God’s Own Design

Dear Friend,

Here’s the challenge: imagine Jesus telling you to think as God does and not as human beings do (cf. Mt. 16:23). What would this mean to you and how would it manifest in your life? Try it. Ask yourself.  

I did, and honestly my first reaction was a smile of relief at being freed - just for a moment - from the knot of my own thinking. I had to chuckle: a guy like me ending up being a friar and a pastor. How? A one-liner about marriage jumped to mind and I turned it on myself: “Before I took my vows as a Franciscan, I didn’t know the meaning of true happiness… and then it was too late.”  

Kidding aside (temporarily), our scripture readings for this Second Sunday of Lent assure me that sanity, humor, healing, and creativity really can come from the change in perspective offered by the God of love. “You’re thinking not as God does, but as human beings do,” says Jesus (Mt. 16:23), chiding Peter who will famously (humorously) attempt to build tents for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on the mountain of the Transfiguration.

In our first reading, God tells Abram, “I will make you a great nation.” From a human point of view this is an absurd suggestion, dramatized later by the elderly Sarah, his wife, who laughs to herself when she overhears divine messengers tell Abraham that she’s destined to have a baby (Gen. 18) 

The challenge to Peter and Abraham and to us is the call to enter “God’s own design” (not ours) of a holy life (cf. 2 Timothy). Lenten practices are meant to open that design for us and to free us to step in. It’s a fine line, for sure, but for me anyway, seriously, the experience can be downright funny. 

Gratefully,

Father Dan