April 4, 2018

As I take in the vista spread out before me of the Sacred Hills of Jade, I notice how the hills more distant are of a fainter shade of blue. The mist that goes unnoticed in the nearby world is added to by each mile of distance. The further away, the more the hills grow misty. The further away, the more the hills grow mysterious. And I have always been drawn to the mysterious for I was born a searching soul.

Almost everywhere a soul could be on this earth that soul is in the midst of mist. Oh, nearby in the familiar, we fail to see the mist for we have grown accustomed to its presence. But some soul standing across the valley, when they search the hills for us … we become part and parcel of the mist that we ourselves fail to see. We are forever living in the mist of our culture, our own experience, our own prejudices, our own preconceived notions, our opinions that we simply accepted as being true. And though we do not realize … we are partially blinded by these mists in which we live.

This leads to a subtle, unexpected aspect of every Christian’s call to be a missionary in some misty place. When we journey to that other place, whether in the distant hills of jade or in the shadows within our own inner selves,… we can begin to see the mysteries in more clarity and we can look to finally the mists from whence we came.

I and many others, possibly even you (I venture to say probably even you) become missionaries into misty places where we learn so much more about other people and so much more about ourselves.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz