Daily Reflection June 12, 2022 |
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From May 22 through June 4, 2022, I was walking in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Spain with 20 college students and 5 other colleagues from Jesuit universities in the USA Midwest province. We walked over 120 miles in 2 weeks – up mountains, into valleys, across wheatfields, into countless Catholic churches and birthplaces of saints like St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Peter Claver.
I can tell you from the blisters still on my feet, the healing sun rash, and the experiences of mental low points, that the afflictions are real. As each of you knows in your own, painful ways. So, I am struck by the call from Paul to boast in them. Maybe lament or complain or grumble about them, sure. But to boast?! But what comes after this in the reading, I watched unfold before me in the college students, and know from my own life experience. Affliction leads to endurance, character, and HOPE and it is in hope that we rely, rooted in God’s great love for each of us. I firmly believe that our God does not want us to suffer, and yet, by our free will, by our very being human, suffering may and does happen. And where is God in all of it? Right there beside us. I watched God do this through students as they walked hand in hand, offered encouraging and compassionate words, kept each other going step by step. I witnessed God show up for each of them in the big life questions, in the little moments of joy and laughter, in their resilience and fortitude. The message of our faith is wrapped up in this short reading – hope and love win, given to us by the Trinity – in the love of God, the life of Jesus, and the breath of the Holy Spirit. So, let us pray.
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