The Joy of Being Found

 It was one of those beautiful spring days in New Orleans, with the earth coming alive after a long winter. Friday afternoon, and I wanted to be outside, specifically in Audubon Park, just down the street, enjoying the newborn baby ducks and geese, the lure of greenery, and the soft breezes of the day.  I could hear birds chirping and a fountain gurgling outside of the floor-to-ceiling windows opened to the beautiful grounds of St. Mary's Dominican College on St. Charles Avenue.

Instead, I was trapped in a second-floor biology laboratory, dissecting a frog.  There was no one else around, the rest of the academic world apparantly having yielded to the allure of spring and the end of the week.    I knew that if I pushed aside the assignment until the following week, I would regret it later, so I reluctantly began tracing and sketching the execretory system of the frog.

Suddenly, it seemed as if a light had begun to illumine my mind, as I saw wisdom, beauty, and design in the execretory system, as food was digested, poisons secreted out, nourishment for the body extracted, and waste eliminated.  Further, in terms of the human system, all of these operations continued without awareness or control on our part, but at the end, we had control of the result.  Unlike the frog or a bird, we could wait until we found a suitable place for disposal.  

Overwhelmed with the beauty of design, I felt desire to profoundly worship God the Creator.  I wanted to kneel right there in the laboratory and thank God for His Wisdom in creation. But fear of being discovered (seemingly in worship of a frog) prevented me from kneeling down right then and there.

[Years later, I said to the Lord: "The execretory system ---  really?"  And His answer to me was, "Well, somone has to praise Me for this!"]

Now most anyone with a similar experience would claim to have "found God."  Thinking back on this event so many years later, however, I am more inclined to identify the experience as one where God found me!

In his wonderful book called Introduction to Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI writes that one of the basic roots from which man's encounter with God arises proceeds from the joy of security:

The very fulfillment of love, of finding one another, can cause man to experience the gift of what he could neither call up nor create and make him realize that in it he receives more than either of the two could contribute.  The brightness and joy of finding one another can point to the proximity of absolute joy and of the simple fact of being found that stands behind every human encounter.

All this is just intended to give some idea of how human existence can be the point of departure for the experience of the absolute, which from this angle is seen as "God the Son," as the Savior, or, more simply, as a God related to existence (p. 106-107).

Thinking back on the history of God's interaction with mankind, I can see the experience of Abraham, of Moses, of the Israelite people ---- even of Adam in the garden after he sinned --- as an experience of being found by God. God said to Adam:  Where are you?  and Adam's response was, "I was hiding because I had sinned."  But God found him anyway.  We are all hiding in paganism, in personal and in world affairs, in our own interests --- But sooner or later, in the midst of our lives, God finds us!

And just like the joy of being found by another being who loves us and delights in his find of us, we begin to experience the joy of security when we are found by God.  He knows me,  He knows where I am, and He came looking for me!  He found me! I am loved, and because I am loved, He opens to me the treasures of His own beauty and wisdom.

Once, when my youngest child "ran away from home" (she was about 4 or 5), she later told me, "I just wanted someone to come after me!"  I regret that I did not do that, but waited for her to come back on her own.  We all need to know that Someone wants to find us, to delight in us, to share His life with us! 

Being For One Another

CAUTION:  The following quotation is from Benedict XVI, a pope, yes, but also a great theologian.  Thus, I recommend a slow, thoughtful reading rather than a skimming.

Because Christian faith demands the individual but wants him for the whole and not for himself, the real basic law of Christian existence is expressed in the preposition "for."  ...That is why in the chief Christian sacrament, which forms the center of Christian worship, the existence of Jesus Christ is explained as existence "for many," "for you," as an open existence that makes possible and creates the communication of all with one another through communication in him...

Being a Christian means essentially changing over from being for oneself to being for one another.  This also explains what is really meant by the often rather odd-seeming concept of election ("being chosen").  It means, not a preference that leaves the individual undisturbed in himself and divides him from the others, but embarking on the common task....

Accordingly, the basic Christian decision signifies the assent to being a Christian, the abandonment of self-centeredness, and accession to Jesus Christ's existence with its concentration on the whole.

(Pope Benedict XVI: Introduction to Christianity)

As Catholic children, we were taught to say the Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings this day in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular, for the intentions of our holy father, Pope Francis.  (Note: there are many variations of this prayer.)

We were also taught to offer ourselves to the Father in union with the sacrifice/offering of Jesus during every Mass.  The "missing link" in the explanation, in my opinion, was what we were offering ourselves FOR.  I was never quite sure what the Father would do with my "offering" of myself, or of my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings.

I think Benedict XVI hits the nail on the head when he says that the basic Christian decision means assenting to the abandonment of self-centeredness and agreeing to being FOR others, as Christ is FOR us.  

As a mother is FOR her child in every way, from lack of necessary sleep and rest to sacrifice of her own comfort for the welfare of her child;

As a husband and wife are FOR one another to the sacrifice of their own desires and even dreams, at times;

As parents are FOR their children;

As a pastor is FOR his flock,

we, too, are FOR those we love and serve in whatever capacity or assignment is given to us.  It is for us as members of the Body of Christ to forget our own interests and to serve the needs of others.  And the only way we can do this is to first know that God is FOR US!  We cannot forget ourselves and our own interests unless we know that someone (God) will take care of us.  Only then can we abandon ourselves into His care and extend our arms to the care of others.

Dive In

 I read a wonderful reflection yesterday in Give Us This Day, the daily prayer/meditation book that I use.  The reflection was written by Father Anthony J. Gittins in his book, The Way of Discipleship.  Father Gittins died in 2023, but I am sure he would be pleased that I pass along his profound thoughts.

He said that he had been standing on Promontory Point overlooking Lake Michigan, thinking how vast -- almost infinite -- the lake is, how hard it is to "take it in," so to speak in its beauty and wonder.  It somewhat overwhelmed him as he tried to drink it all in.  However, a few months later, he stood on the same point and watched people all around him jumping and diving into the lake -- and he realized that although none of them was completely able to "take in" Lake Michigan, that immense body was able to take in each one of them, so that they were immersed and submerged in it (but not swallowed up or drowned.)

Father Gittins reflected that God is like that lake and we are the swimmers.  None of us can completely "take in" or comprehend God, but each of us can become immersed in Him without drowning or being engulfed.  We can experience God by throwing ourselves into His unfathomable depths, trusting that He will give us bouyancy and life.

Jesus, like the Rosetta Stone, translated the infinite and incomprehensible love and mercy of God into concrete signs of love, of healing, of forgiveness, of table fellowship.  He didn't ask us to try to comprehend it, but only to "dive into" God's offer of covenant love and friendship.  He even poured out the Holy Spirit as the means to enter into and submerge ourselves in the love of God.

Someone once said to me, "No one has ever proved to me the existence of God."  I wish I had been clever enough at the time to say, "If our small minds could comprehend the mystery of God, He would not be God. But we can dive into Him without understanding, and in Him we can find bouyancy and life!"