Almost nineteen years ago, I was in a car accident. My girlfriend at the time, Kristy (who would later become my wife) and I were on our way back to college after a weekend at my parents. It was December, a week before Christmas, and so being in Michigan in the United States – December means cold, snow and ice. This day the temperature was right above freezing and it was overcast. There was a slight drizzle in the air.
The roads were fine up to this point, and so we were cruising along at 70 miles per hour and came up on a bridge. Before I knew it, the backend of my pickup truck was sliding from behind me. I fishtailed and then the front end of my truck was sliding towards the guardrail. We hit it, and BAM! – my airbag deployed!
But the ride wasn’t over. As the back of my truck swung around, we hit a bump and then dry pavement. We were launched into the air, rolled in mid-air and came down on the driver’s side in the highway median. I looked around, made sure I could move, thrust my mangled driver’s side door open and went over to the passenger’s side to get Kristy. Miraculously, neither of us were hurt, except for a couple bruises, a stiff neck, and a fat lip from the airbag.
But as I looked at the situation, our clothes, bags – everything in the back of my truck was strewn across the highway and median. A plate of holiday cookies and treats my mom had made were littered all over the inside of my truck. My truck itself was completely wrecked, un-drivable. I was in complete disarray, walking in the middle of the median picking up things like shoes, oblivious to the fact other cars were sliding around me, and could lose control in the median and hit me at any minute. Our life was a complete mess at that moment, we had literally no control of the circumstances. That was one of the first times in my life when I felt completely helpless and powerless.
That’s when they came. People from everywhere, wanting to help. Soon the police showed up. A nice young couple in particular helped us out, had us sit in their car and let us user their cell phone (they were rare those days), and so in the midst of the chaos – we felt taken care of.
Life is full of such moments. All of you know this to be true. Days when our lives are filled of chaos. Days when debris is strewn around us, both literally and figuratively, within our mind and our very soul.
As I reflected on the readings today, especially the Gospel, I thought of all the debris we’re hit with in our lives. I write this as a strong thunderstorm is blowing through, some of the strongest winds of the season, and debris is flying everywhere. Tree limbs are down, things that weren’t secured or tied down have been blown across the neighborhood.
I thought of all this because so often, many of us walk through life as if we have it all figured out, as if we have everything under control. As if we can control everything on our own. How foolish, and silly, and dangerous this mindset is. We might as well think that we can control the weather.
Even in the midst of being out of control, people often think that they can still go mill around amidst the chaos, while the danger is still there, and try to pick up the debris, that they still have things under control, even when people are telling them otherwise. Even when things are turned upside down, they still don’t listen.
This is the same spiritually. Many people think they have it all figured out. That they have everything under control. That their version of Catholicism is the best.
Others? They are humble. Simple of heart. Realizing that they have no control, that they cannot do it on their own. That they need help.
Who does God reveal himself to? A Jesus said:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.”
The “little ones” are those that have been humbled, the simple of heart, those that don’t know the answers and are yearning for truth and are willing to listen.
We should all strive to be a little one.
I think when we maintain this mindset, and look to Christ in the trials of life, He comes to us from out of nowhere. He is like all those people who stopped to help us at our accident all those years ago, who helped us at our lowest moment and helped us through the situation.
If we’re willing to listen, if we seek answers, and know that by ourselves nothing is possible and it is only through God that anything is truly possible – Christ will reveal himself to us completely out of the blue and have exactly what we need at the time. We can’t explain it – He just Is there.
It doesn’t make the situation any less serious, or perhaps does not take the pain away, but Christ makes the situation easier to bear, He makes us more comfortable and able to endure it.
He lightens our load, and eases our burden through the storm. When our life is full of debris and chaos, both literally and spiritually – He is there to reveal Himself to us, to His Little Ones, and help us through it. All we have to do is go to Him, and be open and willing to listen, letting Him help us.
