When did you remember to give thanks for that miracle?
(05-09-2010)
This weekend we honor mother’s in our special celebration as we remember them and pray for them; those who are with us and those who have gone onto the Lord and to be with our Blessed Mother.
Remembering mother’s can be a joyful time. My mom died nine years ago last month and occasionally I smell her perfume or something reminds me of her and I smile.
Of course, my sisters and brothers and I agree—we had the best mother in the world! I remember them challenging her about how she loved me more than the others—she would deny it claiming to love us all equally—of course I knew better. Mom is now with the Lord, but we Acan still remember her voice, her laugh, her many ways she taught us how to love and live. And when we remember her together we automatically smile and sigh nearly at the same time.
Remembering is a gift a sacred task. Families gather at celebrations such as Baptisms, First Communion, Quinceañeras, weddings and share family histories and anecdotes. At times of funerals people treasure the memories of a loved one telling stories that reflect the importance of life together, life as sacred.
As we hear today in our readings, one of the Spirit’s gifts to us is memory of the message of Jesus. We remember the hope and promise of his message. In our gospel Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples and telling them to remember him, love him, and live like him in his Spirit, which he gives us.
The Spirit is trying to break through all of life’s many distractions and teach us; help us remember that God loves us and is with us.
A discipline of remembrance can be a simple 5-10 minute quiet pause in our day—time to reflect on the events of the day and try to see God’s presence. Such remembering is a way in which God reveals grace filled presence in new and deeper ways to us.
Our liturgy is largely a Spirit-filled act of remembering—the Mass of Remembrance. Jesus tells us each time you eat this bread and drink this cup you do it in memory of me.
There is another gift that Jesus promises his disciples and us in today’s gospel, the gift of peace. What exactly is this peace? Is it merely the absence of war? The peace he gives is not the peace that the world gives.
All of the details of life can be dealt with the laundry done, the bills paid, the car fixed, and the children being educated and formed in schools and yet something is missing. We are still a bit restless. We lack this deeper peace, the peace Jesus promised to us through the action of the Spirit because all too often we lack quietude to let his Spirit enter our thoughts. That peace comes through both a look back and an understanding of the presence of God in our lives. We need to stop long enough to reflect and to ponder—take the time to catch up with our life.
Very often, I tell people, the best view of God’s hand in our lives is through our rear-view mirror as we reflect on God’s hand and love for us—peace can enter.
Such peace has nothing to do with our income, the car we drive, or the kind of clothes we wear. The peace of Christ, the peace from the Spirit, is a rest in knowing just how much God is at work in our lives daily, in the small miracles that we have been conditioned to easily overlook and too easily forget. The peace comes as we see God’s love powerfully present in the most ordinary of events of our daily lives beyond the gifts of wonderful technology and into God’s powerful miracles of a baby's smile, the beauty of nature that surrounds us, a consoling hug to a grieving mother, and the miracle of life itself.
Through the gift of the Spirit, these ordinary daily gifts will become yet another miracle given to us daily, the Body and Blood of Jesus. A peace we are called to offer one another, if we could just remember the peace long enough after Mass.
It can be in simple ways as you leave the church and not get irritated because someone ahead of you is taking too long to pull out of the parking lot, or at someone stalling in the grocery line, or at the red light turned green, in those many little ways we can show his farewell gift of peace. This is a prayer I recently received and modified, see if it doesn’t resonate with you:
Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the idiot who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children. Grant her peace.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his stress over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester. Grant him peace.
Remind us, Lord that the scary looking man, begging for money in the same spot every day (--who I think should really get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares. Grant him peace.
The greatest miracle of all is life itself. When is the last time you gave thanks for your life and the Holy Spirit at work through you?
Remember to live His farewell gift of peace, Fr. Gordon
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