Thursday, III Lent
(Lk 11)
When I was a seminarian in Washington, D.C., Pope John Paul II was elected pope. A year later he came to the United States. He was going to celebrate Mass on the Capitol mall, but I was not sure I wanted to attend. After all, it was unlikely that I could get close to him, much less shake his hand. Then, there were hundreds of thousands of other people there who would slow up transportation when I had plenty of work to do. Besides, at the time I was having difficulty with the new Pope’s refusal to grant dispensations to priests who asked to leave the active priesthood. I pretty much decided against attending when I heard a priest preach that it was not an opportunity to pass up. He said that the visit was unique – the first time a pope visited the U.S. Capitol. Whether or not we agreed with the directions in which John Paul was taking the Church, he said, we should make the effort to see him. Fortunately, I did. John Paul became one of my heroes and universally acclaimed as one of the greatest men of our times.
In the gospel Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is at hand with his coming. Still many people resist trusting his word. Like my making excuses not to see the Pope, they give half-hearted reasons for maintaining their doubts. He’s in league with the devil, they say, or, let’s see him prove himself by turning stones into bread.
Perhaps most of us as well harbor reservations about giving ourselves to God. What are these reservations? One is that if the Savior really has come, the world would be different. Perhaps it is the presence of so much poverty, violence, and disease. But just as likely we’re upset with the price of gasoline and the cost of cable television. We shouldn’t be grumbling over things, however. No, we should thank God that we have surplus money to pay for it. Of, if we don’t have the money, maybe we can thank God that we can live without these things. We should be able to see ourselves as deeply loved by God. He has given us life and called us around the table of His son. He will provide for us in death also when the taste of Christ’s body and blood that we have now will be transformed into a full banquet of unending joy.
