PARADOXICAL
The faith chroniclesThursday, April 03, 2014
"Recognizing Jesus on the road"
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There are many ways in which Jesus presents himself to us. Most of them are unexpected, sometimes so much so that we don't even recognize it's him! The people in today's Gospel story failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah because of the expectations they had.
Expectations can sure be misleading! Yes, we can expect God to love us and do good for us, but when we have expectations about how and through whom he should love us and do good for us, we usually end up disappointed. Maybe we even feel abandoned.
The Lenten journey is a daily walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary for the sake of an eventual resurrection. Our sufferings have eternal value if we unite them to the Passion of Christ.
Jesus is present when we suffer, but if we expect him to remove our pain quickly to prove that he cares about us, we fail to recognize a more loving plan. We want short-cuts to healing and short-cuts to happiness, but God knows the harm in this. Despite what our expectations insist should happen, God implements the long-term plan, and someday we'll be very grateful.
Sometimes Jesus wants to unite himself to us in the people we don't like, but since we don't expect him to show up there, we reject him. It takes effort to find Jesus in these people, but he is there – teaching us to love the unlovable.
Jesus becomes present to us in many illogical ways. We expect that everything God does and asks us to do will make sense. But it didn't make any sense to Mary that she could become the mother of the Messiah while still a virgin. It didn't make sense to Joseph, either. And it's not logical that God would use a sinner like me to bring you these Good News Reflections. And neither is it logical that you are the right person to do the tasks that God has set before you. But if we say "no" to God's plan, we are saying "no" to an awesome union with Christ.
Jesus is presenting himself to you in unexpected ways today. Can you find him?
Here's how: In the box below, list all those areas of your life where it seems like God has left the room and closed the door and forgotten about you. Wherever he seems to be failing you, abandoning you, or dismissing your needs, this is where Jesus is presenting himself to you in unexpected ways.
He is not standing where you're looking. Turn around and look in a different direction. You might need to turn toward a direction that you don't like. Where you expect disaster and more misery, unexpectedly, he is there, turning the bad into good, for your sake and for the benefit of everyone else who's involved.
© 2014 by Terry A. Modica
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