By Ken Rolheiser
The foreman looks down from ten stories up and tries to holler to a worker. He can’t get the fellow’s attention. He drops a twenty-dollar bill. The worker picks it up, pockets it and does not look up. He drops a hundred-dollar bill. Same result. Finally he drops a stone, which strikes the worker and causes him to look up.
When God tries to get our attention, he may send blessings. We don’t look up. We often take the credit for our good fortune and forget God. When crosses come our way, we turn to God. We take and take and take. God gives and gives and forgives. (Example from homily by Father Franklin Emereuwa)
When Jesus walked among us, when he went through the towns and villages, all who touched him were healed (Mark 6:56). People followed and brought out the sick on matts. And he healed them all.
Jesus still loves us. He loves the sick and the suffering. But guess what? He is ignored by many who have forgotten him or just not heard of him. They are not flocking into the streets to follow Jesus. That’s where you and I come in.
We all have a hunger for God things. At one point in his life Charles Coulson; Methodist lay preacher, religious author, mathematician, chemist and physicist; prayed to find God. He did.
Coulson went on to explain that God’s actions were evident in nature’s processes rather than apart from them. Coulson coined the expression God of the gaps in opposition to many who used God’s presence only in the things science cannot explain.
Again, this is where you and I come in. We can be in touch with God. Jesus still loves us and has not changed. Often we are afraid of getting near to God. “The truth is,” Jean Vanier says, “if we get closer to him he’s going to give us a hug.”
Through Faith we can touch others. In a good Saskatchewan metaphor we hear that the harvest is ready, but the labourers are few. Ask the Lord to nourish and energize the workers.
Jesus left the Bread of Life with us. Jesus, the Word of God, is still with us.
His love flows into us all, and, if we do our part, from us to all. We are the Body of Christ on earth. If any are to touch the Body of Christ and be cured, we are that Body.
In the words of Mother Teresa: “Who is Jesus to me? Jesus is the Word made Flesh. Jesus is the Bread of Life…Jesus is the Word—to be spoken. Jesus is the Truth—to be told. Jesus is the Way—to be walked. Jesus is the Light—to be lit. Jesus is the Life—to be lived. Jesus is the Love—to be loved.”
Our lives must be given to the greater purpose of Christ’s redemptive work in the world. In our families, the domestic church, we must be evangelizing, passing on the message to our children and our community.
It is very simple: “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” Mother Teresa
