4th Sunday A life in God: Blessed are we

What is a life with God like?

I remember asking my therapist “when do I “Graduate” from therapy”? Meaning how do I know when I am done. He, in a very Socratic way, asked me what I think it will be. I pondered it, and said I will be like a stone buddha, impervious to all the mess of life; just kind of fat and happy.  He laughed. He laughed at me. And then proceeded to tear down that fantasy and replace it with reality. Best - worst thing to ever happen to me.

I think all want an idyllic life, or some semblance of that life. We want the perfect family and spouse; the perfect household, the perfect job, the perfect parish, pastor and parishioners, and bishop. All is well, nothing bad happens.

Nothing bad in the wishing. In fact, the story of the Buddha was that as a young boy his father sought to prevent any suffering for his child. He was never allowed to see sick or aging persons, never allowed any kind of grief, sadness, all his wants and needs were taken care of. He was also never allowed to leave the palace. Yet, there came that day when we escaped; saw elderly persons, sick and diseased persons, persons in abject poverty, dead persons…he was dumbfounded. This began his quest to understand human suffering.  His answer was that our desires, all of them, caused suffering, and if we could control those, then we would be released from suffering. He was correct, in part. But we have a better answer in Christ.

I bet that consciously or unconsciously we pursue this desire for an idyllic life. We think: if everyone just did what I want them to do or believed as I believed then then we would have the best _________ insert here, “job, marriage, parish, country, etc”?

Yet the reality is; it will never happen. We will all face, endure, struggle with loss, frustration, fear. It is inescapable, but it does not need to dominate us. We will encounter others who think, act, and believe differently than us.

The Beatitudes, or Blessings, of Jesus are the revelation of deep truths.
The truth that desire is not bad in and of itself.
The truth that a desire for peace and happiness is inherent in our nature.
The truth that peace, happiness comes not from us.

God is that source, the way, the life.  God does not magically remove our suffering, our anguish. Jesus showed us this by his cross. God does give to us the power, the grace, the love so as not become overwhelmed. God empowers to rise above it; to go through it.

A life in God is to know this, experience this, believe this, trust this.  A life in God is to not place our hopes and expectations in things, in people’s ideas, in the created; but to always place those in God and God’s ways, as revealed by Jesus.

It is to trust that God remains at work. That wonderful, powerful scene of Jesus in the garden reminds us. He struggles. He had to surrender himself and trust in God’s presence.

The Beatitudes of Jesus teach us that when we struggle; when we are poor in spirit, we can look and be aware of God still; don’t give up.

As we grieve loss; we know that loss is not everything, there is always others to love, and love us in return.

The beatitudes teach us that as we remain humble, especially in a culture that promotes celebrity and fame, we know we are at peace.

Life in God means that we live with hope; we can accept those moments of pain, of loss, of hurt; trusting that there is still good.

Life in God means that when we have reached our limits, we can surrender to God and let God take over.

And amazingly, as we do this, the power of these hard moments, lose their power to diminish us.

There are beautiful stories in this parish of people who have experienced this and blessed are they.

We can also look to the horrible news of this past week; a young man brutally beaten by police in Memphis. Where is God? Not in that horrible act, but in the call for change, in those that surround his family in their time of loss.  Or the people of Ukraine, again and again bombed by Russian; and they persevere.  Or closer to home; how many struggle on our streets, in our motels; on 4th street?

And what we can do is share our own personal stories with others, inspire others with how a life with God makes sense, gives meaning.

Because we do have people who still struggle. We have people who have yet to open themselves to a greater reality than themselves and their egos; who remain in misery, anger, frustration, desperation. We have people lost in their suffering.

We can be a means for them to see God at work in their lives.  Which is after all, kind of what it means to be Catholic.

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