When I was growing up during the 1950s, it wasn't unusual for a young man pondering his future to imagine himself taking a job, and continuing to work in that job, until he retired many years later. Life in those years was perceived - at least by me - as stable, secure and very predictable. When I entered the Society of Jesus fifty years ago, I imagined my own life in essentially those same terms - stable, secure and very predictable. Well, I suspect that it goes without saying that the lived experience of my life has been quite different from my expectations - and I also suspect that this has been true for you as well. Our lives may have begun with hopes and dreams, but they have invariably included more than a few twists and turns, false starts and dead-ends, surprises and even disappointments. Yet throughout it all, God has been very much with us. Ignatius Loyola loved to say that God is actively "at work" in us.
One of the great graces in the life of Ignatius Loyola was in his being brought to understand that God's creative action did not end in the distant past. Rather, God is actively engaged in the world and in the life of each and every person, laboring in all things to bring all people into the fullness of life for which he created them. God is actively engaged in your life and in mine so that we achieve the fullness of life for which God created us.
Several weeks ago, I spoke with a happily married woman in her mid-40s. For some years now, she and her husband have been actively involved in the faith formation of their parish. She told me that during her high school years she became involved in youth ministry and was introduced to a particular youth retreat model that captivated her. This retreat model seemed to embody both the 'what' and the 'how' of everything she hoped to do. She said that she imagined herself eventually getting married and having a family, but continuing to work with this retreat model for the rest of her life. She said that as events unfolded, however, she worked with this retreat for just two or three more years before God moved her in a new direction. She then paused for a moment, apparently savoring all this, before she added with a smile, "and so God brings us from glory to glory." She didn't explain what she meant by her concluding words, yet she seemed to be speaking not only of something that was true for her, but of something that was also wonderful and of something that truly animated her life. It seemed that she understood God's continued action in her life as truly a labor of love: bringing her from something that was wonderful to something that was even more wonderful - bringing her, as it were, "from glory to glory."
But all of this is true for each of us as well. God's continued action in our lives is truly a labor of love. It is important, however, that we not only understand this, but also that we reflect on it, savor it, relish it and appreciate it. As the woman with whom I spoke discovered, God's action in our lives, if we have the eyes to see it, brings us from something that is wonderful to something that is even more wonderful. It brings us, as it were, "from glory to glory."
Written by Br. Charles Jackson, S.J., LIS Associate Director
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