Dear Friends,

Morning has broken…like the first morning…when man and woman greeted the dawning day with wonder and smelled the freshness and saw the starry beauty of night give way to the soft rosy mystery of light…and looked at the world, and one another…and knew love.

But they also knew fear and helplessness, when their inability to cope caused them to grope and stumble and lose sight of the stars and curse the darkness, believing that dawn was an empty dream. They looked into empty eyes and did not know love. Then they turned away, blind and lonely. The dawn still broke, but broken men preferred the darkness, for they were afraid of the Light.

Until He came…a village carpenter who worked with earth’s wood, saw the freshness of the morning dew, and felt AT HOME. He opened His hand and His heart, for He wanted others to know love. He walked the streets, telling the blind they could see if they would learn to believe again in love; He asked the lame man if he wanted to walk (for He knew that courage is needed to walk into the unknown). HE TOUCHED LOSERS AND LEPERS AND MADE THEM LOVERS…made a money-grubbing tax collector want to give away half his money to the poor; made a proud, ambitious Peter want to wash people’s feet; made cold, callous Magdalene know once again what love really means.

For those who knew Him, fear and helplessness gave way to hope. People began to sense that their life was so much richer than the fancy food they ate or bright robes they wore…began to feel no longer like strangers but brothers and sisters; began to really touch one another; began to know once again what love really means.

It was like spring when the soft-showered earth is ripe for planting the grain which will one day nourish the bodies of men, and the trees bud proudly and the earth is full of the freshness of beauty and warmth. Love was with man and woman, and the earth-desert bloomed like a garden.

But love requires courage, and the bounds-bursting love of Jesus scared many…they turned to the darkness that they knew was more secure…better to snuff out the Light. And they tried. They mocked Him and His love, took His clothes, hung the carpenter on wood for all to see. This is what we think of your love and touching the untouchables and giving sight to the blind and hope to those who had learned where it’s really at.

Yet, even then, He loved. His friends went and hid in the darkness, afraid and lonely…until He came to them, showing them that love is stronger than death, so they need not be afraid. He had told them the night before He died: “I have given you an example…as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

We who believe in His love still know fear and helplessness and uncertainty. But we also know His love…and so we plant our grain and touch each other and feel at home in our desert garden. We walk in darkness, stumble and rise, laugh and cry, confident in the miracle of each morning’s soft rosy mystery of light…living our lives until the dawn breaks which has no end.

Peace,

Father Jerry