Pax Christi vobiscum! Come Holy Spirit!
I just have a message that I think really needs to be said, and this one is specifically for the youth who may be reading this. It's also for the parents of those youth...and really for anyone. But I thought this needed to be targeted more specifically this go-around.
So I ask all of the youth out there (or at least the young at heart):
What do you want out of life? Let me ask that again: What do you want out of life?
Because I know you have big dreams. I know that you want to get out and do great things in the world. You want to own your own business, you want to be President of the United States, you want to do mission work, you want to be an actor (and I can sympathize here)--you want to make an impact.
I mean, how many people sit back and say, "I strive to be mediocre when I grow up." No one. We all want to do something amazing with our lives. Do you want to know why that is? Because God wants us to do amazing things. He wants to do amazing things in us. Let that sink in.
Now, I am not saying that God is calling all of us to be President of the United States or a major actor, but this is what I am saying: God has given you a dream for a reason, and He wants to use it, and He wants to transform it.
"What are you getting at, Paul?" you ask.
"That's a good question...," I respond, not because I don't know, but because it's just a good question, and I'm glad you're paying attention.
Back on task: The reason we have big plans for our lives is because God has big plans for our lives. From all eternity, God knew He would create you (see Psalm 139, especially verses 14-16), and He didn't make you for nothing. Guess what: only you can accomplish the unique mission He has for you.
"What?"
"That's right."
"No wa--"
"I'm gonna cut you off, because it's true."
So if you have dreams right now (which I know you do), God wants to use them and make them even more than what you are allowing for yourself. A brief autobiographical note: I have always wanted to be an actor. I love being on stage (whether people love being in the audience is a different story, but stay with me). There is a real rush that comes with the whole experience, and in the end, the sense of accomplishment at bringing life to people is overwhelming.
"But Paul, you're a seminarian, not an actor."
"Right."
"So where does your dream fit with what you're doing right now?"
"Thought you'd never ask..." I reply as I delightfully type whatever I want you to say.
True, I am no longer doing acting directly, but God has transformed that dream on the way. I have been blessed with the opportunity to give talks on retreats and at a Parish at which I served, and now the sense of accomplishment at bringing life to people is even more overwhelming: I get to bring Life to people (see John 14:6). And in the not-too-distant future, I will have a captive audience every Sunday...heh. Also, God has taken me amazing places on the way. It has not always been easy, but it has been worth it. And I know God's only got more in store.
So I dare you to dream big. Then ask God how you can dream bigger. Be Saints!
May God bless you with His grace and His peace. I pray your Lent draws you deeper into the mystery of Christ's burning love for us.
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It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness, he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fulness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.
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