July 9, 2020
Paulist Fr. Frank Sabatté reflects on adjusting to an unfamiliar present and an uncertain future.
I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves
“When are we going to get back to normal?”
It’s understandable.
But it’s becoming increasingly clear that
We might never get back to normal.
Now that is sad.
And it’s ok to feel sad.
But it’s no reason to despair.
Not if you’ve been paying attention to all that’s been said and taught and believed:
That we are on a journey.
A journey with many twists and turns and ups and downs
What makes this journey different is:
we don’t know where we are headed.
And we don’t need to know.
The crowd moved Jesus to pity. Why? They were like sheep without a shepherd. They couldn’t hear the shepherds voice above their baas; they had only themselves and their plans to figure out where they were headed. But they were headed nowhere. They had forgotten the most important thing: They were being led by a shepherd who is good.
We don’t need to know the destination. All we need to do is remember
That we are being led. And who leads us.
But just like confused sheep we forget. We think we are heading nowhere and we panic.
All we can hear is our own baaing.
Those are the times we wanted “normal”, something familiar, a time, a place we had gotten accustomed to.
But our shepherd loves us too much to leave us in the tiny world of our limited perspective.
That is why, even now we can be grateful.
Because when you know you are being led and who leads you you know it means
Not back to normal but forward to
more.