I told you that twice I went on retreat in the high deserts of Colorado. I was in my favorite oxymoron, a community of hermits. The hermitage is located in Crestone, Colorado which I remember to be 3 or more hours from Denver, so when I returnd to Denver to fly out the next day, I had the great journey of driving almost entirely through the state of Colorado after living in the Desert for almost two weeks.

 

Colorado is beautiful and one of the most striking elements of it is the mountains. The hermitage was located at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and by the time you get to Denver you are in the Rocky Mountains. They are stunningly beautiful. Eleven days alone in the desert can change you radically and indeed I have never been the same since my first retreat there. You can also see that I am quite comfortable living alone, I learned that in the hermitage as well.

 

When I returned to Denver from my first retreat in the desert, I arrived at night and found a hotel to stay preparing for my ride out to the Denver airport the next morning. Since, it was night, the mountains were lost in the dark, however, the ride had been so breathtaking that I was filled with the power of the retreat and a whole new way of looking at life, which I never had before.

 

When I woke the next morning, I saw the mountains again and they were so breathtaking. Below them was I believe, I-25 and there were the commuters driving to their various places at work just tiny specs compared to the majestic mountains beside them. The scene was powerful to me. If you have ever seen the mountains they are so huge and majestic, you can see why so many people from Colorado believe in God. They are almost like God speaking to the people saying “I am here, can you see me?” Those mountains contrasted with the busy traffic of commuters on I-25 struck me. The contrast was great, the mountains that inspire nothing short of awe and the busy commuters on their way, hopefully not too busy to be awed by the mountains.

 

It brings to mind a question, “What is God saying to us?”

 

I drove my rented car and then I too became one of those commuters heading out on I-70 to the Denver Airport and then flew home. When I was back at the rectory in Chelsea, Massachusetts, I was going over my receipts and noticed something about one of them, the hotel receipt. I looked at it, shocked by what it said. This whole thing happened in March of 2001. The hotel receipt showed that I was staying in Littleton, Colorado, which less than two years earlier had been shocked by the Columbine Massacre.

 

What makes that discovery so fascinating is that the mountains speak of God’s presence but if we lose a sense of that reality or become desensitized to the signs God gives us everyday in many things then we lose what He is communicating to us each and every day.

 

You see, we also wait for God to give us great signs, to hear great prophets speak for God, but He speaks to us everyday in the world around us. Every sunrise is a reminder that we were given a new day and to forget the mistakes of the previous one. Every aspect of nature can teach us so much about our world and our creator. Science is a part of this. However, if we lose this then we also let God’s voice fall silent in our lives.

 

This is a mistake that some scientists do, true scientists do not. You see, the first step of our inquiry into our world has to be how does our world as it is speak to us. I told you how the mountains spoke powerfully of God’s presence. What does the rest of all the world say to us.

 

Today is the Solemnity of the Holy Family. This is important for many reasons, for Jesus become like us in all things but sin. So he was born as we are, grew as we do. However, if you look at the story of his ministry, he could have fallen from the sky and who would have known. The story of his birth is not even in John’s Gospel and His ministry is only three years long. Who would have to know that Jesus was born as one like us in all things but sin. He could have been a reverse Elijah, who was taken up to Heaven in a chariot, he would have just descended from Heaven full grown and no one would have seen anything different.

 

This is not what happened. He was born into this loving family of mother and father. Why? What is God communicating to us? This has to be our question today as so many work to eliminate the family in the name of false progress and politicized science. What is God communicating to us by our nature, by who we are as family?

 

Our faith is not only one of trying to do what God calls us to do. It is also the experience of trying to hear God communicating with us and he does so daily by the environmnent around us. What is God communicating to us by being brought up by a father and mother? What does it mean? Are we listening?

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Mixcloud and here on Catholicismanew.
You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google Plus as +Fr. Robert Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook