SEARCHING FOR NAZARETH

Several years ago, I left the Philippines.

Maybe to look for myself. Maybe to look for GOD.

And so I went to Rome, the capital of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

BUT I DID NOT FIND GOD THERE.

And then I went to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ - the Son Of God - was born, and where He died. BUT I DID NOT FIND GOD THERE.

Too noisy. Too commercial. Too institutional. Too regimented. Too artificial.

And with the endless pilgrims streaming in and out - not really praying, but forever posing for their pictures and their souvenir albums - I could not find God. Only vanity and shallowness.

So I went away, and I retreated to a place that was ordinary and humble and obscure - NAZARETH.

And in Nazareth, I looked for the most ordinary, the most humble, the most obscure place, I prayed there during the day, and as darkness came, I walked out in the cool of the evening and gazed up at the myriad stars - the same stars that the Carpenter Jesus saw thousands of years ago. And I inhaled the cool evening breeze . . . the same cool breeze that the Son of Mary, the Son of God, inhaled.

And there - in that simple, silent place - I was touched by the True, the Holy, the Divine.

My brothers, my sisters - as you walk the road of life, you may sometimes find the need to search. For yourself. To search. For GOD. You may find the need to be touched. By THE DIVINE, THE HOLY, and THE TRUE.

Do not look for your answers in the dancing sun and the bloody tears and the magic petals, because they are not always there, and they are not always true.

Look instead for Nazareth. YOUR NAZARETH. Stop . . . and for the first time, notice and appreciate . . . your COOK and your MAID, who prepare your breakfast and clean your toilet everyday. Stop and appreciate the LOLA (Grandma) and the LOLO (Grandpa) in your house, who no longer feel useful, who no longer feel needed, and who no longer feel loved.

Stop, and notice and appreciate your LITTLE CHILD - so vulnerable, so open, so close to GOD. Stop and notice and appreciate YOUR WIFE . . . because she is always there, serving your children and loving you, you have long ago taken her for granted. Stop and notice and appreciate YOUR HUSBAND, who works every day to feed you and to send the children to school.

Most of all, my friend, stop in front of the mirror. Then notice and appreciate the person you see there - YOURSELF - and behind the disguise of the common and the ordinary, discover THE DIVINE, THE HOLY and THE TRUE. For Jesus Christ says, "The Kingdom of God is inside you. The Kingdom of God is inside you."

Look again at yourself. And discover GOD right there.

My brothers, my sisters, do not be so fascinated with the very good and the very bad.

LOOK RATHER, FOR THE ORDINARY,
THE HUMBLE, THE OBSCURE.
LOOK FOR NAZARETH - YOUR NAZARETH. MAYBE,
MAYBE YOU'LL FIND GOD THERE.

BECAUSE HE IS THERE. WAITING. FOR YOU.

FR. ARSENIO C. JESENA, SJ
Catholic Author of the Jubilee Year 2000
From his book Yayee 4: Embraced By God
Published in the Philippines, December 2007
E-Mail: junisj@yahoo.com Phone: (632) 426-5941