Wanna Be

Do you wanna be happy, whole, integrated, joyful, successful, at peace, part of something amazing, purposeful, powerful, confident, loved, loving, redeemed, relaxed, realized, real? Then you wanna become a saint.

Do you wanna be a person in touch, in truth, inspired, desired, magnetic, magnanimous, moved, and moving? Then you wanna become a saint.

There is only one tragedy in the end – not to have been a saint.
– Leon Bloy

So save yourself all the yogi guru self-help hullabaloo. Wholeness is simpler than that – it’s found in holiness! Let’s cut through all the plaster cast, plastic past, Campbell’s Soup Kid lookin’ holy card pictures of saints for a moment. What does it really mean to become a saint?

It means to become vulnerable. To be open. To receive all things from the Hand of God in trust and in love. A saint is synonymous with what’s sane. A saint is the ultimate realist, for there is nothing more real than the Cross and the Broken Body stretched upon it. And there’s no place for vanity. The hollow of the heart is open to the Mystery, the metal of the mind is sharpened by this Truth…. We are small, we are creatures, but we are made for the Infinite, and nothing in this finite world can satisfy us. And our deepest dignity lies in this longing…

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

The Sway, the Truth, and the Life

I think when Future Bill looks back on the small number of posts that went up for January and February of 2009, he’ll be smiling.

Smiling because every long stretch of postless days meant the time was wasted on his family. Yes! Wasted. Spilled out like a precious ointment on the feet of his beloved wife and son! Those were the days of grace; of Grace, and the Boy Wonder to be exact.

I’ve written before about the mysterious powers that a child unlocks in a father’s heart, powers that lay dormant like seeds awaiting the water of life. Well, they keep coming. I feel like the Greatest American Hero, Ralph Hinkley. Remember that show? In the series, he was given a “super suit” but lost the Instruction Manual in the desert. The series moved along and Ralph just had to discover how it all worked. Some episodes had him getting the knack of flying down a bit better, one show had him learn how to become invisible. Pretty cool stuff. I’ve already mastered invisibility…. it’s called “peekaboo!”

Yes, every day is an adventure, and every day Rebecca and I are absolutely blown away by the mystery of this little boy. We’re captivated by his smile, the way his face lights up when we look at him, when I come home from work, when he looks around at Sunday Mass at all the faces, and the stained glass, and the marble columns. And how his eyes flash at the sound of the altar bells when Jesus is coming.

A few weeks back, at Mass, I was holding the wee lad, and found myself… swaying. Finally, swaying. Ahead of me, a young couple stood, friends of ours, each holding a child, and swaying. And ahead of them, yet another woman, swaying. Like a forest of trees caught up in a great wind, there we were. Mommies and daddies, caught up in the Wind of the Spirit of Life. For years this sight caused a deep pain in our hearts, and now suddenly, we’ve entered into the Dance… into the Sway, the Truth, and the Life that God wishes all of us to enjoy.

It gives me pause to consider those still waiting, still hoping for the gift of children or of the gift of a spouse to build a life with, and to share a life with too. These are words and experiences to deep for tears. All I can do is hold and treasure this life, appreciating the utter gratuitousness of it all. Everything is a gift, everything is a grace.

The way to begin healing the wounds of the world is to treasure the Infant Christ in us; to be not the castle but the cradle of Christ; and, in rocking that cradle to the rhythm of love, to swing the whole world back into the beat of the Music of Eternal Life.
– Caryll Houselander

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org