Reaching for Heaven

Here I am, I come to do your will. That is all the Lord asks of us...all of ourselves. Yet, saying yes to the Lord is life-altering, and not always in ways we would anticipate or choose for ourselves. Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. We need only to look at the life of Mary to see the unthinkable ways in which the Lord leads us if we offer ourselves to Him. Betrothed, not married, she became with child. In the early years of her marriage, she fled her home to provide safety, trusting Joseph was being led by God. She raised a son, whom she loved as her son and God's son, only to see him brutally murdered, unable to help him...and asked not to do so as his sacrifice was for a greater cause. For her faith and for her suffering she was greatly rewarded with protection throughout her life and a glorious assumption into heaven at the end of it.

Now, we're no Mary, that's for sure! Like Mary, though, we need to keep our eyes focused on the bigger picture. It is easy to get stuck in the little trying details, but when we step back I think most of us would agree that God's hand has blessed us more than we sometimes acknowledge. Today, let's let go of what we hold back from God, and following Mary's example, offer our whole lives to him with expectant faith and trust in his providence for us.

That Christ allowed himself to be crucified is indeed a weakness in the eyes of the world. The great and glorious God-man subjected himself to the torturous and humiliating death of a criminal. Foolishness? Stumbling block? Or as St. Paul so beautifully explains in Philippians, a perfect act of total humility, not humiliation?

This is the question we must ask ourselves. Do we understand the necessity and power of the cross, some two thousand years later, or has it become once again a stumbling block that confounds us or a glitch in the story that seems a little far-fetched and foolish? In addition to the physical structure of torture, the cross refers to our own struggles and suffering. There is no denying that in this life, we have been and are separated from God. This separation brings with it inherent struggles, varying in degrees for everyone. Add to that this notion: to believe in Christ, to LIVE in Christ is not a comfortable life. It is one filled with choices, and as foretold in the Gospels, one in which we will have to bear our cross. We have a choice. We can embrace that suffering, recognizing its ability to unite us with Jesus, or we can allow it to become a stumbling block in our faith. We can call upon the name of Christ, who endured crucifixion, in our suffering, or we can try to alleviate it through our own means. In the end, which is the real foolishness?

A fun exercise by researchers from Kansas State University trying to explore the habits of people around the country has drawn a map of sin across America.

A Catholic News Service article breaks down the researchers findings based on patterns of behavior. The researchers collected census information, FBI crime reports and stats from the Dept. of Human Health and Services. How did they break it down? How else but by the seven deadly sins!

Now, of course, this is not a serious study...or is it? We certainly can't point fingers at regions of the country, but it gives us some insight into our vices...and it turns out we've got a few. You won't color me shocked at that. Though it is not a study meant to identify our greatest downfalls, it is a great starting point for a look inward. I find it quite interesting what variables they used to determine the deadly sins, and am curious what we would use to make the same measure in light of our faith.

Contrary to the belief of many in the Catholic Church of yesteryear, ours is not a private faith. As a new generation of Catholics, we are still recovering from that notion that one does not "impose" one's religion or faith onto others. From where it developed I cannot be sure, only to say that perhaps it was a natural reaction to the persecution many Catholics faced in their communities in the early years of this nation.

Yet, ours is a faith that calls us to embrace persecution. We are called to unite ourselves with Jesus Christ in those moments and allow God's grace and mercy to flow into us, not only to provide us with consolation, but to serve as a witness of the mercy of Christ to the world. Turning to Jesus in our moments of "affliction" we are filled. Uniting ourselves with Him in all things, we continue to fill ourselves not just to the brim so that we are satisfied, but to a point where we overflow with the love and mercy of God so that we can share it with others who need it. If we are not turning to Christ, however, if we take matters into our own hands, our own chasm of need remains too deep for us to proclaim what Jesus has done for us.

Does our cup overflow, or do we just keep a personal stash of Christ's mercy for troubled times? Let us pray, that inspired by the selfless sacrifice of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe whose memorial is today, we may never embrace a solely private faith - that we may be so united with Christ that his grace, light and mercy spill out of us to all those we encounter.

Each Sunday, as we profess our faith in the Mass, we begin by saying, "We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty...We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ..." As we go through life, I think most of us have a inner knowledge of God as the only God, and yet, it is so easy to begin to let other things direct our paths. It is equally easy to think we have things under control, or if you are like me, that we must take care of everything. Yet, it is God for whom all things are possible, not us. It is God who is the one Lord, who has created us and whose will directs us to peace and joy - not any human, regardless of how admirable the may be.