SEEING HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE
"We must in all things seek God."… He is present to us in our hearts, in our personal subjectivity, and to seek Him is first to recognize this fact…
Taking the path from thinking of a plan to living the reality of the plan in our lives can be difficult, and sometimes life spins off in unexpected directions. This is especially true when people insist something has to be so because that's the way they want it, or because they can't imagine anything different. Jesus found Himself in this situation when people were arguing about whether He fit the description of whom they thought He was. Jesus and His message caused division for many in Israel. Some believed He was a prophet, some the Messiah, and some believed He was neither. All this discussion blinded them to actually believing in Him.
In our lives, there comes a time when we have to take a stand for Jesus Christ and for the Gospel. Taking a stand for Jesus is often not about popularity. It entails hardship and sacrifice. What is most important about all this is that we make the right choice of turning to a Godly life: that our lives be fueled by God's selfless love for others, that we be loyal to God's wise ways and standards, and that we be servants of Jesus.
Thomas Merton can help us ponder this today: "We must in all things seek God." But we do not seek Him the way we seek a lost object, a "thing." He is present to us in our hearts, in our personal subjectivity, and to seek Him is first to recognize this fact. Yet, we cannot be aware of His presence as a reality unless He reveals His presence to us. He does not reveal Himself only in our own hearts. He reveals Himself to us in the Church, in the community of believers, and in the koinonia of those who trust Him and love Him. Our prayer is in the psalm for today: "O searcher of heart and soul, O just God..." (Ps 7).
Our challenge today is to try to get past seeing how things are supposed to be to how they really are and having peace with that.