After each of our vocation retreat weekends, the participants in the retreat take turns at a weekly “spiritual nourishment” message to the group. Some people send prayers, others poems, others reflections on a piece of scripture, others a parable of sorts.
This week, one of our students shared some thoughts about the passage in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus tells his disciples, “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
With his permission, here is John Fandrey’s reflection on this passage:
“I thought this passage was fitting since I had just read about the Kansai International Airport in Japan. Japan is a difficult place to build airports because of its rough terrain and dense population. To overcome this problem those involved with the Kansai project decided to excavate three mountains and throw 27 million cubic yards of earth into the sea. The result was an island big enough and flat enough to place an airport. Today about 14 million passengers fly in and out of Kansai Airport every year.
“What I take from this passage is that when God tells us we can do anything, he really means we can do anything. Despite the great accomplishments we see in history whether they be technological or political, we believe that somehow our situation is different. We believe that somehow God won’t endow our pursuits with the same grace that he gave to the heroes we see in history.
“I think that all we need to do is look around us and see that God is ready to help and that with his help, we can do anything.”
Creo en Dios! 