April 22, 2005

I had a conversation with a Buddhist nun a few years ago. We met at a UN conference and I could not help but approach her. She spoke English well, but with a strong accent. Besides the curious photo-op, there is one other thing I have kept from that meeting. She gave me a pearl of eastern wisdom: (Chinese accent) "A lotus flower in order to bloom needs to come forth from the mud."

How many times do things surprise us and produce something that of which we had never thought. The stark cocoon is the womb for the butterfly and a spring storm can bring forth lightning-fireworks in the sky. Jazz was born in the slums of New Orleans, west of Canal St., and the men we visit at Rikers are sometimes more prayerful at Mass than the free. St. Francis, I think, would not fail to see God in all of this. There would be no butterfly but for the cocoon, nor lightning without clouds, nor Jazz without challenge, nor gratefulness in prison without loss. Even conversion of life sometimes comes forth from times of great contradiction.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but we live in historical times. Years from now people will be talking of these days and will have longed to have been here. Over the last two weeks there has been an unprecedented evangelization of the world. The Gospel is not just being preached from the roof tops, but the stratosphere from satellite to satellite crossing oceans, uniting continents and filling hearts with the fire of Love. Once more I hear that the news channels around the world will be broadcasting the Papal installation Mass on Sunday. Millions, perhaps billions, will see yet again the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and I can't help but think of the magnitude of this "New" Evangelization. Could this be the butterfly emerging from its austere cocoon? We must pray for the graces to come down upon the world. We must pray for an outpouring of prevenient grace that is hanging from silk threads just waiting for our prayers to fall down like rain from a storm. The world longs and pines for this, so let us overwhelm heaven with our prayers for this Sunday so that heaven may overwhelm us. If it is possible for the news channels to be God's instrument yet again, then I will dare to hope. I will dare to believe that this world can change one act of love at a time, knowing that even a lotus flower rises from the mud.

Br. Agostino Miguel Torres, CFR
St. Leopold Friary, Yonkers, New York

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