A Bird in Winter

We were praying a family rosary the other day, in union with the Cardinals who were gathered in prayer, in Rome, in preparation for the Conclave in which a pope is to be elected.

I live in the Midwest now, a recent transplant from the desert of the West. That day we got a heavy snow, and when you looked out our windows, it was like gazing at a village in one of those Christmas globes. It struck the eye as hauntingly lovely for someone like me who has, for most his life, measured the seasons by whether or not his skin feels it is baking when he steps out the front door.

Hey, You Annoying Christian, How Can You Believe?

I was employed at a company that did spot drawings for the yellow pages, a frustrated young man, miserably chained to a drawing board in a tiny cubicle, hunched in a cloud of cigarette smoke (second-hand, not mine--- this was before no-smoking laws reigned in buildings). I worked across the aisle from another artist named Ron. What we had in common was that neither of us contributed to the bar-like air of the art department. But we had one radical difference that I had a real problem with.

Ron was a Christian.

On his cubicle wall, Ron had tacked a bright and colorful poster of some guy majestically flying through the mountain air on skis. There was a caption that read: Those that hope in the LORD will renew their strength and soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint, a quote from Isaiah 40:31.

Man, that ticked me off.

Back to Basics: What We Thirst For

When I was a kid growing up in the Arizona desert, we used to come in from the heat of the summer and greedily yank sodas from the refrigerator. I remember the intensely sweet taste of the soda as it went down. It tasted SO good!

But as I drained that last delicious drop from the can, something strange happened. You may know exactly what I am talking about. I realized I was far thirstier than before. So I grabbed another can of cola.

No matter how much soda I drank, the thirst increased.

It wasn’t until I guzzled a glass of ice-cold water that I found relief from the thirst.

I think that’s kind of how life works. We all thirst for God. It is a driving desire "written on the human heart." It is part of the human condition, which makes sense when we remember that we were created to experience happiness in communion with the Blessed Trinity in eternity. We were made by God, for God (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27).