For those of you who do not know what I've been up to lately . . . I have been a pastoral intern at Corpus Christi Parish in Sturgeon Bay, WI. One of the most compelling mysteries to me is the Mystical Body of Christ. When I was in my second year of seminary formation, I had the blessing of spending an hour with Bishop David Ricken. Deep down in the depths of my heart was one simple question for Bishop Ricken. I asked, "How do you pray Bishop?" He took a deep breath and said, "The key to prayer is simplicity. Most often, my prayer is to ask the Lord to reveal himself to me in others and to be Jesus to others."
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| Bishop David Ricken |
Now this heavenly wisdom has remained in my heart every day for a few reasons. One because I fail at allowing the Lord to reveal himself to me in others all of the time. In essence, the prayer is much easier to say than to actually live. Secondly because of the reality is that it is difficult to see Christ in those we struggle with. At times, it is even more difficult, to see Christ in those we love. I ask for new eyes all of the time. However, the Lord stretches our heart a little more with each prayer request until we are ready to receive the grace needed to accept his will. The deeper truth that this prayer calls me to simplify, simplify, and simplify.
At Corpus Christi, I have been blessed with the opportunity to teach the K-8 for 20 mins per class every Friday. It refreshes my heart to see how much hunger there is for the truth and for how much wisdom there is in the youth. On the flip side, it frustrates me when I see our culture giving up hope in these future saints. They keep me on fire for the truth. I love it when I see the spark of faith come to life when they ask an amazing question or make a deep statement about this mystery we call life . . . to see how rich in love and full of mystery our faith is and always will be.
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| LORD, HELP ME SEE YOU IN OTHERS AND BE YOU TO OTHERS! PLLLEAAASE! |
At Corpus Christi, I have been blessed with the opportunity to teach the K-8 for 20 mins per class every Friday. It refreshes my heart to see how much hunger there is for the truth and for how much wisdom there is in the youth. On the flip side, it frustrates me when I see our culture giving up hope in these future saints. They keep me on fire for the truth. I love it when I see the spark of faith come to life when they ask an amazing question or make a deep statement about this mystery we call life . . . to see how rich in love and full of mystery our faith is and always will be.
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| The word that describes the look on the face of someone who is amazed . . . |
This past Friday, I was blessed with spending time with the 3rd Grade class. One of the students raised her hand during our time together and with a curious look on her face and said, "So that means whatever I do to someone else I do it Jesus." In shock, I asked everyone to be quiet so she could repeat it again. With even wider eyes that the first time she said, "So that means whatever I do to someone else I do it to Jesus" Some of the class seemed puzzled at the depth in this mysterious statement of faith. Do you believe what she just said? Do you live what she just said? This mysterious truth is what makes being a Christian so difficult because Jesus is present and so often, we fail at acknowledging him in others.
I've been praying every day the prayer that Bishop David Ricken taught me. "Jesus, help me see you in others and be you to others." There's obviously more than one way to say this prayer and I encourage you to make it your own. In the classroom on Friday, I saw the Word of God in John 3:30 ("He must increase, I must decrease") come to life in the soul and heart of a child. The glow in her eyes and the amazement of the truth of Jesus being present in every person will never leave the gift of my imagination.
So how about you? Do you truly believe that Jesus is present in every person? When you are on Facebook or the internet or watching TV or just simply are out and about. . . Do you look with disgust at people who are not attractive to you or are not exactly beautiful in the eyes of the world or do you ask for the grace to see Christ in them? The difficulty is in accepting others . . . as they are . . . being made in the image and likeness of God as his beloved son and daughter. Might I add, if we can accept our faults then and only then can we accept the faults of others as well. We are all sinners and we are all in need of mercy. Additionally, since we are all God's beloved son's and daughters, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ too. So when we judge, we are judging our brother . . . our sister . . . and thus as Mother Theresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
So how about you? Do you truly believe that Jesus is present in every person? When you are on Facebook or the internet or watching TV or just simply are out and about. . . Do you look with disgust at people who are not attractive to you or are not exactly beautiful in the eyes of the world or do you ask for the grace to see Christ in them? The difficulty is in accepting others . . . as they are . . . being made in the image and likeness of God as his beloved son and daughter. Might I add, if we can accept our faults then and only then can we accept the faults of others as well. We are all sinners and we are all in need of mercy. Additionally, since we are all God's beloved son's and daughters, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ too. So when we judge, we are judging our brother . . . our sister . . . and thus as Mother Theresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
What do we do to realize this mystery? We take a deep breath. We pray and ask for help. May I suggest asking for St. Veronica's intercession? Asking her to show you Jesus as she recognized him on the way to Calvary when he was bruised, beaten, dehydrated, mocked, etc to the point of not be recognizable . . . . looking like a worm (Isaiah 41:14) as a he carried the cross. When it seemed that all of the world could not see Jesus, she came to him as he carried the Cross of sins and wiped his face with a cloth to see him more clearly. The cloth allowed her to see what seemed to be ugly in the eyes of the world to be seen as the most beautiful thing amidst all of the people mocking the God of the universe. She saw with her heart, while the people mocking Jesus saw with the eyes of the world. This cloth must be wiped across our faces and hearts from time to time too. The gift of being able to love comes from accepting that when one can see with the heart, then and only then does one begin to love.
Prayer:
Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit.
Jesus, I fail at seeing you in others.
Jesus, I fail at loving my sisters and my brothers.
Jesus, send St. Veronica into my life forever this day,
Jesus, may she teach me how to see, to love, and to pray.
Jesus, she saw you when no one could.
Jesus, may she help this mystery be understood.
Jesus, she loved you from her heart,
Jesus, the day is yours, right now, in your name, I start.
Amen.
The Hardest part of all of this is to accept that Jesus is present in me too.
In the Mystery,
Zach Weber
