Dear Community of Saint Joseph’s;

 

Under the Tuscan Sun is one of my favorite movies.

 

The film tells the story of a woman who has been jilted by her husband and goes on an adventure trip to Italy in order to heal.  She becomes enchanted by the atmosphere of Tuscany and without fully considering the consequences, buys a dilapidated villa.  The main character uses the house and immersion in a foreign culture to forge a new life for herself.  Unfortunately, she begins to grasp the enormity of what she has done and regrets her folly.  She tearfully tells a friend that in spite of this enormous leap of faith, she is still alone.  The friend tells her a story; that between Austria and Italy there is a section of the alps which is impossibly steep and in spite of the difficulty of this very high part of the mountains, they built a train track over the alps to connect Vienna and Venice.  “They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip ..…. they built it, because they knew that some day the train would come.” 

 

In the world that existed before the coming of the Christ Child, generations had been longing for a savior, actually a warrior king, who would save them from the hopelessness of their lives.  In their longing, they envisioned exactly how this person would look and precisely what he would do.  When Jesus was born, the circumstances were so unlike their expectations that they missed him.  They missed his humility, his compassion; they misconstrued his words and wisdom.  In a sense, they let the Messiah slip through their fingers because they thought they were waiting for someone else.  They were tragically unprepared.

 

As we remember the humble origins surrounding the birth of Christ, we observe that God is always with us in ways that are unexpected.  So as to never miss that encounter with God, we must search for Him in all the most unexpected people and places.  If the Son of God was born in a barn, then today he is most likely to be found in your most inconvenient situation, he is standing in front of you in a tedious line.  He is your most vexing teacher or student.  He is your former spouse.  He is snarling you up in traffic or mucking up your political agenda.  He will always surprise you by appearing and challenging you unexpectedly.

 

To be sure you never miss an encounter with Jesus you must be attentive and vigilant even when you are not sure whom or what you are looking for.  Notice the stars in the sky, the shifting of the weather, the voices and personalities of the people who surround you.  Be watchful and be aware constantly.  Every single day of your life you must build the tracks in anticipation of the train that will one day come.  You build those tracks when you pray, when you choose to be hopeful, when you make a sacrifice, when you love and when you forgive. These are the tracks over the perilous landscape of our everyday lives.  You must build these tracks even when you are tired, depressed or confused, because you do not want to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors.  You want to be prepared for the unexpected, the miraculous and the presence of God with us.

 

 You must build these tracks because you know that some day the train will come.

 

 

 

  Father Matt Pennington

  Pastor