Together

This year I had the absolute blessing to attend the Easter Triduum services at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. For those of my Dear Readers who do not know what “Triduum” means, it is the three holy days leading up to Easter Sunday: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

There was something that struck me over and over again that I couldn’t seem to get over.

Jesus wanted us there.

Together.

We like to think that we know what God wants for us. God loves us, and as such, He wants us to be happy. Some us use this to justify our somewhat risky or immoral actions saying, “If no one can see it, then does it really matter what I do? I am happy, and that’s all God would want.”

And as we made choice after choice for ourselves, we walked further and further away from what makes us truly happy.

This is not to say that we did not have good intentions to start with. Many times we decide to walk further and further away from Truth because we thought we were doing something good. After all, no one really wants to do something bad, let alone choosing evil over good.

We just think we know more than God does sometimes.

It’s not ok, but we all fall in to this.

I know I do.

The most prevalent example of my desire to convince God that I know what I really want is my lab work. I know that God brought me to ND to be a member of the Biological Sciences department and to serve the community here. It truly is the best feeling in the world to run from room to room, troubleshooting the work of all of my students as I attempt to understand my own projects in the back of my mind.

Whenever I am homesick, I end up in the lab, and I set up a new PCR reaction, just as my father taught me, so that I can feel at peace again.

I love my labwork, and it is a great blessing that God gave me a place to work in science and be His missionary at the same time.

Recently I have been charged with the last figure of our big paper. It has been a decade in the making, and I know that our lab needs this publication in order to secure more funding and to continue developing treatments for the rare disease we study.

I knew that God brought me here to love my colleagues, and I knew that He called me to do great science.

In the face of this, I spent multiple weeks with little to no sleep, trying to get something to work. I wanted to make it all work, and I wanted to help my advisor and my labmates and the rare disease community.

I didn’t really share my work with anyone, and I worked in the early morning hours so that no one would watch me.

And it looked like it worked.

But when we looked more closely at my staining under the microscope…the results were not nearly as promising as they appeared on the surface.

Many times when we try to do something for ourselves, such as indulging on too much netflix, pleasuring ourselves with pornography, lying to get our way, or bullying someone who is more liked so that we can feel better ourselves, we end up in a situation much like my staining. We do not want to affect anyone other than ourselves, so we end up cut off from the community in little ways. Then, when we look at our hearts more deeply, we discover how sad we are.

We’re lonely.

Not because we do not have people to love us, but because we thought that we could do everything on our own. Not because we were hated, but because we hated the lives we thought we had. Not because we have nothing to be thankful for, but because we stopped being grateful for the gifts and talents we had all along.

How do we overcome the loneliness and sorrow?

“We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all” ~Isaiah 53:12

It is hard to accept sometimes, but Jesus loves you Dear Reader. You see, Jesus is part of the Triune God. This means that He is one of the three in one. God Himself is a community, and that community is love.

When Jesus rose from the grave, He did more than appear to those He loved. 

He gave them the Holy Spirit so that they could go out and bring faith to all the ends of the Earth. He gave the Apostles authority to teach and adminster the Sacraments. When Jesus had His last supper, He gave His Apostles a way to keep Him with them forever in the Holy Eucharist. When Jesus died on the Cross, He gave His Mother to The Church so that they always had a mother to love them.

He gave us The Church.

However, it was not easy. In fact, after Jesus spoke to the women on Easter Sunday, it was said that “they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:18).

It is easy acknowledge that suffering and death are a part of a holy life. We can accept that slavery to sin is real.

True freedom, the sort that raises the dead, that seems impossible.

But it isn’t…. True Freedom, true happiness, comes from a community of faith that has spanned millenia, and it will never end.

That’s why the women ran from the tomb to the Apostles.

I am extremely blessed to have been raised as a Catholic Christian for my entire life. At the age of 4 days, I was Baptized and saved from Original Sin. I was given graces that would help me to avoid sin and suffering of my own accord. However, I am still a flawed human being, and I make mistakes all of the time.

However, Jesus gave us The Church so that we would not have to struggle alone.

“If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” ~John 13:14-15

Those of us who were called to faith are not meant to just have a “one and done” response to our salvation. No. We are called to give help to the helpless, hope to the hopeless, and love to the loveless. Although we are not the ones to bring others to faith, we are all called to life one another up and remind each soul that they are loved by God, now and forever.

There were many young adults that were baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass.

After they were baptized, they were given a candle that was lit by the Easter Candle to represent the flame of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Once their candles were lit, they were told to go to the entire congregation and light the candles we held at the beginning of the Mass.

It seemed like they had no direction other than to go out.

With tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces, they sprinted around the church in their baptismal gowns, holding up their little flames to each and every person they encountered. Not a single candle was unlit, and the entire congregation was filled with joy.

No matter how many candles we light with our own flame, our light will never go away.

So too is it with our love and faith.

Just as the neophytes did not have the most clear directions, we often are not sure where we are supposed to go. We do not know what to expect, nor do we know where we are expected to go or who we are supposed to meet.

That’s ok.

Expect nothing.

Expect nothing but to love for the souls God gave you.

They may love you back, and they may forget you. However, the love that we share is what lifts everyone up. Jesus did not die so that we would each rise on our own accord. Jesus did not die so that we would end up in Heaven in our own little cubicle. Jesus did not die for us to be alone.

No.

Jesus rose to answer His own prayer:

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me thorugh their word so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me” ~John 17:20-21

It is never a loss to love on of God’s little ones.

I love you Dear Reader.

"Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around

through My sight and touch and sound in you and you in Me?"

~The Summons, John L. Bell