The evolutionary path

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Feast of Saint Andrew (Wednesday of the first week of Advent)

Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew. If you remember your Gospel, Andrew was Peter’s brother, and they were fishermen. Jesus called to them and invited them to follow Him, and they left everything---boats and nets and their livelihood—and went to follow him. Consider this in light of the theme of evolution that I have been writing about lately.

There is a passage from the prophet Isaiah that speaks in metaphorical language about the process that Andrew and his brother were to undergo.

And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.  (Isaiah 42:16)

No matter what we may have planned, we don’t really know what the rest of this day will bring us. Perhaps things will go as we have planned, but perhaps things will go the way God has planned and perhaps His plans are different than ours. Perhaps our journey will begin as the result of some kind of loss or demotion in stature: for Andrew, it was the loss of his very livelihood.

The path that God lies before us is the one in which our evolution can unfold. It might not be the one we have chosen. And yet, it is the most perfect of all possible paths for us. Our job is to ask for the grace we need to adjust to the new path, to embrace it as God’s will for us, and to trust that we will continue to evolve by accepting God’s sometimes surprising will for us.

Through it all, God is with us, and the promise He makes through the prophet Isaiah can reassure us if we take it to heart. It is He Who is leading us, He Who will bring us through whatever life might throw at us, He Who is most powerful in our lives when things seem most hopeless, He Who is most powerful in our lives when it seems to us that He isn’t there at all. (Consider the famous “footprints” poem.)

Don’t forget that these words were directed to the people of Israel when they were living in miserable exile in a land that they didn’t know and that they would never have chosen for themselves. But even at this time, when things seemed the bleakest, He was working something out for them.

He is doing that for you as well.

May this prediction from Isaiah fill you with peace, and hope and a new type of wisdom that you wouldn’t have been able to understand a short time ago as your faith continues to grow and evolve. And may Saint Andrew, who left everything to follow a new evolutionary path, pray for you as you experience your own journey, your own evolution.

Blessed Advent to you!