Two quotations, though very different from one another and from diverse authors, remind me of the teaching of Jesus -- not the teachings of Jesus, but His teaching, his pedagogy. Leonardo DaVinci is said to have written, "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you once were and there you long to return." Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of "The Little Prince," wrote, "If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Jesus taught people to yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven, to long for Grace, to look wistfully at the hours ahead and seek to discover the wonder of God in all of them. What greater motivation to pray can there be, but to have experienced the grandeur of God and to long, yearn, lovingly though restlessly pine to taste the presence of God again and again.

O the wonder of the Incarnation: God become human. Humanity can never be the same when once its Creator and Redeemer has walked in flesh on this earth.

1/4/12

Msgr. William J. King