An odd place for good questions

When it comes to preaching the Gospel it has long been said that preachers must go where the people are. Over the past many weeks as I have been with the wrestling team I have found the weight room to be a place where - surprisingly - many good conversations have taken place.

Just this afternoon one of the students asked me, "If your parents were still alive, would you be a priest?" Without hesitating, I said, "No." Why?

Is it because I am not happy as a priest? Of course not; I am quite content and know this to be the Lord's will for me.

I answered in the negative because I know very clearly that my experience of the tremendous love of God came as a direct result of the deaths of my parents. What do I mean?

After my father died, and again after my mother died, I cried out to God in great anguish and sorrow, asking, "Why?!" Never did I receive an answer to my questioning, but, over the course of time, through much prayer, I encountered the Lord.

He didn't rebuke me for being angry and demanding answers, but simply said, "I am here. I love you. I will not leave you orphaned." With time and prayer I came to know the depth of his love and I came to know that only in his will for me would I find peace. I came to realize that his will for me was that I should be one of his priests.

Would I have come to this realization had my parents not died? Would I have come to experience so profoundly his great love for me? I do not know. What I do know is that I did come to know his love as a result of their deaths.

This is not to say that God caused their deaths, but rather that he met me in my hour of need. For this, I am most deeply grateful to the Lord.

Is it possible that I would have realized the Lord's will for my life had my parents not died? Of course, but I cannot begin to imagine how.

The story of my vocation is a witness to the reality that God is close to the broken hearted and remains close to them.

After I explained this, the student asked what I thought I would be doing if my parents were alive. I said, if personal interests were not changed from what they are now, I would probably be a professor of history writing about and searching for the historical basis to the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Keep the questions coming, boys!