On this day, many years ago, my husband was brought into this world. Some 4,000 miles away, in a different country, speaking a different language, with different color skin and eyes and being brought up in a different culture, yet created to be my partner. God’s ways are mysterious and sometimes a long time coming, yet always SO GOOD. In our wildest imaginings, neither my husband or I would have thought it possible for us to meet. Logistics were clearly not in our favor and both of us had been searching for each other for over a decade. Time and space were both against us, but God can do anything and He showed us that in a powerful way.
As I was discerning my vocation over my young adulthood years, I started out as a lay consecrated woman studying Theology and Philosophy and doing missionary work. Over the course of these three and a half years, which were spent in Mexico, I became fluent in Spanish. When I discerned that this was not my life-long calling, I simultaneously understood that God was calling me to marriage. Yet I had it very clear that my vocation was not just to a particular state in life, but rather to a particular person. Once I finally met him, it made sense why God had me learn Spanish first!
Unfortunately, while I was waiting for him, I went through a period of restless desperation, wondering why it was taking so long. I began taking things into my own hands, seeking him out by going out with whoever was willing to flirt with me, even though I knew in my heart it wouldn’t lead to the altar. Today’s first reading warns against this behavior: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart…so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.”
Thankfully, before I made one of the worst decisions of my life, Jesus granted me the grace to flee and move back into the path of grace. I called out for mercy and the words of today’s Gospel became real and true to me: “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” Less than five months later, God brought the man He wanted for me into my life.
We all have our own stories. We all have our own winding paths that go up and down and side to side. We have all sinned. And God wills each of us to be made clean. We simply have to ask for His forgiveness. His unfathomable love reaches out to us wherever we find ourselves. May we allow ourselves to be lifted up by His outstretched hand and cleansed by His love today.
Daily Reading
Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 Hebrews 3:7-14 The Holy Spirit says: Oh, that today you would hear his voice, “Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion in…
Saint of the Day
Saint Berard and Companions
Six Franciscan friars, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, became martyrs in Morocco in 1220, sparking a legacy of missionary zeal in the Franciscan Order.
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