SERVE THE LORD WITH GLADNESS | Deep answers are rooted in witness

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Why does it matter that God exists?

That’s a good question — one the world asks every believer to be able to answer today.

Rather than give you my answer, let me ask: What’s your answer? Good questions from the world call for deep answers from each of us. But deep answers to good questions aren’t rooted in fancy theological categories so much as they’re rooted in witness — in our lived experience. That’s why it’s helpful to note that, four times in the readings this week, St. John says something to this effect: “I, John, saw …”. What have you seen? What are the ways in your life that it matters — really matters, makes a difference in how you think and act — that God exists? Book learning is great! But the best answers come from your own experience.

Here’s a key question this Thanksgiving week: What have you seen that makes you say, “Thanks be to God?”

St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “I give thanks to my God always on your account.” There’s a great exercise for all of us on Thanksgiving. How would you fill in the blank? “I give thanks to God always on account of __.”

Personally, I’m thankful this year for both laypeople and priests who are asking the question, “How do we do evangelization?” For a long time, as Catholics, we’ve focused our institutional energy inward — and that wasn’t all bad. We’re starting to focus our energy outward because we’re in a new phase of our institutional life. But that shift won’t happen quickly! I’m especially grateful for those who are willing to make imperfect progress toward the goal of becoming a more evangelizing Church.

Speaking of proclaiming the Good News, Jesus says, in Luke 21: “It will lead to your giving testimony.” As the secular world turns toward Christmas this week, with an increasingly desperate ferocity, how do we give testimony to our faith?

I don’t think we have to resist turning toward Christmas. But maybe we can turn toward Christmas in a different way, so that we give testimony to its deeper meaning. How?

Here’s one thing we can do. This week we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew (Nov. 30). There’s a prayer associated with his feast, and it goes like this:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment

In which the Son of God was born

Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight,

in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold.

In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God,

to hear my prayer and grant my desires: (here mention your request)

through the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ,

and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

This prayer very definitely turns us toward Christmas! But while the culture is turning toward Christmas with shiny external things, this prayer turns us toward Christmas in a more interior way. This could be one way not only to tell people, but to show people, how the existence of God — the God who took on flesh — matters to us.

Happy Thanksgiving!