During this last month I’ve so appreciated a reflection book for Advent and Christmas, Choose Life, published by our IHM sisters of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Today’s offering by Sister Paula Gallagher, IHM struck me forcefully and I just have to share it. The Gospel for today is John 1: 19-28 in which John the Baptist is asked if he is the Christ. In his answer he proclaims in the words of isaiah that he is a “voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord.” Later he points to Jesus as he says, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.” As Paula says, All John wants “for his followers is a straight, focused, unencumbered way to God.
Sister Paula reflects that John has emerged “from a long time in the wilderness scoured of any illusions. He knows who he is and who he is not… Life scours us too as we grow… It is only in the solitude of absolutely honest prayer we are taught directly who we are, whom we must become and how we’re meant to point to God.”
I believe that the above is a lifetime challenges all us, knowing who we are and how we’re meant to point to God. I share it today because it reflects what I hear women discerning religious life express in many different ways, that they want to give their lives to Jesus that they may lead others to God. In addition I’m caught by Paula’s insight that absolutely honest prayer scours us of illusions that we might know who we are and how we’re called to point to God. This is the bedrock of all discernment. I pray for that blessing for you and all of us as we move into this new year.
