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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Back around 1995 or 1996,
\nI was teaching my 8th grade class about vocations
\nand the different religious orders.
\nTheir assignment was to research a particular religious order
\nand write a report to share with the class.
\nNow this was around 1996 B.G.
\nBefore Google.
\nThere was no Internet, no search engines, no Wikipedia, no email,
\nand so I had given them a magazine that listed addresses
\nfor all the different religious orders in the United States.
\nThey got into groups, chose a religious community,
\ndid some encyclopedia research,
\nand then they wrote letters to these different communities
\nasking them for information.<\/p>\n
We got all kinds of wonderful letters back.
\nReligious communities were excited
\nto share their stories with the students.
\nThey sent brochures and even wrote letters by hand
\nto tell them about their daily lives.
\nWe probably received a dozen or so letters from the different communities.
\nBut one was different from the others.
\nRather than a regular envelope,
\nthis one was a big manila envelope and it was really thick,
\nlike a package.
\nAnd it contained a wonderful surprise
\nthat had a huge impact on my life,
\nand hopefully the lives of the students.
\nWe\u2019ll come back to this story,
\nand talk more about that package
\nin a moment.<\/p>\n
But first, there\u2019s a question at the heart of today\u2019s gospel. In other words, they\u2019re asking We worry about that, too, don\u2019t we, After all, we\u2019re pretty good at fooling ourselves, And the older we get, At that stage of life we do think we know everything. One of the things we Christians wonder most about is How many times have we started down one path, Our Catholic history is filled with the stories of saints We\u2019re probably all familiar with that old Russian proverb, But even when we think we\u2019ve figured out It\u2019s a condition of the Christian life Speaking of mystery, The postmark on the manila envelope The videotape contained a 50 minute documentary He was mentioned by Pope Francis in his address to Congress Bishop Robert Barron, The life of Thomas Merton can tell us a lot He wrote The Seven Storey Mountain<\/em> Thomas Merton wrote over 70 books, The prayer demonstrates how honest we can be before God, As I read it aloud to you, I invite you to read it silently to yourself, My Lord God,<\/em>
\n\u201cLord, will only a few people be saved?\u201d
\nThat\u2019s the question that someone in the crowd asks Jesus,
\nBut what they\u2019re really asking is,
\nWill I<\/em> be saved?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLord, is salvation for only a few select people,
\nor does someone like me have a chance?\u201d<\/p>\n
\ndeep down inside?
\nBecause no matter how faithful we try to be,
\nwe just don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\nat rationalizing our decisions.<\/p>\n
\nthe more we come to realize just how little we really do know.
\nI have a Family Circus cartoon
\nthat I used to hang outside my 8th grade classroom door.
\nIt shows little Billy talking to his Mom saying,
\n\u201cI can\u2019t wait \u2019til I\u2019m in 8th grade and know everything there is to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnd then life becomes more complex,
\nthings don\u2019t go as we thought they would,
\nand we begin to wonder and doubt.<\/p>\n
\nAm I doing what God wants me to do?
\nHow can I tell?
\nAm I on the right path?<\/p>\n
\nthinking that this is what God wants me to do with my life,
\nonly to realize God has something else in mind?<\/p>\n
\nwho started down one road,
\nonly to realize God was calling them to something else.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cGod writes straight with crooked lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwhat we\u2019re supposed to do here on earth,
\nwe still have our doubts.<\/p>\n
\nto wrestle with uncertainty and the unknown,
\nto try and make peace with the mystery.<\/p>\n
\nwe need to get back to that mysterious package
\nmy students received.
\nI suppose if I really wanted to drive home the idea
\nthat the Christian life involves uncertainty and the unknown,
\nI wouldn\u2019t tell you what was in that package,
\nand you would just have to try and make peace with the mystery.
\nBut I won\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n
\ntold us it came all the way from Kentucky,
\nfrom a Trappist monastery called the Abbey of Gethsemane.
\nThe envelope was thick,
\nmuch thicker than all the other envelopes we had received.
\nWhen we opened it up
\nwe saw it was full of brochures and other papers,
\nbut it also contained a special surprise:
\nthere was a VHS video tape inside.
\nRemember this was B.G., Before Google.
\nIt was also before YouTube and Netflix and Hulu.<\/p>\n
\nabout the life of Thomas Merton,
\nwho had lived at the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky.
\nAt that time, neither I nor my students had ever heard of Thomas Merton,
\nand that videotape was our introduction
\nto one of the most important spiritual writers of our time.<\/p>\n
\nwhen he visited the United States in 2015,
\nwhere he called Merton a \u201csource of spiritual inspiration
\nand a guide for many people\u2026above all a man of prayer,\u2026
\na man of dialogue, a promoter of peace\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwho many of you know from his Catholicism<\/em> TV series
\nand Word on Fire Ministries,
\ncalls Merton one of the greatest spiritual writers
\nof the twentieth century,
\nand a man who had a \u201cdecisive influence\u201d
\non his vocation to the priesthood.<\/p>\n
\nabout wrestling with uncertainty,
\nand how God writes straight with crooked lines.
\nHis most famous book is his spiritual autobiography,
\nThe Seven Storey Mountain<\/em>,
\nin which he tells about his conversion to Catholicism
\nand his vocation as a Trappist monk.
\nBishop Barron describes it as
\n\u201cessentially the tale of how a man fell in love with God.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s the story of how Merton went from saying \u201cI believe in nothing\u201d
\nto believing so deeply in God,
\nthat he discovered his vocation as a monk
\nand became of the Church\u2019s greatest contemplatives.<\/p>\n
\nat the same Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky,
\nwhich had sent us our package.
\nBut inside the package was something else
\nbesides brochures and a video tape.
\nIt was this piece of paper, a prayer,
\nand at this time I\u2019d like to invite the ushers
\nto hand out copies of the prayer to you all.<\/p>\n
\nand this beautiful prayer
\ncomes from his book Thoughts in Solitude<\/em>,
\nand can be very useful
\nwhen we begin to feel the weight of our complex life,
\nwhen we begin to doubt ourselves or wonder about our ultimate destiny.
\nIt\u2019s especially helpful to anyone who is in a transition period,
\nmaybe facing retirement, or the last year of high school or college.
\nBut it\u2019s also helpful for each one of us
\nas we contemplate the words of Jesus in today\u2019s gospel,
\nand we begin to wonder ourselves,
\nWill I be saved?<\/p>\n
\nhow we don\u2019t need to hide our uncertainty from him.
\nIt also shows a deep trust in God\u2019s care for us.<\/p>\n
\nand make the prayer your own:<\/p>\n
\nI have no idea where I am going.<\/em>
\nI do not see the road ahead of me.<\/em>
\nI cannot know for certain where it will end.
\nNor do I really know myself,
\nand the fact that I think that I am following\u00a0\u2028your will
\ndoes not mean that I am actually doing so.<\/em>
\nBut I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
\nAnd I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
\nI hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
\nAnd I know that if I do this,
\nyou will lead me by the right road<\/em>
\nthough I may know nothing about it.<\/em>
\nTherefore will I trust you always<\/em>
\nthough I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.<\/em>
\nI will not fear, for you are ever with me,
\nand you will never leave me to face my perils alone.<\/em>
\nAmen.<\/em><\/p>\n