by Fr. Justin Fulton
Peace be with you. Greetings! A blessed Nebraska autumn to you and yours!
I absolutely love fall in Nebraska. The pageantry of the colors, the festivals, the yellowing of the crops, marching bands, caramel apples, crisp mornings, flannel, football, harvest, and deer hunting….all of it and more. Henry David Thoreau once quipped, “Nature is full of genius, full of Divinity.” In Nebraska, by our God-given human nature, we see His transcendental work all over created nature.
Recently I have been jogging on a trail near where I live. A tree triumphantly stands near that trail and it made me stop in my tracks while running. (Admittedly, I probably needed to stop in my tracks—old age and my lungs were begging me to halt.) But I was stunned by this tree. It was as if it was giving the world a homily just standing there.
What I noticed about this tree were the green leaves fading in color, and a few instances of yellow leaves desperately trying to come forth to dominate the greens. It made me stop and ponder while looking at the tree a little bit more.
In our lives, we find ourselves hesitant to change. We become “status quo” creatures. We like our routine. We enjoy our comfort. We are afraid to let go of things. We don’t like change.
We don’t like to be corrected. We flee from the moral fights of sin and true conversion. We hate aging. We feel embarrassed if our minds start to slip or our bodies show signs of age. We don’t like to let go. Yet Jesus invites us to let go and experience the beauty of change. His invitation to change—to let go of past lives and give it all to Him—gives us new perspective, newfound hope, newfound energy, and ever-new Eternal Life.
Upon inspection, one can see a tree with its greens trying to fight a losing battle. The battle to hold onto the younger times of the summer, the strength found in that age, a feeling of comfort and vim and vigor. Yet, the yellowing leaves trying to peer out are just as beautiful, just as life giving, and just as valued once given to time to take over.
That tree is all of us. Whether we are having struggles aging, whether our bodies are becoming “weaker,” whether our minds are being challenged, whether our consciences are telling us to let go of a sin to allow Christ to break through and purify, we are similar to the tree. God invites us to allow Him in so that our lives may be changed.
Those trees in the Nebraska autumn show us how beautiful life is when we allow change to set in. They serve as an example for kids, youth, college students, married couples, adults, the elderly, and all of humanity. Life is beautiful when we set aside our pride and allow authentic, holy change into our lives.
Wherever you are in life, know that Jesus is asking you to allow Him to be all of it. May we invite Him into our joys, struggles, desires, aging, morals and indeed, everything in our lives. May we humble ourselves to allow His change to radiate beauty throughout the entirety of our being. The autumn trees show us how beautiful life can be when we allow change to set in. May we follow their example by allowing Christ to change us.
Thank you for your faith in Jesus Christ and His Sacraments. May God bless you and give you His abundant joy!
