Heres the thought that Im having as I push through a pile of homework in a coffee shop: This thought is directed at *you*, high school and college-aged readers. At every stage of our lives, we wonder What does this all mean? Who am I supposed to be? How do I fit in? We might not always ask the questions in those terms... but we wonder. We are all looking for our way to fit in: in communities, in families, in school or work, in sharing our gifts and in creation as a whole. We search for meaning. Our faith. Our tradition. Our community. Our church... Together we all try to create a place where we can take some time to wonder about our meaning. To make a safe space for other people to wonder about their meanings. We stand together, and to support one another as we try to figure out how we fit into the world. And we recognize that we are not alone in this journey of discovery. Our loving God created the universe and everything in it (including us!) through an act of sheer will and love. That same God constantly reaches out to us with in invitation to seek him out. God recognized particular people along the way - and God made those people role models, invitations and beacons for how we can somehow try to stand next to God. Many of those people are the saints that came before us, and the community that supports us today. God also became one of those people in the man, Jesus -as a way of walking in solidarity with us for a while. We are invited to share our gifts, talents, love and support with each other as we attempt to imitate Jesus life, ministry and love while he walked here. Why am I telling you this? Because I know that sometimes every one of us will lose focus for a little while. Well wonder what good our church is for us? Why go to mass? Will anybody notice if Im not there? Is there a point to all of this? And the answer is - if nothing else our church, our time together and our sharing in the sacraments is our reminder that were not alone, were loved, were gifted, were worth something, and were here to take care of each other. We walk in the footsteps of the holy men and women who came before us, and those footsteps lead us back to God. We will make the footsteps that the generations after us will use as their paths back to God.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:59:24 +0000