As probably most people know, the "Toy Story" movies' second hero, the toy Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear, was named after Buzz Aldrin, which delights the astronaut. Aldrin acknowledged the tribute when he pulled a Buzz Lightyear doll out during a speech at NASA, to rapturous cheers.
Buzz the toy is, in reality, so much like us. Like us, he is capable of bravery and courage. But he also can be erratic and impulsive. And, like Buzz, we have illusions about who we really are. Buzz may be a toy who thinks he is a human being, but often we are human beings who think and act as if we are God. It's when we fallible, breakable mere humans try to "play God" and make our own rules for our lives, that we "fall" and hurt ourselves.
But the opposite is also true. Buzz might think that he is more than he is, but too often we think that we are less than we really are. Buzz Lightyear may be a toy, but he is admirable because he has a goal, a dream, - to protect the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg. He has a battle cry: "To Infinity... and Beyond!" He may not be an astronaut, but he wears his own unique space suit all the time, ready and willing to fulfill his goal and destiny.
We are human beings, not God. But, we also have each been chosen by God to exist, and God's Divine Heart, according to Scripture, has plans for us, God calls us to protect our own corner of the world from evil. We have each been chosen for a goal and destiny: to go into the world and make disciples of all nations through the witness of our words and actions, to bear much fruit, so we can inherit eternal life.
We may be fragile, fallible, breakable human beings, who hurt, who cry, who make mistakes, who hurt, who cry, who feel sorry for ourselves, who get angry, who make mistakes, who fail and fall over and over. But - we also have God-given armor, our sealed and pressurized space suits which we should wear continually: Faith. Hope. Love. if we have faith, we put God first. And then, we also pray. We put our Hope and Trust completely in God. We love. We admire. We give. We give more. We try!
Lightyear's great enemy is the Evil Emperor Zurg, and we humans have our own enemies: our selfishness, self-doubts and fears. Mostly we fear that putting God first can be dangerous. Sometimes it is. But that spiritual armor, that spiritual spacesuit, of Faith, Hope, and Love protect us from our spiritual enemies so that we can choose courage and loyalty to God even in the midst of persecution and death.
Bishop John Fisher, and his friend lawyer and High Chancellor Thomas More, were executed (in 1535) within 15 days of one another over their opposition to English King Henry VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragon and his plans to take over the church in England. They had their priorities right. On the scaffold More described himself as the “king’s good servant—but God’s first.”
Bishop Robert Barron speaks of Faith and Hope/Trust in God. He says "How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith, and that they remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith....
"What is faith? Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful person who is God, we are never in control.
"This is precisely what we see in the lives of the saints: in Mother Teresa moving into the worst slum in the world in an attitude of trust; in Francis of Assisi just abandoning everything and living for God; in Rose Hawthorne deciding to take cancer sufferers into her own home; in Antony leaving everything behind and going into the desert; in Maximilian Kolbe saying, “I’m a Catholic priest; take me in his place.”
"Do not worry, and depend on God for everything. Have faith!"
If we put God first, we also continually wear the spiritual spacesuit of Love. We understand that we cannot follow the second commandment and love our neighbor unless we follow the first commandment and are rooted and grounded in Love Itself - God. We have to first love God, be immersed in God, so that it is God's Love Which flows through us, with us, and in us, empowering us so that we can truly love our neighbor with enduring love. Jesus truly is our Vine, and we are His branches, forever united to Him. Fr. Richard Rohr says,
"As Jesus put it, “cut off from the vine, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The “vine and the branches” offer one of the greatest Christian mystical images of the non-duality between God and the soul. In and with God, I can love everything and everyone—even my enemies. Alone and by myself, my willpower and intellect will seldom be able to love in difficult situations over time. Many folks try to love by willpower, with themselves as the only source. They try to obey the second commandment without the first. It usually does not work long-term, and there is no one more cynical about love than a disillusioned idealist. (This was my own youthful generation of the 1960s.)
