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It is the sense that comes over you as you stare into a starlit sky, wondering. It is the morning shiver as you wake on a beautiful spring day and smell a richness in the air that you know and love from somewhere you can't quite recall. It is the mystery behind the questions you ask when you wonder what was before the beginning of time. It is a sense of otherness.
 Some people will say that there is no God. They will claim that God is a crutch for people who cannot face reality, a fairy tale for people who need myths in their lives. They will argue for rational explanations for the origin of the universe and scientific explanations for the perfect movements of nature. They will point to evil and injustice in the world and cite examples of religion being used to start wars or to hurt people of different beliefs. You cannot argue with these people, nor should you. These are the people a Jesuit professor of mine spoke about when he said: "A frog in a well cannot be talked to about the sea." If you have any sense of the mystery of the universe, you are hearing the murmurings of the sea. Your task is to leave the well, to step out into the sun and to set out for the sea. Leave the arguing to those who wish to discuss the size and shape of the walls that close them in.
One spring before I was ordained, I made a long retreat in a Benedictine monastery. I sought to partake of the monks' spiritual vision. It was an austere vision calculated to bring those who practiced it to God by immersing them in a spiritual rhythm of work and prayer until the self was burned off like a husk, leaving only the centuries?old rhythm of faith that is Benedictine spirituality. It was for lack of a better term, a confrontation with one's self, where the self becomes like a weak cry in the distance until it is heard no more.
I did not like Benedictine spirituality. Its timbre was too dark. But the abbot, who was an astute man, pulled me aside one day and said, "Stay in the machine. It will clean you out." He was right. Though I barely touched the surface of their customs, like a tourist passing through a foreign land, I began to be taken up to God. I was opened to a great spiritual vastness where there were no distant campfires, but a great, restful darkness of union. I had glimpsed their truth and it was a beautifully crafted instrument for the spirit. It has its part in God's symphony
When the New Testament speaks of Jesus referring to his own Messiahship in terms of certain discernable facts: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and so forth; it is expressing a meaning which is deeper than physical healing. Jesus is talking about those who cannot hear the Word of God, who cannot see the manifestation of God in this world, who are burdened with doubt. What Jesus claims for these events is not so much that they are miraculous physical healing but rather signs of his kingdom that demand a faith response!
We are in a new spring. It is time for new shoots of growth in our gardens and in our faith. We will witness our children eagerly presenting themselves to the Lord for First Eucharist. At Confirmations we will hear our teenagers profess their faith? ever ancient, ever new - before bishops and assemblies. This is not a time for hibernation and doubt! This is a season for vigorous confidence in Christ and in a new spring.
It's all a part of our spiritual journey.
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