How Long has it Been?

 Another note on Christmas to my fellow Catholics (and Protestants can benefit, too).

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Christmas 1972. Forty-eight years ago, today. I remember the day as if it happened only a few weeks ago.

I still see myself kneeling at the side of my bunk in Barracks M, above the chow hall on the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. I’d recently finished Hal Lindsay’s, The Late Great Planet Earth. His references to Jesus the Messiah in my Jewish Bible amazed me. No, that is not the correct word. His references astounded me.

In all my life – I was 22 at the time – I had never opened a Bible, and certainly had never heard of the many prophecies in the Jewish Bible that referred to Messiah Jesus. Isaiah 7, Isaiah 53, Daniel 7, Zechariah 12, Psalm 22, Psalm 16, Jeremiah 31, Micah 5, Deuteronomy 18 are just a few that come immediately to mind. But there they were, pulsating on the pages as I read his book.

Still skeptical, I walked the two blocks to the base chapel and asked the Jewish chaplain if I could borrow a Bible. I took it back to my room to verify the texts Lindsay quoted were really in there.

They were.

Forty-eight years ago I could not have known the twists and turns my life would take, and how each twist and turn would lead me ultimately to where I am today on December 25, 2020. But it all began as I knelt by my bunk in Barracks M. The Holy Spirit, having shown me through my Jewish Bible the truth about sin and judgment, but also about mercy and forgiveness, I stared at the clouds beyond my window and said to God, “I believe Jesus is the Messiah.”

Six words. But unspoken in those six words, yet resolute in my heart as I spoke them, was my promise to God of my commitment to Him. I didn’t know the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the time – but I meant every syllable:

"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. Amen."

Have I failed Him in those 48 years? Many times. Has God forgiven me, reconciled me, redirected me? Every time I confessed and repented of my sin. Every time.

Forty-eight years. Over and over and again and again I have fallen to my knees and re-committed myself to my God and Savior.

But the point of this story is NOT about me. It’s about you.

You were brought into the Church as a baby through your baptism. But as an adult, how long has it been since you said to God something like St. Ignatius’ prayer: "Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Amen"?

Today is Christmas. If you’ve never prayed a prayer like that, why not do it now? If you’ve done it many times, why not do it again? What better gift this Christmas could you give to yourself, your family, your community . . .

And to God?