Dreams can be as fragile as old-fashioned glass Christmas ornaments, and shatter in an instant.
Plans can be like sand castles, annihilated by a sudden, overpowering ocean wave.
At some point in life, we may even decide that having dreams and plans isn't as important as it once was, because life is so changeable that it's easier to just "go with the flow," live "in the moment."
However, one stable North Star in our lives never changes: God created us out of love, knows our talents and weaknesses intimately, and is faithful to us forever. God says to each of us, as God said to Mary through God's Angel Messenger: "Rejoice, oh highly favored son or daughter of mine. God is with you... The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...."
God our Father/Mother, has a dream and plan for each of us, a mission, if you will. Yet mysteriously, we co-create our life's journey with God. Our life is always a dance, with God teaching us the steps, holding us tightly or loosely, depending on what we need, sometimes guiding our hearts, sometimes following where we lead, for God made us free. Can we trust that, no matter what happens to us, or what we choose, our life has purpose? We are blessed indeed if we believe and trust that God will bring all of God's plans for us to completion in us.
God - Reality - Life - is always placing challenges, even roadblocks, in our path, or presenting us with heart-pounding choices we could never have imagined. Life will always be full of surprises. Not all of them will be welcome. Some will be heartbreaking., All of them will change us. If we have faith, if we follow Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, Jesus will guide our hearts to face the changes, the surprises, so that we can wisely integrate them into our lives, or surmount them, or even welcome them.
After all, Jesus promised to be with us always. Jesus promised to send us his Holy Spirit of Love, Unity, Courage, Wisdom, Counsel, Joy, Peace - all gifts that can buoy us up during the worst adversity. Blessed are we if we have faith that Jesus' words to us will be accomplished in us - that we can rejoice to be God's child, can trust that God is with us, can, in the power of the Holy Spirit, become the blessed, completely individual person God created us to become.
Think of the twelve apostles before they met Jesus. The trajectory of their lives seemed settled, predictable. And then, Jesus said, "Follow me."
"The apostles didn’t know who they were destined to be when they began to follow Jesus. The same could be said of all of us who start down the path of faith with faltering and uncertain steps. Maybe someday we’ll be part of the canon of saints like Thomas, who up to the Last Supper was still asking Jesus where this road was headed. Obviously it had yet to occur to him that he would be one of the 12 founders of our apostolic tradition. Nor can we imagine who we might become if we continue on this way." ("Take Five For Faith," May 17.)
No one's life journey happens in isolation. All of us are surrounded by people. When Mary heard the Angel Messenger speak to her, she was engaged to Joseph, whom she loved very much. She also loved her cousin, Elizabeth, and when she traveled to help Elizabeth through the final days of her pregnancy and her delivery, it was Elizabeth who confirmed Mary's life mission for her: that she was blessed, that she would bear the Savior. Each one of us has people in our lives whom we live in relationship with. People who surprisingly confirm for us that we too are meant to give birth to God in this world through our words and actions - for each of us is a Christ-bearer.
The wonderful Good News is that we don't have to walk our faith path alone and in the dark. We don't have to make this faith journey using our unaided minds to choose the next step. Jesus always sent his disciples out two by two for a reason: we all need a support system. We are all interconnected, are made one in Christ's Mystical Body the Church, are meant to experience our life journey together.
Sometimes, it's someone in our faith community who sees us more clearly than we see ourselves, sees our gifts that we've hidden or don't believe in, calls us to account to become all that we can become. Or, someone calls us to account for selfishness or pride we've hidden from our consciousness. Someone else's need can call us to a heroic charity we never thought we were capable of. The community's brokenness challenges us to create unity when there is divisiveness. Yes, the people who enter our lives through our faith communities can be the biggest challenges and surprises of all!
"We need folks to celebrate the victories, cheer us on during the contests, hold onto us when the bad news comes, and weep with us when we grieve. We also need encouragement and challenge to do the right thing even when it’s hard or costly, and to shine a light when the path ahead is dark. Welcome to the church." ("Take Five for Faith," May 19.)
Jesus tried to explain to his followers how radically we are all interrelated and are one in him when he spoke to them at the Last Supper: “I am the vine, you are the branches; abide in me as I in you” (John 15:4); “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us. . . . I in them and you in me, that they may be completely one.” (John 17:21-23).
Jesus uses a very concrete image to explain how interconnected we are with Jesus and with one another: he is the vine and we are the branches. Bishop Robert Barron explains:
"Friends, in our Gospel passage today (John 15: 1-8), Jesus declares that he is the vine and we are the branches, adding that "anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither."
"It’s odd that we accept this sort of language very easily when it comes to our bodily health, while we balk at it when it comes to spiritual or supernatural health. Doctors and health specialists can say with a clarity and matter-of-factness that certain practices and behaviors are absolutely essential if one wants to maintain physical well-being. Unless you eat a balanced, nutritious, low-fat diet, you will get sick, fat, and unfit. If you smoke, drink to excess, and never exercise, your body will become unhealthy, and if these practices (or negligences) become exaggerated, you will die. It just isn’t that complicated.
"Jesus is not engaging in charming poetic imagery. He is laying out the spiritual facts. The spirit is a living thing, and it derives its life from the vine. If therefore you are separated from the vine, you will die spiritually; you will stop living a supernatural life. And it’s just not that complicated."
Whoever we truly ARE, is known first and best by God; God Alone can reveal to us the surprising, mysterious, beautiful depths of our being. Every turning, twisting path of our life's journey will highlight who we are, help us become more of who we truly are - tragedies, triumphs, challenges, boring stretches, joyful and easy-going stretches. If we have faith in God and allow God to guide our hearts, no stretch of road, no matter how ugly or abandoned, will be wasted pavement. Blessed are we when we believe and trust that God will accomplish God's dream for us IN us. In and through and with Jesus, we will become all that we are meant to be. We will fulfill our mission to help build the City of God, the Kingdom.
God accomplishes God's dream and plan for us through our relationships, the people we are one with. The people whose triumphs and tragedies become ours because we are all branches on the same Vine, and the Vine is Christ. The Holy Spirit indeed overshadows us and empowers us when our dreams and prayers become bigger and become dreams and prayers for peace and justice not just for our corner of the world, but for the whole world. Our plans are full of grace when they are plans not just for our own lives but plans that can impact others' lives for good - and not even necessarily people whom we personally know.
At some point in our life, we may even decide that having precise dreams and plans isn't as important as it once was, because life is so changeable that it's easier to just "go with the flow," live "in the moment." The Flow is the Flow of the Holy Spirit, a flow we can rest in, float in, when we know with our whole being that God is good and loves us forever. When we can live "in the moment," in the Now, we are always spontaneously open to how God's Wisdom guides us down every path, for God is our Good Shepherd, in the Valley of darkness and at the Banquet table.
Be blessed. Trust that God is at work in our world and at work in your life journey. Grow the gift of being able to look back at your life, and prayerfully consider how every tragedy and triumph has affected you, how you have grown in spite of and maybe because of every pain. How financially God has uplifted you when money was tight. How health-wise, God has hgiven you courage and endurance during sickness. How God's love and laughter pervades every love-filled relationship. Be humble. Know that you are not traveling alone. You travel with God and in community every day of your constantly surprising life journey.