As Lent begins, Merry Christmas.
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January 2018
Greetings,
I have never been invited to attend a baby shower. Apart from fact that such celebrations seem to generally be
reserved to the females of our species, as a professed celibate, there is little call for my presence. As I write this missive, however, I cannot help but reflect on the amount of preparation one undertakes prior to the birth of a child. Bottles, bassinettes, blankets, bibs, and babyproofing. A child’s birth changes everything so
dramatically. It must change so that the child can thrive. Parents suddenly have to make room in their lives for a new person. No amount of planning, I think, is probably sufficient to prepare for all the change. Parents learn to make room for the baby in ways they never imagined doing before.
If parents do these things, it seems fair to ask if these were not the same preparations undertaken by Mary and
Joseph? Likewise, didn’t God the Father assumed similar preparations among generations of Hebrews in order to ready the world for the grand appearance of Jesus on the human scene? And still, in spite of all the preparation, so much of the life and ministry of Jesus came to man as a surprise. He continues to do new things and to surprise us today.
The many young couples whose marriages I witnessed over the last year, even after lengthy periods of preparation, are surely finding Christ popping up in their lives in new ways and they are learning to make a space for him. Those who grieve losses this year, I pray, are finding Christ arriving in new and unexpected ways as well. They are also learning to make a new place for him. He is also still doing new things for me.
Last May I began formal training to be a spiritual director. Through that process, God is revealing himself to me in ways I have not experienced him before. He is asking me to confront fears and insecurities in ways I have not done before. He is making a place for himself in my life where I had not invited him previously. It is beautiful and joyful, and sometimes very difficult. He persistently asks me if I am willing to abide in his love. I find that I acquiesce only intermittently.
In one of my first years as a priest, on the occasion of their confirmation, I admonished several high school boys that I knew well, to become better men than I am. They are now husbands, fathers, Air Force officers, dental students, and seminarians approaching ordination. Somewhere in the last few years, without me quite noticing it, these boys became men. They are good men. Better than me, I think. And when I speak to them now, I encounter Christ within them differently than I did before. Once again, he presents opportunities to make a new place for him.
I experience him differently now too, as he asks me to make less of myself. After long prayer and avoidance, I am working on a serious weight loss program. I have lost a little more than thirty pounds to date.
Not all with the Lord is new, though. I still find him while standing in the stream while trying to outwit trout with brains the size of peas. I still find him in my people, and in my ministry, and in the sacraments. I find him in confessions and baptisms and funerals. I find him in may parents, siblings, sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces. I find him in my brother priests. I find him in the beauty of this place where he has assigned me to
minister.
It is a privileged life I lead as a priest that allows me to find Christ so freshly so often. I am
tremendously grateful for it, and I am grateful for you. You are one of the places where I find Christ and his love. Know of my continued prayers for you and yours during the coming year.
In peace,
Fr. Tyler
