What time is it really? Understanding our lives as a pilgrimage.

This is the concluding reflection from my ordination pilgrimage, and it sums up what I feel after a couple months of priesthood - I've barely scratched the surface. Each day is an adventure that builds on his grace.

 
Wow! Time has really flown by, and you’re already on your way back to America. All of us are probably saying, “I wish it could be a couple of more days.” Couldn’t we just go back in time and even just repeat some of it. God has a time for everything. “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven…” (Ecc 3:1ff).


We’ve experienced Christ and his Church in a special way. We’ve relived that grace and mission of our baptism. Baptims brought us in, and baptism sends us out. Now we go back to our homes, jobs, families, and sometimes the humdrum of the everyday grind. Yet, we go back differently.

As John Paul II says to us in Mystery of the Incarnation, “ A pilgrimage evokes the believer's personal journey in the footsteps of the Redeemer…the pilgrim progresses along the path of Christian perfection, striving to attain, with the support of God's grace, ‘the state of the perfect man, to the measure of the full maturity of Christ’ (Eph 4:13).” 

In Rome, we’ve walked in the steps of Peter, Paul, and so many other saints and martyrs. Hopefully we’ve grown in prayer, virtue, and become more like Christ. We’ve come together with fellow pilgrims on this path and strengthened each other.

Yet the experience isn’t over. It must be shared with others. In five short days, Christ will be born on Christmas into the world, into our hearts. Are we ready? How can we help those around us be ready?

It depends in part on us. We’ve been given graces and gifts but we’ve also been commissioned to share the Good News and to bring Christ to those: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation” (Mk 16:15). Like Peter walking on the water, we have nothing to be afraid of! No matter the winds or the waves, we have his strength. If we trust in Him, He will pull us up even when we fall. We just need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ!