Lesson from Fr. Paulus | God Often Acts in Unexpected Ways

St Luke tells us that at the time of Jesus' baptism, which marked the beginning of his public ministry, the people were "filled with expectation."

There were two reasons for this. First, rumor had it that according to the prophecies of Daniel, the time was ripe for the arrival of the promised Messiah, the King anointed by God to restore the independence and greatness of the long-suffering people of Israel.

Scholars at the time didn't agree about the actual characteristics and identifying marks of that Messiah, but a sense that the time had come was widespread.

Second, no true prophet had arisen in Israel in over two centuries. And so, when John the Baptist came onto the scene, they knew something big was afoot. Many hoped that he himself was the Messiah.

The prophecy of Daniel and the preaching of John the Baptist, then, were clear, dramatic signs sent by God to indicate the coming of Jesus.

Even so, Christ found a welcome in only a few hearts; the majority gave him up to be crucified.

Why? Could it be that the people of Israel were expecting one kind of Lord, and God wanted to give them another?

We often fall into the same trap; we know clearly the things we want, but God sends us others, and we resent it. But if Jesus is truly the Lord, and if the greatest prophet of all time was not even worthy to "loosen the thongs of his sandals" (a job reserved to slaves at the time), why do we expect him to do things our way?

Why do we expect him to adjust to our schedule? Isn't it possible that he knows better? God often acts in unexpected ways, so it's up to us to adjust our expectations, or else we may miss his grace altogether.

Taking a Daily Spiritual Vitamin

It's true: God often acts in unexpected ways. And if we aren't humble and flexible, we may, like so many at the time of Christ, miss out on his grace, fail to recognize his action, or reject it even when we do recognize it. And that's exactly what the devil wants.

He wants us to evaluate God's activity not in accordance with God's own standards – the unexpected, surprising standards – but in accordance with the limited, prejudiced, self-centered standards of our fallen human nature.

How can we avoid playing into the devil's hand? There are many things, but one of the most essential is to make sure that we take at least one spiritual vitamin every single day.

Spiritual vitamins keep our faith healthy, so that our minds see reality the way it really is, not the way the devil wants us to think it is.

Spiritual vitamins take many forms, here are some examples.

• Reading and studying the Bible for fifteen or twenty minutes every day is an excellent spiritual vitamin – if we use truly Catholic resources to help us do so. We will do bible study at our parish.
• Learning how to do a daily Christian meditation (not just transcendental or yoga meditations) is a great way to get your spiritual vitamin. Our parish has regular weekly Christian Meditation every Tuesday evening.
• Spending a few minutes at night to prayerfully reflect on whether we acted like faithful Christians during the day is a good one.
• Reading regularly from the lives of the saints and other good spiritual books is a strong spiritual vitamin.
• Trying to have a meal as a family every day, and starting and ending that meal with a family prayer is another spiritual vitamin.
• Dropping by a Catholic church on the way home from work or school to spend a few minutes praying in the presence of the Eucharist – another good one.

If we want to stay tuned to God and be ready to recognize and welcome his action in our lives, we have to administer a daily antidote to the poisonous world view that popular culture is constantly feeding into our imaginations.

Today, as Jesus renews his commitment to us in this Mass, let's renew our commitment to him, and identify specifically which spiritual vitamins we will take during the coming week.