4/24/2019 0 Comments Salvation today I was given the opportunity last year to sponsor someone going through the RCIA at OLP and the thing that struck me over and over was the desire to have seen salvation the way she had. I was overcome with the desire to experience sacraments for the first time as an adult who could understand their value and was filled with the desire to be seeing the saving power of Jesus as a revelation. I was a cradle Catholic. I was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic church. My mother took us to church every Sunday, we went to Sunday school and youth group, we received all of the sacraments. Church has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up knowing the words to songs like "This Little Light of Mine" and "Jesus Loves Me" by heart, I'd memorized stories and Bible verses, I was an Altar server, a Eucharistic Minister, a Cantor, a Lector; as a teen I was a catechist, even. I grew up knowing about the cross, accepting Jesus' death and resurrection like a foregone conclusion. In short, for me, there was no wonder at salvation, no amazement at Grace.
I often think this must be the same for many Catholics, for many of the teens who attend our Edge sessions on Wednesday Nights, even. The wonder at salvation is perhaps hard to find when it is told to you like a bedtime story, like the adventures that happen in places like Narnia and Hogwarts, because there is sacrifice there, too, and loss, and redemption. There is wonder in those stories, too, something to aspire toward, but in the end (no matter how deeply they may affect us) they are fictitious. Aslan didn't sacrifice himself on the altar for me, Harry Potter didn't walk off into the woods to face Voldemort on his own for me, Gandalf didn't fall into the depths of Moria from the endless stair to save my life. As I've mentioned before, stories has a profound impact on me as a child and in the formation of my person, but regrettably, as a child it seemed that the story of Jesus' life was just that: a story. The difference, though, is that Jesus did sacrifice himself for me, and nothing could have prepared me for the way that truth would hit me as a teen/young adult. There's this great verse in Romans (5:20) in which Paul says, "Where sin increases, Grace increases even more." It was definitely not a verse that I read as a child and gleaned anything life-changing from, but as an adult, I think this verse speaks much more profoundly. There was a time in my life when I listened to the story of the Prodigal Son and saw myself in the older son (which, even then, was not the son I wanted to be) and I think the truth of salvation and God's grace didn't make sense to me until I could hear the story and see myself as the younger son. God's grace doesn't make sense until there is a reason that you need that grace. I am grateful that my "rock bottom" was an internal rock bottom rather than my life spiralling out of control, but it was still a place that I desperately needed saving from. The place where God picked me up and showed me grace was in the midst of a dark depression, in a place where I'd isolated myself from the world around me, and where I struggled immensely with my feelings. Grace in that place came in the form of God himself entering my heart and saving me from myself. In that place of darkness, the Lord of Light came into my heart and showed me a way out. In that place of isolation and profound loneliness, the Comforter came and wrapped His loving arms around me and held me tight. From that place, Salvation was no longer just about a cross on Calvary 2000 years ago; Salvation was right there in the darkness and desolation of my own soul. Salvation wasn't just about someday going to heaven to be with God (although it is about that, too) Salvation was about God being with me here and now. That is the beauty of salvation; not that the gap between us and God has been closed for us when we die, but that the gap between us and God has been closed for us today and everyday that we turn to him. The only trouble is that I do not think this can be taught, not really. I don't think that the understanding of salvation, of God's love for us, can be conveyed through mere words; it is something that must be experienced. So, this is what we try to have happen at Edge; we teach theology and an understanding of scripture (because someday, those things will come in handy) but more than that, we hope and pray that teens meet Jesus here. We pray that the story of Salvation might become more than a "story" and that it might become a relationship. This week, I pray that you encounter Jesus' the risen Lord who sent His Holy Spirit to be with us always and who is doing the work of salvation inside of us even now. Peace, Michaela
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