Seasonal Inspiration
If we believe in God, we have to believe that God is more powerful than we.
-Rev. John Phalen
All Were Amazed
Seasonal Inspiration By Rev. John Phalen, CSC President of Holy Cross Family MinistriesMy mom was amazing, God rest her! She could stretch a tiny budget to last a whole week; she could make creamed salmon and peas over mashed potatoes that were to die for; she could argue and win cases in court without ever becoming a lawyer; she could raise seven children and still look relaxed and terrific. She could drive a station wagon full of kids without losing her cool! She was amazing. But she would always point out that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, was the amazing one.
Alleluia! He has risen from the tomb! It must have left Mary, the other women, and the apostles so amazed! Oh, all through his life Jesus had left the people amazed: at the authority with which he spoke; at his forgiveness of sins; at the healings that took place at his hand; at the love and mercy of God which he reflected toward sinners; at his raising Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus from the dead!
He was truly amazing! Now he did the most amazing, impossible thing: he rose from the dead himself! Who could believe it? Not Thomas! Not Pilate! Not many of the leaders of the Jews! Not those former followers who had found his teaching about eating his body and drinking his blood to be entirely too much for them. Now this “rising from the dead” business: unbelievable!
Or is it? God’s ways are not our ways. We are told this throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. If we believe that God could create the world in which we live, all living things and ourselves, the sun, the moon and the stars, then why couldn’t God send his only Son to come among us and give us redemption, new life? There is much more to the mystery of this life than what scientists have discovered. Every Saint in the Church calendar has demonstrated a closeness to God through miracles. Miracles are when the impossible happens: when doctors testify that they cannot explain how this brother or sister survived this illness, or made it back to life after all organs had shut down.
If we believe in God, we have to believe that God is more powerful than we. And God has a plan which we do not presently comprehend. But we see evidence of it when unexpected blessings come from events we would have considered tragedies; when we find ourselves in just the right place at the right time; when Jesus’ victory over death makes us realize once again that “all things are possible for God!” Amazing!