Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 12th

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
December 12, 2006


“Now of salvation and power come.”
Rev. 11:10

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He died about seven or eight years ago. There is a good chance that he may have touched your life but that you might not know the story of how that came to be.

He was driving though his home state of Indiana on a late summer evening. The sun was setting over the farmland and he stopped by a restaurant to get a meal he really enjoyed. After getting back on the road with his Big Mac, fries and coke, he really began to experience the presence of God. In a state where he had many fond memories and friends, the beauty of the sunset over the fields, the great meal of a Big Mac, he began to think about how good God is. “God, you are great and wonderful and all-giving. You are awesome.” So moved by the presence of God, he began to cry and had to pull over to the side of the road. And on the side of the road in just a few minutes he wrote a song on the McDonald’s bag that has touched millions and millions of lives. I am sure it is one of the most loved Christian contemporary songs ever. Maybe you have been touched by it? The song? “Awesome God” by Rich Mullins.

This time every year in the church we read about the end of the world, the second coming of Jesus. Words and images like tribulation, distress, stars falling out of the sky and the moon turning black, the earth shaking, come to us in scriptures read at mass. To be honest, my reaction to all of this is to say, “Big deal! Why be so worried? Why be afraid? Jesus is going to come when Jesus is going to come. The point is is to be ready! Are we ready? If we are, Jesus will take care of it all.”

Sometimes we try to live in the past with going back to the hurts or the fond memories we have there. But Jesus is not there. Or we may try to live in the future trying to figure out what our job will be, what will be happening ten years from now or when will be the exact time of Jesus’ second coming. But Jesus is not there either. The only place Jesus is is in the present. So many times we are not present to his presence in the present. The only time Jesus can come to you and me is now! “NOW have salvation and power come.”

Let us be inspired by the life of Rich Mullins. He was just so present to Jesus in the NOW. Practice the presence of God in the NOW because that is the only place we can experience him. May we all have the grace to be so connected to Jesus in the NOW that we would have to pull over our cars because God’s love moved us so much that it was unsafe to drive with all the tears streaming out of our eyes.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E
Fr. John