One of the most important yet most difficult lessons I have had to learn time and again in my life is that God always wants more for me than I want for myself. I try to convince myself that I’m much more complex than this, but often when I reflect on choices I have made or disappointments in my life, I am ultimately just a child who takes greater pleasure in the box a gift comes in rather than the gift itself. I remember reading a humorous pitch for a reality show a few years ago where you watch a toddler choose between a check for $10,000 and five dollars’ worth of plastic toys while the kid’s parents watch from a soundproof booth. I found it simultaneously hilarious and a profound reflection on how little we are willing to
settle for.

There was a time in my life when I would have loved nothing more than to have a wife, a few kids, and a “normal” life. While the vocation of marriage is one
of the few truly good and beautiful things in life, because it isn’t my vocation, it would have been settling for a life that God hadn’t chosen for me.
Each of us has chosen some version of the five bucks’ worth of toys at some time or another; it is the human condition. But as a society, I think one of the movements that has institutionalized this tendency towards accepting less is the forceful push
for tolerance.

I know that deriding tolerance sounds harsh, and I should probably clarify exactly what I mean. I am not advocating that we should start persecuting, ostracizing, or belittling those with differing views. We have seen that happen countless times
throughout history, and it literally never ends well, both for those who have been made into pariahs and those who turn their backs on them. But to choose “tolerance” as the cure-all to the world’s problem is to settle for less than God wants for us. At the last supper Jesus prayed “that they might all be one,” not that they might leave each other alone and separate into groups that are all of the same mind.
 
Even in the midst of a sea of tolerance bumper stickers and people telling us that it’s impolite to bring our religious beliefs into the public square, Jesus challenges us to seek more, and to work for more than mere broadmindedness. It’s not easy to respect the beliefs of others while also evangelizing and preaching the Gospel. But He is crystal clear in putting forth the higher expectation by which we will be measured. It’s not enough to be friendly, nice, and pleasant, especially not just to those who already believe as we do. He tells every single one of us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
 
As we prepare for Lent, take time to pray about what sacrifice God is calling you to this year. Don’t settle for doing the same thing you always do. Pray about how God is calling you closer to Him in preparation for Easter, so that when we rejoice with the Risen Lord, we can honestly say that we did everything in our power to find new depths of prayer and relationship with Him, so that we could offer others not just friendliness, but eternal life with the Saints in the Kingdom of God.  
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC