Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Come, Lord Jesus!

“Come, Lord Jesus!” That fervent prayer ends the Book of Revelation and, so, the entire Bible. The desire for Christ also animates the season of Advent, when we celebrate his coming in the past and pray that he come again soon.

It’s also good to remember that Jesus comes to us each day, just as the sun rises each morning — even on cloudy days. And just as no two sunrises are exactly the same, Christ comes in different ways each day, too.

That’s why Advent also reminds us to look for Christ each day and, whether we recognize him or simply believe in faith that he is there, to give him the warm and heartfelt welcome he deserves.

Happy Advent!

A Little Color for a Gloomy November

Thanksgiving Day Preparation

Lately it occurred to me that I ought to do some preparing for Thanksgiving, and the best thing I can think of is to practice being thankful, noticing people and things around me that I should be grateful for.

St. Paul wrote that we should be thankful for all the blessings God has given us, that our gratitude ought to be heartfelt, habitual, and lead to a greater love for God and others.

I won’t become an expert at it overnight or in a week, but at least I can start noticing something each day — a generous person, an act of kindness, something that shows God’s beauty and grace — that I can be thankful for. Then maybe Thanksgiving will be a daily event, not just a once-a-year celebration.

Indian Summer

The Rabbi’s Response

In an anthology of spiritual writing, author Ben Birnbaum tells the story about how he lost his faith when he was a rabbinical student. He writes that when he decided to tell one of the rabbis that he’d become an atheist and was leaving the seminary, the man “absorbed the news, nodded and said, ‘But you still pray three times a day, right?’”

It seems like a strange response, but perhaps living through the Holocaust, as the man had, taught him that belief and non-belief sometimes co-exist in a person’s soul. Or maybe faith, like love, is something we can fall into and fall out of, and that being “in faith” doesn’t mean we won’t “fall out of faith” from time to time; and “falling out of faith” doesn’t mean we’ll never be back “in faith” again.

So, maybe the rabbi’s response was full of wisdom not just for Ben Birnbaum, but for those of us who are like the man in the gospel who, when Jesus asked him to believe, replied, “I do believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!”