Matthew 1:18-23 How Did I Get Here?
How did I get here? Who am I? Do I realize that I am the fruit of so many people and cultures? Do I realize that I survived conflicts, disease and famines? For the Jewish people, genealogy and history were extremely important. It was a reminder, a sign, of destiny. That a hand from above still guided and directed their history and life! The Jews recorded their genealogy, they tracked it and they appreciated it. This is what has made the Jewish race such a united race. It is common, too common, for many of us today to not even know the names of our own great grandparents. This of course leads to belittling them and formulating superficial conclusions, as if they were backward and uncivilized. In fact, they were most likely more civilized than we are today! It is safe to say that with a loss of our own personal heritage, we lose our own sense of destiny, of worth and of personal identity.
An uncle of mine recently passed away, but before doing so he had the grace to write a personal memoire. Every evening he would sit down and write a few lines about his grandparents, parents and his life. For his children, it has become a family treasure. He recounted not only his life, his struggles and triumphs, but also his emotions, his sentiments – fears and joys, personal battles and devils. We should not be content in knowing just our genetic identity, but also our personal and family history.
Prior to becoming a priest, our superior requested, from those who would be ordained on Christmas Eve, to write down our own personal journey. How did we get here? What curves, bends, mountains and valleys did I walk through in my life to get to this day, my ordination day? It would have been interesting to be able to know the paths of those who had traveled before me and had left before I was born.
In Christ’s genealogy we see tremendous Saints and tremendous sinners. Can anything good come from sinners? Christ gives a resounding “Yes!” The Apostles were not afraid to say it the way it was, to put among the list of names harlots, pagans and adulterers. It is again a reminder that the Lord makes straight the paths. His Will is always accomplished with or without us, but preferably with us. St. Paul reminds us, “Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Rom 8:28)
Today, I invite all of you to reflect on your own history. Start with general ideas and work your way towards more concrete and specific moments. It is very much worthwhile. Write it down. We thank the Apostles so much for giving us their Gospel accounts and letters. We know Christ in a more intimate way because we can read the life of Christ from those who shared their life with him. You have a unique perspective of your life and of Christ’s life and work in you. It is, after all, a once-in-a-life-time event. We all love conversion stories because they touch the human heart and the hand of God. We were called into existence by God and our existence will not end until the Lord is finished with us.
Today, I invite all of you to reflect on your own history. Start with general ideas and work your way towards more concrete and specific moments. It is very much worthwhile. Write it down.
ReplyDeleteAs always:), I did exactly what you said and spent an hour and a half in adoration tonight writing my spiritual history. I frantically wrote 23 pages and covered birth to April 20, 2010.
What I discovered is that over the past 28 years, God has been patiently working on me, often through people who were actually Anti Catholic and he threw in some personal crisis’ to make it interesting. I guess having a defense for the faith, is a good motivator because as I look back it was most often having to defend the faith that motivated me to learn what the Church taught.
Now that being said, it doesn’t mean I practiced what I learned. Or even that the little miracles that He gave me through the years were appreciated enough to turn my life over to Him. I spent about the first 20 of those years trying to prove the Church/I was right.
And not until the last 6 years did I slowly give Him the reigns... very slowly and sometimes I forget and take them back.
I’m sharing this because I didn’t realize until now, how patient God has been with me, allowing me to fall get up and fall again until I realized Who was lifting me back up each time and appreciating it. I would have given up on me long ago!
This is going to help me to be more patient with those who are where I have been the past couple of decades. It makes me realize that most of us don’t have overnight conversions that turn us from bad to good in an instant. It’s more like bad to not so bad, to better, to a little better....................HEAVEN!!! (Hopefully)
Thanks for the ‘homework’. It was worthwhile:)