"Finally, of course, there is a straight line between love and suffering. If we love anyone or anything deeply and greatly, it is fairly certain we will soon suffer because we have given up control to another, and the price of self-extension will soon show itself. Undoubtedly, this is why we are told to be faithful in our loves, because such long-term loyalty and truly conscious love will always lead us to the necessary pruning (John 15:2) of the narcissistic self."
It's so easy to understand how depressed Buzz Lightyear was when he discovered that he was only a toy! How often we are depressed by our own littleness! We feel helpless, out of control, like little, plastic toys who have no life except being picked up and put down by others. But if we are protected and strengthened by Faith, Hope, and Love, our littleness means nothing. In fact, our very littleness reveals the Power and Glory of God! In his homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi (The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ) Pope Francis said that all that matters is that we put God first by loving unselfishly - giving ourselves away - through, with, and in Jesus.
“Whatever we have can bear fruit if we give it away – that is what Jesus wants to tell us – and it does not matter whether it is great or small. The Lord does great things with our littleness.
“God’s omnipotence is lowly, made up of love alone. And love can accomplish great things with little. The Eucharist teaches us this: for there we find God himself contained in a piece of bread."
Pope Francis said that the Eucharist is “the antidote” to the mindset that says, “Sorry, that is not my problem,” or “I have no time, I can’t help you, it’s none of my business.”
“Being simple and essential, bread broken and shared, the Eucharist we receive allows us to see things as God does. It inspires us to give ourselves to others,” he said. (Catholic News Agency, Rome, Italy, June 23.)
Yes, sometimes like Buzz Lightyear, we get confused about who we are. He, a toy, thinks he's human. We, humans, think we're God. So, thinking we are in control, Buzz and we fall and injure ourselves. We humans can even get depressed at the idea that we are just like little, helpless, plastic toys, not good for much. We know that we are only human, and our feelings get hurt. Our hearts ache. We cry, feel sorry for ourselves, get angry, make mistakes.
But God reminds us that being human means that God chose us, God created us, and in the depths of our souls God unites with us. Buzz is so admirable because, although he is little, he dreams great dreams, brave dreams, of protecting the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg. God calls us to dream great dreams as well! Evil exists in every corner of the world, and only we, acting through, with, and in Jesus, and in the Power of His Spirit, can conquer that evil. We can because, like Buzz, we have spacesuits to wear continually: Faith, Hope, and Love. We pray. We love. We love harder. We get up again. We try!
Our littleness reflects God's Glory! It doesn't matter what we do, how ordinary our words and work are. What matters is doing everything with Faith, Hope, and Love. Fr. Rohr comments,
"True holiness and wholeness come when we allow God’s love and grace to unfold in the present moment and we respond to what is before us. Holiness is simply being connected to our Source. From such a place, our compassionate response to suffering and need is drawn naturally—without being contrived or forced—from who we are in love, not from egoic motivations or fears.
"I think that’s why so many parents become such good and holy people, because that’s exactly what caring for children does for us. Of course, children can be treated as mere extensions of our ego, but we can’t control or always predict what they will ask of us. So they’re likely to make us less egocentric, a lot less egocentric!
"I remember a family coming out to visit me when I first moved to Albuquerque. They had three little children who all had croup. For three days, the house sounded like barking dogs! The poor kiddos vomited on everything in the house. I did five loads of laundry. I don’t think we had one relaxing, enjoyable meal together. Having lived alone for much of my adult life, this was a shock. We vowed-religious, celibate folks sometimes think we’re making a sacrifice, choosing the harder path. But the energy, commitment, and selflessness that’s endlessly demanded of parents surpasses anything that has ever been asked of me."
Imagine. God accomplishes great things with little - even with the most ordinary, boring, even disgusting aspects of parenting, grand parenting, being a maintenance man, a garbage man, or a waitress. You can protect your section of the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg by loving your sick children and doing their laundry. What a daily, ordinary miracle. What a miracle that, if we put God first, if we continually wear that spacesuit of Faith, Hope, and Love, then, through our daily lives we can travel - To Infinity - and Beyond!