Here’s something to think about: What God sees when he looks at our lives is not always the same as what we see. And at times, the difference between what God sees and what I see can be enormous. I think I know so well what I need and what is best for me--that even if I don’t know much about anything else, surely I must be the expert on my own life--but actually, God is the expert on my life. God’s perspective on my strengths and weaknesses, my joys and challenges, my past and my present and my future, is so much wider and longer and deeper than mine. I’ve got the obstructed view--behind a pole in the nosebleed seats--but God’s in a field box right behind home plate. He can see every play--he knows the story of my life so much better than I do. So if you ask me what I need right now, and you ask God what I need right now, you would probably get two very different responses. 

In some way, God is always meeting needs that I don’t know I have and answering questions I haven’t thought to ask. And because I don’t really know what I need, I often have trouble recognizing and accepting what God offers me to fill that need. So many times, I’ve been so focused on the mountain of things I think I need--God’s help with making an important decision, improving a difficult relationship, solving an impossible problem--that I haven’t been able to see past it to get a glimpse of what God is giving me. Only when I am really willing to spend a lot of time in prayer can I sometimes see beyond my mountain of needs. Right now, if I’m really honest, I have to say that what I want God to give me is solutions, but I have a feeling that what God wants to give me is the ability to trust that he’s got it all under control.

This pattern of being unaware of what we really need and unable to recognize and accept God’s answer to that need is as old as history, and is woven through all the readings this week. God was leading the Israelites to an amazing future, but they longed to go back to slavery in Egypt. The people were hungry, and God sent bread from heaven, but the people asked, “What is this?” The crowd saw Jesus as a miracle worker who could multiply bread, and did not recognize that he was offering something far greater than bread--the gift of his own self, the gift of a relationship with him. When we are focused on our needs, it is just so hard for us to see what God is doing.

One element of growing in our faith is learning to align our vision more and more with God’s vision. With God’s grace, we can begin to see more of what he sees, and begin to sense what he is working on in our lives. We can gradually become less concerned about what we think we need, and more open to receiving what he knows we need. And so much of the time, what we really need is to go deeper in relationship with him. In the end, the things we think we need are like food that perishes, but a real, active, living relationship with the Lord endures for eternal life.

~Rachel

Take your next step: Spend a couple of minutes opening your heart to God and telling him what you really want him to give you. Then ask God to give you a glimpse of what he really wants to give you. Share your response by adding a comment here on our blog: What I want God to give me is… But I have a feeling that what God wants to give me is… 

When I was very young, my mother used to wake me up in the mornings for school. She used to say that I was always smiling when she came in. I can remember vividly the way I felt most days. Life was pretty carefree back then, full of possibilities and promise. I was well cared for, and had a predictable life filled with family and friends. I didn’t articulate it then, but I felt God’s presence in my life, and even if it wasn’t something I would have described as a relationship, it was something I trusted. I had a peace and a confidence in being, believing that things would be ok no matter what. I feel blessed to have had that experience, because it hasn’t stayed the same. Life gets challenging and complicated, and that peace and trust can get eroded. Many days I wake up with a pit of anxiety in my stomach rather than a smile on my face.

I thought about this as I prayed with this Sunday’s gospel. Maybe you remember the story. Jesus is sitting with his friends and looks up to see a large crowd arriving. Knowing already what he was going to do, he asks his friends a really impractical question: “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” The practical friends make their calculations and consider their resources and conclude, maybe with a familiar pit of anxiety in their stomachs, that the situation is impossible. Just when the disciples have pointed out the absurd limitations of their ability to respond, Jesus has them tell the people to recline in preparation for a feast. While thousands look on, Jesus takes the food and prays. John says that Jesus “gave thanks.” He acknowledged that the food he held came from God and belonged to God. Once the child handed it over and Jesus gave thanks over it, it was recognized as God’s food, and it was therefore God’s goodness that the crowd was going to share.

In so many situations, I have let my practical concerns erode my trust and confidence in what God’s power can accomplish. It usually happens when I’m being pragmatic and believe that I need to fix something or solve a problem. When I think the results depend completely on me, my skills and talents seem inadequate and my anxiety increases. When I put this kind of pressure on myself to be the hero, I lose my balance and forget about that presence of God that I felt so surely in less stressful times. I fail to trust that God’s power is always at work.

This doesn’t mean that we can just sit back and wait for God to take care of everything. The miracle in the gospel this week is not explained. We don’t know how it happened. There was suddenly a feast, when there had been so little. It is left as a mystery. What we do know is that God met the needs of the people. God satisfied their hunger, beginning with the generosity of one who apparently had little to offer. How often have I been afraid to act, to make a start at a complicated problem because I felt myself inadequate to the task. These days I have to work so much harder than I did as a child to keep finding that peace and confidence in being that comes from staying in touch with a mysterious relationship with God. But when I do, rather than feeling like it’s all up to me, or that I should wait for some magical solution to appear out of thin air, I can begin to do what I can do, trusting that God is concerned about meeting human needs, and that God can work wonders with what little we have, if we are willing to offer it. With God, inadequacy can be transformed into abundance.

~Fr. Thom

Take your next step: Take some time to recall a specific time in your life when you felt peaceful and confident. Be as specific as you can about the details, and try to remember the feeling. Thank God for that time. Think about a challenge or a stressful situation you are facing. Pray that you can trust in God’s power to multiply the results when you make a start by offering what you can.

