I am having a great summer. I get to enjoy two extremes . . . in August I will be sleeping on the ground and catching fish up in Canada; this past week I spent a few days in New York City watching some Broadway Shows.
One show that we saw was DEAR EVAN HANSON. It is up for many Tony awards (tonight). The show basically address the age old dilemma . . . if people really knew me, would they like me?
I need 6 volunteers to help me with the homily. [Arrange them to hold ends of three long pieces of cloth and to flutter them to simulate a river.] Think of your life as being in the constant flow of God. We can call it grace, we can call it goodness. It is the reality that our lives are constantly in motion and that God intends good things for us.
I like to think of it as a “river of grace.” So imagine that you are floating in a river and all is well . . . it peaceful, it’s beautiful, it’s calm. This is how God intended your life, to be good. That was the first thing God said about us (from Genesis) after we were created, “You are good.”
But then, in this river, you bump into a rock. Ouch. Well you have some options; you can curse the rock and blame all your misfortunes on the rock. You can hang onto the rock and stay clinging to the pain. Or you simply move around the rock saying, “Oh well, bumping into that obstacle wasn’t fun but I will continue on.”
It is floating in this idea that life is good and that God has good things in store for us. Some people never understand this concept. They stay stuck with the mistaken notion that life is rotten, that God has abandoned them, that there’s no goodness around them.
Some people will actually get so upset that they leave the river. Thinking that they will find their own happiness somewhere else. This is when people get so far removed from God . . . or they seek their happiness in others things like work, or alcohol, or inappropriate websites, etc.
But staying in the flow of grace is NOT being a “Pollyanna” and pretending that there are not hardships. NO. Bad things happen to good people all the time. There will always be rocks, and rough water always in our lives. That’s just how life is.
We also have the strong belief that we are NEVER ALONE. That God will not, has not, ever left us. There is a divine process that we don’t have to change, coerce, or improve. We just need to allow and enjoy it. That takes immense confidence, especially when we’re hurting. Sometimes it seems like it . . . for the ride gets wild and unpredictable.
A concept that I have shared with you before, is to think of God with you in three ways.
God the Father as God for you.
God the Son as God beside you.
God the Spirit as God in you.
It is the river of grace, or this flow of grace, that we were born into. We had no choice. God simple loves us. And we stay in this grace NOT because we are good, but because God is good.
Correct, we don’t deserve such grace. No one does. And this is where many people get into wrong thinking (like the Broadway play: DEAR EVEN HANSON) . . . we are not alone.
God is with us always. God knows what you did and God is the source of forgiveness that says, “Ok, let’s move on from that.”
I way that I like to think of the Trinity is:
God the Father is love. As it says in 1 John, chapter 4. That’s all God knows . . is to love.
God the Son is the Mystery of hope or Paschal Mystery as we call it.
That no matter how crucified we feel, there will always be a resurrection.
God the Spirit is growth, is change, is transformation, is holy desire.
Ask yourself regularly, “What am I afraid of? Is it worth holding on to?” Think of clutching to a big rock in the river. Whatever it is . . . maybe it’s time to let go and trust the flow of God grace to carry you!