November 5, 2025 “Sometimes, it’s hard to see Jesus,” I told a relatively new friend. It was Friday morning (newspaper deadline is Friday afternoon). I didn’t have the tiniest shred of an idea for this space. I mentioned to my new friend that the column has a significant impact on the flow of my day. She asked about my column. “It tends to be about my crazy life and where I find Jesus in it,” I said. “It’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard to see Jesus.” I think we all have those periods in life, times when the world feels like it’s crashing down around us, times we feel super distracted by the demands of busy lives or times we just go on auto pilot and feel like we’re just going through the motions – times when it becomes easy to feel distant from the Lord and/or difficult to see him working in our lives and in our world. It’s hard to minister to others when feeling like that. Almost immediately after telling my friend about it being sometimes hard to see Jesus, it occurred to me: I have a hard time filling a half-page column when I’m in those hard-to-see-Jesus times of life. I can’t imagine what it’s like to struggle to see Jesus when you’re a priest, in consecrated life, a deacon – when you’re someone expected to reflect Jesus and share Jesus all day every day (I know we’re all called to that, but, let’s be honest, a lot of us expect even more from our clergy and consecrated men and women than we’re capable of giving ourselves). I feel like the normal struggles of faith could feel like an even heavier cross for those constantly expected to be Jesus to others. So, in this annual edition in which we celebrate vocations, I thank those who carry that cross so all of us can benefit from your service to our Lord. And I thank all the holy married couples (we have an edition devoted to them in February) and single men and women who also pour out Christ to those around them with completely different struggles and who help pray for and help foster and develop those vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life or the diaconate. Thankfully, our Lord gives us all the graces we need to serve him as he calls us. Even if it’s hard to see it. |
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