I was chatting with a friend at his work place recently, and I commended him on having an interesting philosophy of life. “I always leave with something to ponder,” I said; or something to that effect.
He replied, “There must be more to life than nuts and bolts.” He was exchanging some bolts for me on that day. And I left rejoicing that we have “jar half full” kinds of people in our world.
That reminds me of a quote on the menu of a Swiss restaurant: Our wines leave nothing to hope for.
Kahil Gibran in a poem on joy and sorrow says, joy and sorrow
“…are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.”
Living with doubt is the natural state of the Christian. Faith is needed because we have doubt. Faith is the act of believing in something we cannot see. Add to that the gift of Hope and we are starting to catch on to God’s plan. Not only do we not know for sure, but we are relegated to hoping that it’s all worth the effort.
Am I wasting my time? Is there a deeper meaning to existence? Am I a cog in a wheel, like the Charlie Chaplin movie where Charlie works in a factory putting the same bolt on the same piece of machinery in a never ending assembly line until the line between where the machine ends and the man begins is blurred?
God blesses children with a new horizon every morning. Shouts of joy greet the new day and it really is like dying to settle down to sleep at night. There is too much excitement in the child’s world.
Every age has its opportunities. We merely need to be attuned to them. Joy consists not in new landscapes but in having new eyes. If we journey with the Lord we will always have an exciting travel companion. Daily revelations abound with every sunrise, and when we have learned to listen, we will have communication streaming to us as needed.
Jesus is with us especially when we are in need of inspiration and hope. King David in Psalm 26:8 says: I love your home; this shrine where the brilliant, dazzling splendour of your presence lives.
In a reflection on the Transfiguration Fr. Brendan McGuire says we must recognize that we need transformation. If we think we are good enough as we are then God can’t improve us.
If we want more meaning to our lives, if we want to be kinder, gentler and more forgiving, then we must ask God to transform us. God never interferes with our freedom.
If we want God’s assistance on our journey, McGuire gives us this simple formula: 1) have the desire for transformation; 2) invite the Lord into our lives to do what he needs to do, and 3) allow it to happen.
So, today, “crack a wrinkle on your face? Let it loose… let us celebrate the joy in our lives; the fact that we have people in our lives who demonstrate to us that we are loveable… that God loves us today just the way we are and that Christ is risen. Alleluia. Alleluia” (Fr.B.McGuire).
