6th Sunday - Imagining something more

Our group of geologists in Elko had an outing with a group of elementary kids to go fossil hunting. These can be great fun as kids can get excited because they are out of the building and messing around with dirt and rocks. One particular kid stood out though. He would bring a rock, a normal rock, an ordinary rock and insist this was part of a dinosaur. He did this over and over, and over. His imagination and his desire wanted this. So we played along.

I think a sign of spiritual and emotional death, or stasis, occurs when we lack imagination, when we fail to see beyond. We merely accept what is given, what is front of us. We stop looking for more.

What do we desire? What do we want on a deep fundamental level, not on some trivial level such as chocolate, beer, or the Bengals to win the Super Bowl. I think we all have a desire to grow, to transcend and to find joy in life, whether we can articulate this or not; whether we are conscious of this or not.  When we know what we truly desire, and assuming it is a moral good, and objective good, we give effort into this. It will guide all else that we work on and work for.

We Christians, We Catholics have a common desire. We do not want to take over the world, that is not our plan for the day. Our desire, a deep seated desire, is for all humanity to be fully realized. We desire that all of us become truly free, to live as those Children of God. We wish for the Kingdom of Heaven to be here on earth.

Yes, we do have differing ideas on exactly what that means. That is because we ourselves still make mistakes, and we can have a difficult time even imagining what that can look like. But in our core we wish for a New Jerusalem, a New Eden.

Jesus signifies this desire, because this is God’s great desire as well. Jesus reveals our deepest desire, in his person, in what he preached and in what he did.

Jesus brings it about through empowering us in the Holy Spirit to be liberated from all that limits our imaginations, that limits our awe and wonder of God and this creation. Liberated we can pursue this desire.

These beatitudes, these powerful teachings, speak to minds and hearts of that desire, that want and wish for more; to grow and transcend. Jesus speaks to a people that can imagine new possibilities, and tells us to hold onto these dreams in spite of the lack of imagination, the sinfulness, the stubbornness of others.

Our Catholic Traditions evoke our imagination. These Traditions, intentionally capitalized, prompt us to think differently, to hunger for change, and to work for better possibilities. Thus we need to keep these Traditions and even our smaller traditions in play, because they assist us to keep our imaginations open.

When our imagination close up, it is because our egos tell us we know it all. How sad this is because the universe becomes so boring.

Our imaginations shut down as we feel so satisfied in our things, in our successes. How sad, because we live in such a little, little world.

Our imaginations quit when we only think about our own ways, our own thoughts, our own perceived wounds, and fail to see the others in our lives; woe to us.

Catholic imagination pulls us out of it. Think about this! We believe that Jesus is truly present in the people who are gathered for Eucharist, in the Word that is proclaimed, in the Person of the Priest and especially in the bread and wine that become the Body and Blood of Christ. We believe this! That takes a LOT of imagination, and yet we still can even grasp this fully/

We believe we come to Mass, not because we want to, but because God has called us to gather, to worship, and we have answered that call in some way. We believe this! That tells us something of how we imagine God.

God calls us always, lifts us up when we fall, and moves us forward so that we can achieve our deepest desire, to find joy.

Joy even when people we love are hurting, because joy says the hurt does not take away their humanity. Joy even as we mourn, because we believe in hope.  Joy even as we face violence and anger, because we know we do not have to be controlled by this.

Imagine.