Lost at the Beach

“I have been here waiting for you, Joe. I remember you so well before the world tainted your heart and your innocence expired in a yesteryear so far from today. Sure, I see you at Mass and other times when I hear your laughter and cries. I am with you always but at the same time, it is so special that you came here today in your time of need. I know why you are here and how weary that you have become with your current crisis and how that has spilled into your family life. My dear Joe, rest here a little while in my presence. My light is eternally warm on the coldest days, it is brilliant in the face of darkness, and it can cloak you in any passion that is in front of you. Joe, if you would only let my radiance overtake the darkness…”
“I see your glim eyes and tired features. Your shoulders are slumped down and they mirror your sulking melon. My child, open your dry November fists and grab hold onto my unblemished scarred hands that we may walk together out of your lifeless funk. I know that today, you struggle to feel my presence. Please be assured that my Grace is enough to soften your hardness and to soothe your soul. You envision there are no doors to exit the problems before you but I say nothing is impossible for me. I am all powerful, all knowing, and all good. Believe my friend and have faith.”
“I understand, Joe, that as you kneel before me, your minuscule portion of a mustard seed of faith is lost. Find hope in that I created the universe, become man from Heaven, died and later rose from the dead to forever kill sin. Joe, I invite you to completely surrender to my Bread of Life Discourse and have faith that I can be here in this simple appearance which houses my Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. But still you try as you might to speak to me; your mind is still somewhere else, lost and pained at what is happening. Why do you become so engulfed at the world? Don’t you know that I conquered the world? I can take care of it all for you if you would just truly leave your pain at my feet.”
“I know you are trying to speak to me and I embrace your willingness to be here in this tiny room.
Thank you for the Rosary that you just prayed that took twice as long due to your distraction. I am sorry that you have this weariness as I recall feeling a similar forsakenness in my darkest hour as well. Take shelter in my embrace child. You are struggling now and unaware but your presence before me today is scorching the dullness that destroys you. The Holy Spirit is quietly setting up shelter for you Joe as your circumstance is about to worsen. But Amen I say to you, I will make all things new for you, Joe. We shall meet again, soon, very soon.”
“Joe. Welcome Back. It has been less than 24 hours and you are back in my presence. Thank you for visiting me again. Joe, you appear so very different today. Your sin of pride has melted away from that one phone call an hour ago. You can feel my presence from the very moment that you entered this small chapel. You are right, Joe. Your life has just turned upside down but I remain the same. I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I am Love. I am here for you. I died for you. Oh the pain that I experienced in my crucifixion was so intense. But I did it for you, so you can be free and experience complete joy. You have felt some of that pain today and with it, you are closer to me than ever. Come; take up your cross, for you will be redeemed by it. Carry it to Calvary and place it at my sacrifice so that you may live again through my resurrection.”
“Joe, I have been with you always, through the good and bad. Today, I was there with you when that phone call came and changed your current landscape. I witnessed your heart skip 5 beats and how blindsided and suffocating you felt with all your fatherly responsibilities. Know that my suffocation on the cross was for you in that very moment today. Joe, I was with you when you had to pick up that heavy phone and immediately call your wife and tell her about the bad news and with it, the recognition of the financial challenges the family faced right before my birthday. Oh Joe, while you held back tears to tell spouse, please be assured that I was the cornerstone that held her up as her knees buckled at this unwanted predicament. Joe, while you hung your head in sadness for this concession , I recall when I hung my head in my final moment on the cross as I proclaimed that it is finished. Like my Holy Cross anchored into the soil, your ground shook like an earthquake as the many years of turmoil in this dire quandary cracked open and you acknowledged the limits of your humanity.”
“And then it happened, like Lazarus being raised from the dead, as if catalyzed by the aurora lights from the sky, the burning fire of my Holy Spirit enveloped your soul, and your slumber was awakened where you became alive again. That shattering call had pierced your heart, the way the soldier’s spear stabbed my side, and your high temple walls instantly crumbled. There, before me in your own personal upper room within your home, you became desperate. You became vulnerable. You died to yourself and with this departure, the Holy Spirit was set on fire and you remembered what I am. You remembered who I am! And you went running to me without hesitation to be with me in this hour of reckoning.”
“Now, here you are at this moment of surrender. From your new reality, you are completely numb and fixated into a surreal contemplation of my love where your bleeding heart, your life, and all that is in it is mixed with my overabundance of Divine Mercy. My gaze to you is all-loving as I am caressing your wounds and jubilantly accepting your pain that you have offered at My Cross. You are truly open to my love as you can feel my presence in this little sanctuary. You are again a child in the midst of the King of the Universe. Like the days of your youth, you trust in me so that I may provide for you. Yes, challenging days are ahead, but these obstacles will help carve out the new person that you are destined to become. Until then, soak in the Light of me Joe, for I am forever your Savior. Indeed, your innocence has been restored and All will be well.”