GOD AT THE FRONT DOOR

I’ve been reluctant to devote a blog entry to my faith development during my cancer journey preferring to let God in the back door of my stories.

However, a recent e-mail from David C. has made me re-think my approach. David writes in part, “I strongly believe that your updates speak to all who read them. In part, you are continuing to educate. You are allowing others to evidence your growth in faith which is inspiring others to reflect on their own relationship with God.”

And so, thanks to David’s encouragement, let me welcome God in the front door of this post.

My cancer hiatus has been a time of reflection, prayer, gratitude and hopefully some personal growth for Mike 2.0. Father Beaudois has graciously taken Terry and I under his wing and for the past two months he had led us into a deeper appreciation of our faith by leading us in an Ignatian style retreat.

From the outset, Father has insisted that we are essentially rimless zeros (a great math analogy) and that we owe everything to our Creator. With Him, we can do great things as we are the extension of God in time. Our discussions with Father have been illuminating, rewarding and at times challenging. The focus has been on deepening our relationship with God by first seeing His image in His creation and then trying to reflect that image in our personal lives. A tall order indeed!

Another source of help and inspiration in my faith development are special friends Karen and Joe Perrott who visited us last Saturday. Karen, a mother of five adult children, devotes a good deal of her time to the support and counsel of teen moms. Joe is a successful businessman but his real vocation is sharing his insights about the Bible with others whether it be friends from his neigbourhood, associates at work or refugees in Sri Lanka.

A modern day Christopher Columbus, Joe is a person who has come to understand that Bible stories are not flat or one dimensional but rather rich with texture and nuance. At times in our discussions, I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as he explained a cryptic Bible passage and in a moment changed the landscape of my perspective from grey to technicolour.

Joe reads the Bible the way most people would like to watch a hockey game. That is, he comes out of the stands, grabs his camcorder and gets down on ice level. He puts himself in the Bible stories, at Jesus’ feet as it were, to try to understand the intended biblical message.

Though he doesn’t purport to have all the answers, Joe does provide invaluable advice for a Bible neophyte like myself. He warns against making the story too big and God too small in our Bible readings. As an example, he cited how the account of the flood in Noah’s time has been embellished to such an extent by some that the real point of the story can be overlooked. He also went on to say that so often people tend to put the application ahead of their understanding of a Bible passage. A good illustration of this point occurs in the parable that Jesus related about the king who threw out a wedding guest not dressed properly for the banquet. Some have used the application of this story to support the misguided notion that a dress code should be enforced for attendance at church services, in particular, the wearing of hats by women.

Like most Catholics, my knowledge of the Bible is quite limited. Although I once read it from cover to cover, I now appreciate that it certainly can’t be approached like the reading of a Ken Follett or James Michener epic.

Along with Joe’s insistence that we keep in mind the actual audience in both Old and New Testament Bible stories is Karen’s gentle reminder that the gospel message can also be a very personal one for us today.

Terry and I are thankful for people like Father Beaudois, Karen and Joe in our lives, people who, by their faith and example, are beacons of light for us along life’s journey.