Sail Away

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit! A fourth exclamation point!

So exams are fast approaching, which means that there is a lot of studying that needs to be happening. I, therefore, being a great student of the highest caliber, have done everything I possibly can...to avoid it. Instead, I have been reading some of St. Augustine's writings on the Gospel of John. Quality stuff...and I bet you I find a way to work it into any or all of my exams.

Professor: "Dimmi qualcosa sulla Incarnazione."

Me: "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Professor: "Una cosa sola sulla Incarnazione. Qualsiasi cosa."

Me: "Look, can I just say something on St. Augustine and have you pass me? People back home think I speak Italian, and it'd be really embarassing if I failed these exams and they found out the truth."

Professor: "I'm just kidding. Sure thing, kid. Say whatever you want. I'm just waiting for my smoke-break anyway."

Me: "Perfetto! Appunto la cosa che volevo udire!"

*Record Scratch*

Professor: "You speak Italian?"

So, as you can tell, my exams are going to be fine. In the process of reading St. Augustine, though, I came across a great image that he uses to speak about our Salvation in Christ. Basically, he says that through sin we became separated from the Father by a vast sea, and Christ came to bring us back across that sea to the Father. But the only way to get there is by floating across the sea on the wood of the Cross. It's really a beautiful image: the only way back to the Father is by the Cross, and that Cross is our ship which gets us across the sea between us and the Father.

Then I had a thought, an image that came to me at some point in the past. I can't remember if I read it somewhere or if I came up with it myself, so to be safe, I think I'll just say I came up with it myself.

We are in fact separated from the Father by a vast sea, but Christ came to give us a way back, a way across the sea, as St. Augustine said. So Christ built a boat, in which all of the faithful gather for the journey, and that boat is the Church. And He wanted that boat to sail back to the Father by the wind of the Spirit. In order to catch that Spirit, however, Jesus had to mount the mast, the wooden beam of the Cross, and make Himself the Sail by which the Spirit could push us along.

Now, I'm not sure I can say that all of this is perfectly theologically sound at every level. But I think the basic image is clear: the Cross is, in a very real way, the mast of the great ship we call the Church, and Jesus allowed Himself to be fixed to it as our Sail, carrying this great ship across the sea by the wind of the Spirit, wind being an image frequently used as an analogy for the Spirit. It just helps us to picture what is going on in our Salvation.

This analogy just seems to fit because I think it is clear that this life is a pilgrim journey. It is not the end. And as we move on our way back home, we never do so alone. We travel together--thus, we have the Church. But we cannot travel by our own power: it is only by the missions of the Son and the Spirit, both sent by the Father, that we are able to come back to Him. The only thing we have to do is get in the boat and stay in the boat, and they will take us the whole way.

I offer this image to you because I know how much it has helped me throughout the years, and I hope you too will catch a glimpse of the beauty of the Faith through it. Thanks be to God for all He has done and continues to do in our lives.

So now all we have to do is sail away.

God bless, and please pray for our exams. Less than a month till I get to come home! Thanks be to God!

Happy Mother's Day!

The Love of the Father be with you! Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!

Happy Mother's Day! Thank you, thank you, thank you for who you are and for giving life to us children.

Mothers deserve so much thanks that they usually don't get. In fact, it's kind of a sad irony that the very people who should thank you, we kids, are the only ones who see everything you do for us, but we are also usually too busy thinking about ourselves to see everything you do for us. So the only people who see everything you do don't really see everything you do....

So on behalf of the younger generation, I would simply like to say thank you, both for who you are and for putting up with us, because oftentimes you have been the only ones to put up with us.

And where would this world be without mothers? You literally bring new life into this world, and that is a beautiful gift. I also realize, however, that I am a man, who, being a male of the masculine gender, has not had to undergo the "joys" of labor--so my perspective of the whole "beautiful gift" might be a touch outside of reality. But then, I think that you mothers, even after all you have been through to bring us into this world, would say that it is truly an amazing gift and you wouldn't trade it for the world.

So again I ask, where would this world be without mothers? Without mothers, we would not have:

• Bedtimes stories
• Learning how to share
• Bedtime prayers
• Learning how to apologize for not sharing
• Middle-of-the-night bedtime stories
• Learning how to sleep through the night
• Home-cooked meals
• Shelter from Dad when we forgot how to sleep through the night
• A shoulder to cry on
• Arms to rest in
• An example to learn from
• A special example of God's unconditional and tender love for His children

We really have a lot to be thankful for in our mothers. And if any of you readers out there happen to work for Hallmark, I have one word for you: royalties.

Oh, but I should add one more thing to the list, one more thing that we would not have without mothers:

• Jesus Christ

It was through the "Yes" of a woman from Nazareth that God came into this world. It was through her affectionate motherhood that her child, God-made-man, first learned how to pray. It was through her Fiat, her continual unconditioned "Yes" to God, that she was able to surrender her Son and release all claim on Him, so that through His Sacrifice on the cross, He could become the Savior of the world. And it is through her acceptance of John at the foot of the cross ("Woman, behold your son." John 19:26), that she in turn has become our Mother, the Mother of all believers. Yes, Mary was the first Christian, the first to say "Yes" to God and become a disciple of Jesus. And through her "Yes" we truly have a Mother in heaven, so that we might come to know the love of God through the unconditional and tender love of a mother for her children.

This Mother's day, be sure to thank God for your mother. Pray for her. She has given so much for you. And also, when you pray, thank Him for the mother He has given all of us in Mary of Nazareth.

May God bless you, and have a Happy, Holy Mother's Day.