“I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”…Be faithful in small things…From small things, big things materialize

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah something that is very noteworthy…..”Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”………Many people will read this and say…”No way - Can’t happen - You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”…Today, the Prophet Isaiah tells us something very different….Why is that? - Because God can do anything!!!!…..If you are a student of history and you study the lives of the saints, you will notice that whenever there is a deep cultural need in a particular place or time - God “raises up” men and women who fight against all odds to meet that need…Whether it was St Francis, St Dominic, St Ignatius of Loyola, or Mother Teresa…God works through the saints to address the needs of our world - He has not left us orphans…This is why Isaiah wrote what he wrote….Just when we think all is lost…”A flower grows through the cracks of the sidewalk”….But who are these “saints”?…We seem to forget that they were really no different than you or me when you come right down to it…They were imperfect people and had flaws just like us…What made them different?…They encountered the living God and they surrendered their will radically to God….A person who does that embodies the very words of Isaiah from Mass today…..”I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”…….Bishop Robert Barron who is an American Thomistic scholar once said something about the saints I will always remember…..”To become a saint, one must WILL IT”…..The human will is much stronger then the human mind and the human body…If you will something, with all your strength and all your soul….Most especially if you give God permission to work through you, who ever you are - No matter what gifts you have or do not have - God will accomplish through you what the world deems impossible!…This is what the saints understand - If you do not believe me - Just read about them and you too will see the very pattern I am noting now in this reflection…The saints know God to be the God of the impossible!…This is why Moses lead his people straight to the banks of a raging river…He knew God would make a way through the water - And God did!….This is why Mother Teresa and her sisters marched into the middle of war in Lebanon to rescue handicapped children - And nothing happened to them….This is why St Francis traveled to the leader of the Muslim nation in North Africa to confront him and nothing happened to him……It all comes down to our will - As Bishop Baron rightly said…..WILL IT…And it will be done!

“Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, They shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves.”

Looking back at the time I would go to Kolkata, I think to myself - Why did God call me to go there?…In a million years I would have never thought that I would travel to such a far corner of the world…Looking back, the driving reason I think is this……My former pastor at St Michael’s in Lyndhurst New Jersey (Fr Stanley Kostrzomb - May he now rest in peace) took great interest in my trips to India and offered to sponsor a parish there, to become a “Sister Parish” to St Michaels…Keep in mind, St Michael’s Parish was not a wealthy parish, most of the families are blue collar workers….Fr Stanley could have used the money he collected for this Indian parish for St Mike’s needs…But that is not what he did…..So at Fr Stanley’s direction, I linked him up with a poor parish in Kolkata that Mother Teresa’s sisters brought me to on the outskirts of city…This parish was in great need and the people were very poor….Each week their Sunday collection was around $10 US dollars collected from around 500 people….Through this “bridge” between Fr Stanley and this Indian Parish around $40,000US dollars was provided for the needs of the people….In a million years the priest in India who served at the parish Fr Stanley helped would not have imagined that such a large sum of money would be provided - All from a small “poor box” in the back of St Michaels…But God did the impossible…Looking back, this is why I believe God brought me to India …Once again the words of the Prophet Isaiah echo throughout time - And those words ring true once again!….”I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”….We must be willing to be a “fool” for God…If we allow God to use us…If we do as Bishop Baron said…If we “WILL IT”….We must come to understand that God can do more with your life then you can!……On his death bed, only after roughly twenty years of religious life…St Francis looked up at his brothers and said…”Up until now, we have done nothing - Let us begin again!”…And St Francis's prophetic words rang true - Eight hundred years later, “the seed” that St Francis planted is still bearing fruit through the religious order he founded (The Franciscans)….We must be willing to be such “a seed” - Giving God permission…I stand behind what I am about to say…If we give God permission - If we “WILL IT”….We will shake the foundations of the world - That means YOU!…..God uses the smallest of “seeds” continually to accomplish his will on the earth…God does this “right under the nose” of the world……Just when the world “gives up” on itself…God jumps in and does the impossible….Our time is now! - To allow God to do “the impossible” through us…… “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”

“I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ”

The Prophet Isaiah reminds us - God is at work…But God does not act on his own - God works through the hands of his people - You and Me!…….Mother Teresa when asked about her work and the founding of her religious community (The Missionaries of Charity)….This is what she said: “If I had not picked up that first person from the gutters, I never would have picked up the remaining 42,000. We all have to start somewhere.” ……We must be willing to be a “fool” for Christ…..God uses such people, who dare to do the impossible and many times to the amazement of the world - The impossible happens! - “I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”…Be faithful in small things…From small things, big things materialize