in my spiritual life.
Most of us, from an early age, are taught that Jesus is always with us wherever we go and in whatever we do. It’s easy for us to acknowledge this bit of truth in our minds. Of course Jesus is always with us, we remind ourselves. However, the real work we have to do is let this truth enter into the deepest parts of our hearts. Everything changes when we know in our hearts that He is with us. How can we let this knowledge go from our heads to our hearts? It starts with taking time regularly to recognize His presence. This can mean reading scripture, devotionals, or other spiritual material, journaling, or going to adoration where He is present in the Eucharist. All of these actions involve one key factor: being still. We will never be able to fully know the presence of Christ if we do not take time to be still. It is when we are still and open to hearing Him speak to us that we will be fully aware of His presence. When we are fully aware of Christ’s presence, we are fully aware of His love. Maybe it was just a coincidence that in a random word generator, the two words I got were “still” and “presence.” Nonetheless, there could not have been two words that go together more perfectly. While it was a random and mindless activity, I know that having these two words generated is exactly what I needed to renew the habit of sitting still in the presence of Christ, particularly in adoration. As many people might be thinking of ways to better themselves throughout this year, maybe you are being called to be still and become more aware of the presence of Jesus in your life. How will you take time to be still in His presence this week? |
AuthorStriving to share hope, joy, God's love, and all of the good stuff, one blog post at a time. Categories |
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