April 2000

Being Found

Recently, I learned that, in Canada, a blind man was asked to be a judge in a beauty contest. It turned out that he was right on target.

As I pondered this event, I did not know whether to meditate on inner beauty or to think about what it means to see with the heart.

There is something in the heart that prompts all of us to seek God. Perhaps, this is the main thrust of the human vocation. If we lived life based on this common calling, we would wake up each morning saying to our selves, "Today, my chief task is to seek God."

Still, there is another side to this project. God is always seeking us with a much greater passion than we ourselves could ever seek God. How does one actually seek God? How does one recognize that one is being sought with such a deep love? Jeremiah has God saying to the soul," When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me, I shall let myself be found." Since I do not really know just how one concretely seeks God, I rather enjoy saying these same words to God, "God, when you search for me wholeheartedly, I shall let you find me." In peace and quiet joy, I give the task back to God.

The Easter event brings with it a new vision and a new awareness, that of seeing with the heart just how God is working in our lives, especially in the little things. Perhaps, our main task is to yield to being sought and found and to allow the yearnings of our heart to be an Easter prayer.