Living H
one day at a time
Hope
At Pauline Books and Media this month we’re talking about how Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. We thought we’d use the image of a compass. A compass and a map are great tools to have in the woods when you’re camping. A compass helps you locate North and a map indicates how to get where you’re going. On a city’s streets you might prefer the more modern GPS to help you reach your destination. Both of these directional “gadgets” have one thing in common: the user, ultimately, needs to decide to trust that the information provided by the compass or GPS is accurate and will get them where they want to go. A few weeks ago I had a coupon for a dish of free ice cream at Cold Stone. I’d been to Cold Stone before (I thought) for other specials, so I arranged to bring Sr. Anne Eileen with me to thank her for a project she had completed. It was a wonderfully clear early fall day, as we set out for the nearest Cold Stone. I drove to where I thought it was, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not to be defeated, I pulled out my iPhone and tapped on the GPS app, typed in the directions, and started to follow them. After about twenty minutes it became obvious that something wasn’t right and we weren’t anywhere closer to that dish of ice cream. So we went home, grateful at least for the ride. When I’m driving to a place I’ve never been before, I’m nervous. Even with my directions printed from mapquest.com, or with a GPS, I’m still anxious that the directions might not be correct. In a certain sense, this is what the Year of Faith is about. Starting on October 11th and extending to the end of November next year, Pope Benedict has given us a year to reflect on where we’re going, personally and as a community, and whether the “directions” we’re following are accurate and the most direct. As I learned from my experience driving to Cold Stone, it’s not enough to have a picture in my head of where I want to end up, I need to know which streets to take and where to turn in order to get there. Jesus, our Divine Teacher, Master and Lord, is himself the Goal and the Roadmap to be followed and the Compass.