When did you first come to know God’s presence in your life? Little Joey tells me that he first got to know of God’s presence just the other morning. His Dad was outside of the bathroom room, pounding on it and shouting, “My God, are you still in there?”
When did you first come to know God’s presence? Spiritual Director Jason Minnix says, “For many adults, their earliest awareness of God’s presence was in their play as children.”
So I want to give some of you an experience of play. I need some volunteers up here.
[Give each a bottle of bubbles and have them blow bubbles. After a bit invite them to pop the bubbles without using their hands. They can use their heads, elbows, legs, feet, knees, etc.]
Diane Ackerman writes, “The spirit of deep play is spontaneity, discovery and being open to new challenges.” I think that a big problem for most of us (especially the adults) is that we don’t play enough. Think of this, when was the last time you simply played a game or an activity, not to win, but just to play? Daniel Robinson says, “We are never so authentically ourselves as when we play, and one of the greatest productions of play is art itself.”
Now obviously faith has a serious side. We all know this . . . when we gather to pray after a tragedy or when we are trying to comfort someone who is ill or suffering. But when we only think of our faith as “needing to serious” then we can fall into the shallowness of legalism or moralism or becoming self-righteous.
Pope Francis’ first Papal letter was dedicated to joy . . . THE GOSPEL OF JOY. On March 26 of this year Pope Francis said, joy of the Gospel is the ID card of a true Christian and “the touchstone of a person’s faith. Without joy that person is not a true believer.”
I read an article lately that said, “Playfulness is a channel through which joy can flow in our lives. As the good news of God’s love and forgiveness flows into our lives, then we that good news becomes our good news . . . and we experience the “joy of life.”
We are celebrating TRINITY SUNDAY this weekend. Our Faith Formation Directory, Molly Weyrens wrote a nice piece on it for the bulletin cover. The Trinity is basically God: three being in one . . . Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or as I like to say three different parts/aspects of God each relating to us. But at various times in our lives we rely more on one than the others:
God the Father - God for us
God as Jesus - God beside us
God as Holy Spirit - God within us
And each one of those aspects of God is trying to tell us . . . come on, be joyful, lighten up. On any day of the week, we can find reasons to complain or to say, “Woe is me.” But we are invited to become something different, something better.
The great spiritual pioneer and scientist Pierre Teilhard d Chardin observed,
“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”
I believe that the more that we can be awed by God . . . and the wonder and goodness of life, even with its’ troubles and setbacks, the more that we will do as Jesus commanded in the gospel, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.”
There are probably people in your life who haven’t been to Church in a while, or who even have rejected organized religion. Well . . . go ahead and try guilting them into returning, or shaming them so that the feel awful about themselves.
. . . or try letting the joy and grace of God’s love shine through you and become more playful, laughing more, smiling more. This joy doesn’t occur because of where you are (like at the lake or on vacation) it doesn’t occur because everything is finally perfect in your life (no worried, no financial problems). It occurs because of an attitude, a condition of the soul. Decide how you want to approach the summer ahead. You can remain grumpy and negative . . . and always focusing on the bad aspect of each day. Or you use these summer days to be as God has created them . . . for us to be playful and to reflect God’s goodness.
Last year, Pope Francis he was asked about his secret to happiness. He said, “Slow down. Take time off. Live and let live. Don’t proselytize. Work for peace. Work at a job that offers basic human dignity. Don’t hold on to negative feelings. Move calmly through life. Enjoy art, books and . . . playfulness.”