Like a Gentle Breeze
“Ahakoa he iti, he iti pounamu” // “Although it is small, it is precious” — A Maori Proverb
Each Sunday, I am blessed with the opportunity to spend about 45 minutes with mini human beings at my home parish, teaching them about Jesus’ love for them, Mary’s watchful eye, and as much as I can about the Catholic Church.
On most days, my Liturgy of the Word for Children sessions go pretty smoothly, however, whenever the sun is beams brightly, it becomes a pretty big job to get my favourite little human beings to listen to me. It’s as if the sunshine provides them with a sugar rush that is impossible to control.
When I first started out, on these sunny days, I would default to raising my voice during class in order to get their attention. I would yell into the noise hoping that their tiny ears would catch it among the chaos. Soon though,I learned the very hard way, that yelling helps no one.
Instead, I picked up on a strategy where I bring my voice down to barely a whisper and begin saying things like:
“If you can hear me, touch your nose.”
“If you can hear me, touch your ears.”
“If you can hear me, raise your hand.”
“If you can hear me, eyes up front.”
And miraculously, the children will follow without fail because it’s basically Simon Says. The classroom quiets down and we can resume our lesson together.
I think this works because if you think about it, raising one’s voice adds unnecessary noise to an already noisy situation. No one really ends up listening because of all of the sound and sometimes, you may not be able to hear your own voice. Loud noises in these kinds of situations do not help focus our attention on what is really going on.
Now, what’s funny is that though I’m writing this to you from a teacher’s point of view, I really should be taking my own advice and listening to my own words.
Or rather,
I should be listening to God’s words that come like a whisper too.
Friends, we are God’s children. And just like little children, we can get noisy too — everything surrounding us can get noisy, just like my Children’s Liturgy class. But God, in his love, rarely yells. God rarely raises his voice and instead, speaks to us in a whisper.
This is how I learned this lesson.
I confess that, recently, I have been acting like a child, throwing tantrums at God, getting angry with him, expressing my frustrations in prayer because I felt as though, for the past 6 months or so, God has been very silent with me. I confess that, for a while now, I have had the greatest trouble believing in Him and everything that I know from our Catholic faith.
I found myself asking frequently…
If I couldn’t hear him,
Could he hear me?
If I couldn’t see him,
Could he see me?
If he can’t hear me, and can’t see me,
If he feels far away from me,
Does he really even exist?
These questions plagued my mind over and over. Even right up to the week before this year’s Regional Youth Conference, I wasn’t so sure about what I was fighting for, nor who I was supposed to serve. Frankly, I wasn’t so sure why I was serving, or even attending at all.
In my pride and in my selfishness, I challenged God. Throwing a tantrum, I demanded that he show up in the biggest and loudest way possible during the conference so that I could know that what I was fighting for, that what I believed in was true. That God is real.
Cue RYC 2018: I Declare. I show up, fully expecting that my heart be converted by a flash of lighting or a crack of thunder. At that point, any grand gesture would do. I wanted something loud. I wanted a yell signifying God’s presence. I wanted noise.
My friends, our God is a God who listens well to our desires. However, more so, our God is a God who listens to our personal needs — the things that we do not understand but are essential to our growth as a Christian man or Christian woman.
He knows us so well that when we cry for one thing, he gives us something else because he knows that it is better for our souls.
So, this year, at Pacific Region’s Regional Youth Conference: I Declare, God answered my prayers.
Not by some grand gesture,
A crack of lightning,
A roll of thunder,
A total conversion of the heart.
Instead, God came as a whisper. Graciously, he remained in the little things surrounding me.
God was fully present in the silent moments at mass.
God was fully present in each soft acoustic guitar strum.
God was fully present in the smiles of my brothers and sisters.
God was fully present in the laughter we shared.
God was fully present in the little things we would do to serve each other.
Within each note sung,
Every chord played,
Every pass in a game,
Every paint brush stroke,
Every hand shaken,
God was fully present.
At our conference, I learned that God is a God in constant pursuit of your heart. As much as he pursues your heart with the aim of having your forever with grand gestures, he is the one who will pursue it through the little things as well.
It’s up to you and me to see that God’s love is everlasting, always constant. Most especially in the small things. The little blessings. Our RYC this year was an amazing blessing, a huge God-like boom, spurring many a conversion story, I’m sure. However, my conviction that God is real came to me in the smaller things.
There was one moment, during the final Praise Fest, where there was no singing and only strumming. The back of the stage was a little hazy and the lights were dimmed low. The spotlight was on Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. If a stranger had walked in and stood beside me, I’m sure he would have thought not much of the entire scene. There was no lighting or thunder or yelling or noise present.
But from my perspective, it was the most beautiful scene of all. During this quiet moment, I heard and felt a wind. Silently, the Holy Spirit moved throughout the crowd. All heads were turned to God. And that was all I needed; 700 young people convicted by the cross, declaring with burning hearts that God is real.
Friends, as much as our God is a fierce and powerful God, he is gentle.
He moves simply but with great impact.
Yes, big God-like booms happen such as the ones that we often hear or read about in the Bible.
Yes, miracles demonstrate the awesomeness of God.
But for us, God’s children, God’s noisy little children,
He comes quietly. Because he knows what’s good for us. He knows how to have us listen.
God comes quietly, like a gentle breeze. In this peaceful presence that we come to be fully aware and fully in awe of his wonderful and overwhelming presence.
—
“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
– 1 Kings 11:12
Ariel Bejer – Pacific ROCK Head | CFC-Youth Pacific Region
