Amid the Thicket – May 25, 2018

I get lost. A lot.  I always have.  When I was five years old we moved to a new town.  We moved into a very big, very old house on the edge of a 100-acre park and arboretum.  As my parents and older brothers unpacked, we younger ones went out to explore and play in the park.  Somehow I got separated from the others.  I found myself, all alone, in a grove of very tall trees. I couldn’t see the house or the road or the playground or my brothers and sister.  I had no idea which way to even start walking. 

I don’t remember if I heard my brothers and sister playing and found them or they came and got me. But I’ll never forget the weird, lonely, scary feeling of being lost.

In Pope Francis’ latest apostolic exhortation, “The Call to Holiness in Today’s World”,” he talks about being lost. He writes, “…amid the thicket of precepts and prescriptions, Jesus clears a way to seeing two faces, that of the Father and that of our brother.  He does not give us two more formulas or two more commands.  He gives us two faces, or better yet, one alone: the face of God reflected in so many other faces…especially the least, the most vulnerable, the defenseless and those in need.” #61

We – our church and our nation — have gotten lost in the “thicket of precepts and prescriptions,” in fussing about rules and politics.  In choosing sides.  In declaring who’s right and who’s wrong, who belongs and who doesn’t.  We can’t see the house or the road or the playground or our brothers and sisters because we are surrounded by “to do” lists and bills to pay, too many expectations, angry discourse, and one bad news story after another.  The trees seem very tall.

The Good News is Jesus clears a way. God became incarnate in Jesus 2,000 years ago to show us the way.  And that way is love.  Love of God.  Love of neighbor.  Love of our own broken, lost self.

This love will lead to action.  I know it will.  But first we have to see the faces.

I have an idea of which way to start walking.