One Step at a Time

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

In 1982, when I was twenty-five years old, if you would have told me that I would one day end up being a priest, I would have been furious. Being a priest was the last thing I wanted to do with my life. That very year, as a matter of fact, I made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, with the hope of receiving improved eyesight. I departed that holy place with the same rotten eyes I had brought there. Just before leaving, however, I remember specifically telling Our Lady, “Speak to your Son; I don’t want to be a priest!” It seems it is not a good idea to tell Mother what to do. One thing led to another, and at age thirty-one, just six short years later, I found myself lying prostrate on the Cathedral floor. Eventually, I returned to Lourdes and went down to the grotto where the Virgin Mary had first appeared to Saint Bernadette. “Go ahead,” I said out loud to the Blessed Virgin. “Have your laugh. The joke is on me.” Today I can honestly say that, although I have had some sad days as a priest, I have never regretted being one. Am I grateful that the Blessed Mother disregarded the prayer of my twenty-five-year-old heart! I am grateful that God did not show me my future all at once! Instead, He showed me only one step at a time.

Here is another illustration of the same point. When I was in seminary, my classmates and I were each asked to state our preferences as to the kind of people we would feel most comfortable working with as priests. I remember checking off the boxes: The elderly. YES. Young adults. YES. Persons with special needs. YES. Elementary school children. YES. Teenagers. NO AND A THOUSAND TIMES NO. If you would have told me then that I would eventually spend twenty-four years of my life teaching high school sophomores, I would have been horrified. As it turned out, however, some of the happiest moments of my life were spent in my classroom at Bethlehem Catholic High School. With divine insight, Bishop Welsh ignored the preferences that I voiced as a seminarian! It was for my ultimate good, too, that God did not show me my future all at once. Instead, He showed me only one step at a time.

I think you can see why I love this prayer of Saint John Henry Newman:

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see
The distant scene, one step enough for me.

I leave you with this parting thought. We should never ask the Lord to show us the big picture. All we need to know is the next step. That’s why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). That’s why Saint Paul tells us, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”