Too Much Going On?

10-30-2016Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

A sensitive ear can aid you in really listening and hearing the substance of matters going on in people's lives. I hope your conversations are meaningful enough to hear more than the contents which are presented on the surface. We really are living at a point in history when burdens can often seem like too much to handle. In the midst of all of the woes, I'm rather excited. Reason being: the Church has always prospered and grown in times of great distress and difficulties. In times of tremendous human suffering, saints have sprung up around the earth.

In the United States of America, we have the obvious tension regarding the craziness surrounding the upcoming elections. I heard a piece of advice which has some value: pay close attention to local politicians and make good choices there. In our local area is most likely where our local voice will be heard and we can make a difference in our region. Unfortunately, some long friendships and family relationships have been damaged, and sometimes broken, because of the polarization surrounding politics. We must always remember that we are children of God and act in ways which reflect the grace of God working within us. We need to remember that dialogue is so important to any relationship and decision; dialogue being an art which seems to be overshadowed by extreme opinions.

As if politics is not enough of a distraction, we continue to wrestle with real human issues like security, economics, weather extremes, imbalance of sports/recreation and the spiritual life, family/marital strife, personal health and well-being to name several. Your list may or may not include these and likely other real life issues. Even in our parishes, we continue to manage divisions about current or past decisions and hurts; some of those are generational within our parish. In the midst of it all, we say we are people of hope and sometimes act quite opposite to what we say.

So, each day we are given an opportunity to grow with God. That does not mean that God permeates our minds and hearts to make dramatic changes. What growing with God means is that we make effort to discover and rediscover how God operates at each moment of our life. First and foremost, we need to be people of prayer.

Again, consider some of the saints in the Church. Many of them lived in a time when there was suffering and hardship around them personally, or the current events of their day. Yet, through their prayer and deepening relationship with Jesus, they found ways to discover God's plan and exploited the heroic virtue they were given from their baptism. They knew themselves and God so well that they could not but help glorify God's graces through their lifestyles.

Take the Church, as another example. History proves that the voice of the Church became a voice of promise in some of the most devastating periods of history. When so much seems lost, people turn to the Church, specifically Catholicism, to be a pillar of truth and hope in the darkest moments of life. The Church's relevance has a lot to do with the fact that people maintained a relationship with the Church. Our part, in the modern age, is to not only say we're Catholic, but live in a manner which demonstrates our love for the Church, even the parts we may not understand or agree with. Somehow, written upon our hearts, is the reality that God calls us to be in relationship with Him through the Church He established. So, in the midst of these challenging times, are you listening to the voice of God? Are you working diligently to foster your personal relationship with Jesus? Are you studying Catholicism in a way which deepens your connection to the Church? Your connection to the Church and your relationship with Jesus will help you foster your heroic virtue and help you become the holy saint God created you and called you to be.

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