We all have a need for God in our lives. Whether we recognize it or not, each of us needs a Savior. Only God frees us from sin and brokenness, from limitedness and death, from meaninglessness and emptiness. Only God offers us reconciliation and healing, mercy and hope, liberation and eternal life. Our relationship with God cannot truly grow until we know that we need him, and maybe even begin to have a sense of why we need him. Why do you need a Savior? This week, several members of the pastoral team, a handful of parishioners, a pope, a couple of musicians, and even some saints share their reflections on their own need for God.

Why do you need a Savior?

Augustine (saint):
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Casey (parishioner):
I need my Savior because my Savior needs me.

Charley (music director):
I need a Savior because salvation from sin is a universal need.

Denise (music minister):
I need a Savior because I am flawed and need forgiveness, refuge, and strength.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (pastor, theologian, and martyr):
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help;
I am restless, but with You there is peace.

Francis (pope):
I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jodi (parishioner):
I need a Savior because I need his loving example for how to try and live my life.

Sr. Kathleen (associate minister):
I need a Savior because good intentions are not enough. As much as I try to overcome my shortcomings, I cannot do it without the grace God gives.

Kathy (assistant to the leadership team):
I need a Savior because I have only scratched the surface of the person God is calling me to be.

Kathy (coordinator of volunteers):
I need a Savior because my life is imperfect and I need to ask for help every day, while being grateful for the times of joy.

Mary (administrative assistant):
I need a Savior because without the guidance and loving care of our Savior, I would not be fulfilling his call to continued conversion and holiness, which brings joy, peace, fulfillment, and happiness to me and to God.

Matt Maher (musician):
Without You I fall apart
You're the One that guides my heart

Paul (saint):
I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. (Romans 7:18-20; The Message translation).

Rachel (associate minister):
I need a Savior because my perspective is so limited, and on my own I am selfish and afraid--I need Christ to show me what really matters and to teach me to give generously and love courageously.

Sidewalk Prophets (musicians):
I’m completed
When you are with me

Fr. Thom (pastor):
I need a Savior because, even though many people may not realize it by observing me, on the inside I don't feel like I can manage many things in my life, and I depend on the Lord’s help every day.

Tony (parishioner):
I need the Savior’s strength to be the person God wants me to be.

Take your next step: What about you? Why do you need a Savior? Listen to the song “Lord, I Need You,” and finish this sentence for yourself: “I need a Savior because…”

I was talking with a friend who lives in Texas. She was telling me about a friend of hers who runs the classes people need to take in order to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. She said that in one relatively small town, he is able to profitably fill a class every month. I was astonished to think that there is a growing number of people who have the interest and motivation to actively seek the training required to carry a hidden gun. I am very interested in any growing population, since that is the biggest problem we are facing as a faith community--that we are not growing.

What makes the difference? What nurtures the growth of individuals or communities, and what holds us back? An important question for every person and every community is: what do you envision for your future? The question is different at different stages of the journey. It starts when people ask us as children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As we grow, and maybe find ourselves in very different roles doing very different things than we imagined, it becomes more and more important to look to how we are living in the present, since that is what shapes our future. As we look back on the paths our lives have taken, we have a great opportunity to see God’s presence and action along the way. Awareness of the presence of God can reveal new paths, new callings, or new roads that we may never have dreamed of pursuing.

I believe that the way to change our shrinking churches into growing churches is to encourage each other to actively engage in reflection on where each of us has seen God’s presence and action in our lives. This leads to a place of gratitude, peace, and confidence in God’s love for each of us. When we dwell in this space, we live life more intentionally and become more authentically who we were made to be, regardless of our occupation or the roles we play. When we see people who embody this kind of joyful spirit, we are attracted, and want to know where it comes from. People who know the joy of God’s love have a way of proclaiming this joy with their lives.

I think of the times when I have been privileged to hear people telling stories about when they have experienced God, like when courageous and generous members of our community gave witness talks during Lenten Masses, or on our Confirmation retreats. It is not an easy thing to do, and my experience is that everyone I have ever asked has felt that they didn’t have anything to share and couldn’t do it, but have nevertheless had a powerful impact on their listeners. This is how we begin to create a cultural shift that values and embraces identifying and sharing experiences of God. For us to really grow, the way Jesus envisioned, and the way his early disciples put into practice, it’s up to us to create a culture that values sharing faith, as strong as the Texas culture of gun ownership.

It’s so easy to believe that this call is for someone else. We already have busy lives. Or we don’t think we have what it takes, or we don’t think God would be calling us. But the truth is, the story of Jesus sending his disciples out into the world is a blueprint for his plan for transformation of the world, and it is for every one of his followers. Like the twelve, we are supposed to be his emissaries. Perhaps not by going off to foreign lands, but by the way we live our lives now. No matter what our job, each of us has a share in Jesus’s vocation. His instructions to us are simple: preach repentance, heal people, and continue his battle with the powers of evil. Take nothing for the journey; God will provide what you need. What is Jesus calling you to do and to be?

~Fr. Thom

Take your next step: Ask someone you know and trust to spend some time thinking and praying about where God has been a part of their lives, and promise to do the same. Set aside some time to tell each other what that was like for you and what you discovered.