The other day, I was on the computer and all of a sudden, a screen popped up with the message, “A call from Fr. Juan…to accept click ‘Ok’” I clicked, and a slightly grainy live image of Fr. Juan came on the screen, and then I was video chatting with him. Fr. Juan is a Discalced Carmelite friar who graduated with me from the seminary. He is working on his advanced degree at a university in Spain. On weekends, Fr. Juan travels to historical places connected with the Carmelite religious order such as the convent that St. Teresa of Avila founded. He periodically sends me photos of his travels and so I vicariously visit these places as well. After we finished the video chat, I marveled to myself about how far apart Fr. Juan and I are, yet how close we are, thanks to technology.
Do you ever wonder how we survived without cell phones, email, texting, and video chatting? Right in the palm of our hands, someone who is far away can write us, talk to us, and even video chat with us. All it takes is a click of a button, and thousands of miles of distance are shrunk to inches via the phone or the computer. As impressive as that is, we know that technology cannot shrink the distance we create in our hearts. We may have hundreds of people’s phone numbers on our cell phone, but it still takes our desire to initiate a call for us to connect. We may have a thousand friends on our Facebook, but until we decide to post a message, they remain just a list of contacts. Technology can remove physical obstacles like mountains and valleys that separate two persons, but sometimes we put emotional mountains and valleys between us and another person and technology cannot help us. How many of us have hurts, grudges, and resentments that keep us from dialing a friend's number? One day in the future we may have Star-Trek technology that will beam a person from Donaldsonville, Louisiana to New York City in less than a few seconds to be with family, but until we have the desire to be with that person such technology will be of no use.
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths," John the Baptist cried out in the desert and the prophet Isaiah cried out, “Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low…” Does our own path to Jesus have some crooked roads, deep valleys, and tall mountains? I wondered about that the other morning when I was in the adoration chapel. There in the monstrance only 5 feet away was Jesus, His body, soul, and divinity. Yet, I was distracted and my mind was too busy to be with Him. Mother Teresa told her sisters, “I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel – but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you? Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it.”
The other day, I went to the hospital to visit an elderly woman who was near death. The woman was unconscious and breathing laboriously and her children looked on with sadness. She was so close to them, yet she seemed so distant. Her health declined so rapidly, and it caught the family by surprise. They could touch her hands, stroke her face, yet there seemed to be no response other than labored breathing. One daughter mentioned that she and family members were praying the rosary near their mother just a few nights before, and all of a sudden she smelled something sweet like roses. She wondered, ‘could it be? Could it be Blessed Mother standing next to mom?’
We often think of Heaven as a far away place. We also think that Heavenly Father is far, far away, but is He? Jesus reminded us, “The Kingdom of God is within you…I will be with you always until the age.” Our Heavenly Father longs for us to grow closer to Him. He is comfort and consolation to all. The Father is not the one putting obstacles between Him and us; we may be the ones creating valleys and mountains keeping us from getting closer to Him. We must long for the Father and direct our hearts to Him. We believe there is time to make straight our paths to Him, but we must know that the time is now. Our Lord Jesus suffered for our salvation and we must reflect His love now, not later. What a great gift to know that we have been joined to the Heavenly Father through our baptism. We must live as Our Lord has shown us. There is no obstacle between Our Lord and us other than our own lack of desire. Advent is a great time to ask for the grace to desire to be closer to the Father.
