Fr. McKeon’s talks last week struck a chord with me. He pointed to a very important place where we can discover God’s friendship in our lives. Our memories.
One of the benefits of growing older (imagine that!) is having a library of memories that continue to speak about the times the hand of God came to our aid. We all have them if we just look and remember.
Let’s think then of a time when life had grown complicated or frightening or unexpectedly blessed with happiness. Can you find something that happened to you (good or bad) that, as it turned out, can only be explained as some power of goodness. It somehow changed everything for the better, or at least kept you from a serious mistake? Something was added that you could never have thought up by yourself. I bet it happened at just the right time!
Some of mine are too personal to share but here’s a couple true ones that may help your own search.
The Acorn
Back in my mid-twenties I had been accepted for entrance to the seminary. But with classes soon to begin, I was having serious doubts about my decision. Doing some chores around the house (cleaning gutters up on the roof), I spotted an acorn in the gutter that seemed perfectly intact. (It had not fallen to the ground like the others which were now sprouting tiny oak sprigs on the grass below).
I popped the little “hat” off the top of the acorn. There it was, filling the entire body of the acorn an orange worm! I can still remember that color.
The God part? An awareness came to me that said something like, “Tim, unless you let go and stop trying to protect yourself, something else will take over your life.”
“Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies . . . it remains just a grain of wheat.” John 12:24. I couldn’t have dreamed up such a thing. God used that worm to change my life. Off to seminary I went.
The Kindergarten Teacher
Years later I was an assistant in a parish far from here. It was Sunday. The pastor and I had been bumping heads about how certain things should be done. Life was dry and plodding. I yearned to be free as my work seemed to be unappreciated.
Stopping into a kindergarten class in between masses, I watched this tired mother of three struggling to teach her young students about the Faith. The children were restless and her lesson plan was going up in flames. “Someone else is having a bad Sunday”, I thought.
Then it happened. At the end of her wits, this woman said in the sweetest of voices, “Oh children, if you only knew how much God loves you.”
The God part? Her words went right through me. I can’t explain it any other way than to say I felt God’s love for me in her words. She was the one God used to touch my heart. I don’t think she had any idea what she had given me. (I haven’t remembered this incident of over 30 years ago till I sat this morning to write this column.) Use one of your memories to start a prayer time.
So sit. Think back. What happened in your teen years? Your career? Your marriage? The children? Find a time (or a period of time) when you were empty or scared . . . and something unexpectedly filled you with hope, or spared you serious harm or gave you the courage to go on. A time that could only have been given to you by a God who loves you.
These things are to be cherished for a lifetime. They still speak the goodness you received back then.
God loves you. And don’t you forget it!
Fr. Tim
