THAT WAS AMAZING. And many may say the surest indication that I'm a couple bulbs short of a Clark Griswold Christmas display.BACKDROP: After completing a half marathon a month ago, a year after battling COVID (story), I'm training for another. The plan, clearly not factoring in this unanticipated raid by Mr. Blizzard, specified me running a 10K (6.2 miles) today. Dark. -17°. Icy pavement covered with snow. Gusts of wind exceeding 30mph. My amazing, loving wife reading weather reports over the past 24 hours, gives a final, impassioned plea: "GREG! 'STRONG WARNING!' ... 'DANGER BEING OUTDOORS!'" (Translation: "Don't be a moron!")
"And make a good act of contrition," she concludes.
AS A STUDENT OF HISTORY, it's interesting to note how, at points such as this, people came to different conclusions. Went in different directions. With long-lasting consequences. Whether that be Washington facing a seemingly invincible force with very ill-equipped troops at Valley Forge. Or Churchill facing the same at the onset of World War II. Or innumerable mothers right now feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of an "unplanned" pregnancy. Or so many bishops, priests, and lay people facing the cultural challenges of this day.
WHAT SEEMS DECISIVE is what's under the hood. When people are pressed with real obstacles, whether they reveal themselves to be forged of character, or crippled by comfort. In sum, as I have punctuated to my children each time visiting Whine-ville (appopriately, to an "annoying" degree): "Adversity reveals the (wo)man."
Obstacles reveal us to be either victims, or victorious.
NOW PLEASE NOTE, it may be misguided, arrogant, and/or presumptuous (certainly annoying!) to presume everyone ought to respond to given obstacles the same way! But it would be the same to disregard clear dictates and or even inspirations of God's Heart, particularly in faith and moral matters. Regardless of comfort. Unto suffering. Even death.
Often reverberating for me are words Steve Rey imparted: "Grandparents, prepare your children and grandchildren for martyrdom." So uplifting, right? Properly understood, absolutely. But more consequentially, true. Are we preparing those we love for martyrdom? Am I exemplifying that? Am I about being forged by character, or crippled by comfort? Faced with every obstacle, does my life reveal me to be a victim, or victorious?
THE STORY. Let's keep it real. In the grand scheme of things it's not like I was taking on K2. Without safety ropes. Or capacity to call for help. I was in the vicinity of our neighborhood and had a phone. Many reading these words right now are facing obstacles of far greater consequence (united with you in prayer!).
The only challenge for me: Persevering through the elements.
The only question: How would I do that?
The only answer: Awareness that I can't.
Herein is the great, sanctifying, transforming gift God gives us in the form of all obstacles, difficulty, and suffering: God desires so much more than merely being with us in it; He desires to be in us with it! The great gift on this Friday proceeding Christ's Mass: God entering us through the Sorrowful Mysteries. If we allow Him.
FOR ME, RUNNING is so much more than a "health thing." It's deeply prayer. Prayer is magnified by godly sacrifice. Intentions many of you shared (post) reverberated in my soul. Along with those of my family, and our movement. And, particularly, leaders in our church.
HOW IT WENT.
Having only made it about half a mile, the piercing cold was severe. Like sharp, little knives stabbing my face repeatedly. My eyelashes were becoming a kind of splintery, icy stockade. It felt like my eyeballs were beginning to freeze, to the point of not being able to see. So I decided for a short while to run backwards (against the wind). And I took my hand out of my glove and held it on my eyes for about 10 seconds, which momentarily delivered my eyes. I had to do this at least five times. So grateful it allowed me to persevere.
For most of the run I was blessed by Father Benedict Groeschel talking about our call to greater conversion as Christians. Always so moving for me to hear the voice of a former spiritual director who was and is (now from an eternal vantage) very consequential in my life. A couple miles out on a country road, I turned the corner with the wind against my back. The wispy snow danced and weaved alongside and ahead of me, a kind of celestial, mystical companion urging me on.
THEN, ROUNDING THE COUNTRY CORNER and into our subdivision, with a couple miles to go, Fr. Benedict was followed by Patty Mansfield on the power of suffering. I didn't expect it, and it came at a good time. She shared about her brother, through whom God has healed blind, deaf, and terminal illness, had a child battling serious disease. The message: God uses our suffering united with Him to accomplish transformation of souls. The ultimate, eternal healing.
HAVING COMPLETED THE 10K, but a half mile away from home, I felt so good, so filled with Christmas joy and delight, a desire to maintain sacred solemnity in my soul, I didn't stop. Exhausted from having to run cautiously on snow covered ice, both forwards and backwards, with those gusts that froze my face, the extra distance stood before me as a kind of gift. The inner warmth was unsurpassed. Something within moved me, perhaps something like Peter's impulse to walk on water: I picked it up and hit my fastest pace.
HOME. Walking through our front door was exquisite. Immediate, total passage from where I had been. Passage corresponds to passover, or pasch, as in Paschal Mystery, or Paschal Lamb: passage from death to life. All the "wounds" of my battle immediately came into a place of warm, embracing restoration. Not unlike what it will be like after all our trials here on earth have ceased. What awaits us upon death. Through death. An unimaginable Warmth. And Light. To an epic degree. Our Heavenly Homeland. Filled with so much love. The heart of which is in the Godhead. Made present through His Son, Jesus Christ. Summoning us all back to Him. Forever.
Our Savior is born.
Our Way Home.
The Reason for it all.
IN THIS MOST SACRED MOMENT, and all that may follow, with our hearts flooded with the joy of Him in Whom we have been created, in Whom our existence is held (Col. 1), may we embrace our God-designed "run." And run well.
ABUNDANT CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS!
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