Amazing America

Finding God’s plan in a new country

07/04/2021

Mark 6:1-6 Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Sometimes you have to leave the old country and travel to a new country to find God’s plan and feel God’s providence. I will never forget the night we arrived in this amazing new country of America in 1976. I was seven years old and most of the trip was a blur in my little brain. I remember vividly, though, walking into a small apartment which was to be our new home in Brooklyn. I got “no sleep till Brooklyn” either.

There was no furniture in the room, and all I recall was seeing three toys against the far wall. One was a large airplane, the second was a life-sized doll and the third was a car that looked like a Yugo. Even though my parents could not afford furniture, they welcomed their children to America with three toys that were symbols of a future filled with hope and happiness.

My older brother ran and grabbed the airplane, my sister dashed directly to the doll, so I was left with the Yugo. Each toy, though, has turned out to be a harbinger of our chosen vocations. My brother now frequently flies on airplanes between Fayetteville and Atlanta, where he works for Home Depot. My sister is married with five children, so her practice with the doll perfected her care for children. And I drive my Yugo all over Arkansas as a priest. My car is my mobile office.

Sometimes I muse about what our lives would have been like if we had remained in India. Would I have become a priest if I had not experienced the people and the places that inspired my vocation? Would my brother have married Susan, a beautiful Indian lady, and had four children? I know my sister Mary would NOT have married, Dr. Anthony Gulde, a devout Catholic and a dentist, whom we affectionately call “the token white guy” in our family. Sometimes you have to leave an old country and come to a new country in order to find God’s plan and feel God’s providence.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus also feels the need to leave the old and search for the new because of rejection in his hometown of Nazareth. The people recognize him as “the carpenter, the son of Mary,” and know his cousins by name, “James and Joses, Judas and Simon.” And they took offense at him. Why? Well, because “familiarity breeds contempt” as the old saying goes. Jesus responds by saying: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own king and in his own house.” Just like leaving India was part of God’s plan and providence for us, so Jesus leaves his native Nazareth.

Spiritually speaking, Jesus was leaving the old country of the religion of Judaism and entering the new country of the religion of Christianity. God the Father did not give his Son an airplane or a doll or a car to symbolize his life and legacy, but rather a cross. The cross, therefore, would be a harbinger of a future filled with hope and happiness, both for Jesus and for each of us.

Every Fourth of July we Americans celebrate Independence Day. What precisely do we celebrate today? Among other things, we remember how our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) left the old country of England and arrived in this new country of America in order to find God’s plan and feel God’s providence. That is, their arrival in America was no accident. Just like Jesus could not work many miracles in the old country of Judaism, so our Founding Fathers could not work the miracle of a “constitutional republic” while in the old country of the British crown.

And, just like the Jews were offended by Jesus, so King George III was offended by the Colonials. Hence, we fought the Revolutionary War in 1776. Why? So that 200 years later in 1976, three children from India could come from our old country to this new country to find God’s plan and feel God’s providence in our own lives. And so, too, have countless other immigrants.

I am always moved when I read the last line of the Declaration of Independence, where Jefferson (who wrote the draft) punctuated the point about God’s providence. He penned these memorable lines: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” In other words, they were convinced this new Declaration was part of God’s plan for them, and would be the harbinger of a future filled with hope and happiness for all those who would arrive one day in this Amazing America.

My friends, let me invite each of you today to remember when your own family arrived in this new country and left your old country. After all, all Americans are immigrants, even Native Americans, who migrated from Asia over the Bering Strait some 15,000 years ago. Maybe your ancestors came from Germany or Vietnam or maybe even India. What family heirlooms are your harbingers of a future filled with hope and happiness? For me and my siblings it was an airplane, a doll and a Yugo, and for Christians it is the Cross.

If you cannot think of anything else, the Founding Fathers will gladly let you claim their own heirloom of the Declaration of Independence. That Declaration is the shared legacy of all who call this country our home. My fellow Americans, what makes America so amazing is that it is the new country where each of us who have left our old country can find God’s plan and feel God’s providence, as we await that “undiscovered country” called Paradise.

                                                                Praised be Jesus Christ!