You are invited to watch homily.

 

It is easy to determine I am John B. White Jr’s daughter. There are many tells in our resemblance. We are often the tallest in the room with giraffe-long legs. Next, is the powerful, unexpected sneeze so loud the whole room shakes. We share a mannerism that we don’t even realize we are doing, but other family members have kindly pointed it out. We rub our hands up and down our faces like little kids. And finally, my father tries to be the most generous person in any room he finds himself. I have moments when I am a chip off that same block.

 

Imagine now if you or I miraculously were in the same room as Jesus. Would there be any resemblance? What about us declares that we are a son or a daughter of God?

 

In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus proclaims: “The Kingdom of God is within you.”

 

My dad’s generosity trait is what clues you in that he is close to God and carries the Divine mission within him.

 

The Bible first proclaims who we are: (Genesis 1:27), “God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” We are of God and God is of us. The poet theologian Samual Taylor Coleridge wrote, “You are not merely matter—you are a Divine Idea made visible.” I love the humorous but inspiring Serbian proverb, “Be humble for you are made of dung. Be noble for you are made of stars.”

 

Within all of us there is a spark of the Divine. The question is if it is expressed in the world by your choosing.

 

Michelangelo was famous for the epic paintings on the Sistine Ceiling, sculptures of the Pieta at St. Peter’s Cathedral and that unforgettable David in the Galleria dell Accademia in Florence. As the story goes, Michelangelo would touch a chunk of marble brought up from the local quarry and “feel” the hidden figure already there within the raw stone. His true gift and honor was to release it.

 

When he was asked how he made the David, which stands 17 feet tall, and weighs 6 tons, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

 

Could the same be true for you and me? The divine already resides inside us, our lifetime work is to release it, reflecting God in the world.

 

Is it me, or do you feel too like it’s more challenging these days to see Jesus in our midst? We seem to live in a world more accepting of people operating from their flaws instead of their glory. Just when I want to judge, I must check myself. Have I allowed the world and my ego to be a greater influence on my life than God and the holy? Thich Nhat Hanh said, “At any moment, you have a choice that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.”  The task set before us is to chisel away anything getting in the way of expressing our soul’s beauty in the world.

 

In the 3^rd century, the writer and philosopher Plotinus wrote, “If you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; he cuts away here, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work.”

 

Remember that God has already gifted you a lovely soul with an eternal future. The Angel is already in the Marble.

 

A life of faith helps to discard things holding us back like pride, fear, selfishness, the need for control, niggling resentments so Jesus can shine forth, speak over, and love through us.

 

In my own life, painful suffering and extraordinary love have been effective tools for revealing what truly matters and calling out the best in me. Jesus has showed up remarkably, relentlessly in the face of family, friends, church members, even strangers a humbling number of times. It feels impossibly good when we actualize the Christ within us and the holy dots connect. It’s the reason I still hold fast to hope in this broken world. In every breath, the divine can be revealed through “mud and stars.”

 

This last year has been sometimes humbling and often challenging for me. But my dad has shown up for me in ways that conjure the “father” in the Parable of the Prodigal. No questions. Only love.

 

We become most like Jesus by giving away love for no personal gain or accolade. It is the Jesus way—do what you were made for. Each of us is a block of raw stone, able to reveal the glory within us. Nothing is more honoring to Jesus than trying to be like Jesus.

 

Through prayer, creativity, love, and determined comebacks after setbacks, we can beautifully unveil the Divine within us, never broken beyond repair, nor ever finished. God is always patient and forgiving. We are God’s great hope.

 

I continue to be inspired by St. Therese of Lisieux’s “Little Way” approach to faith. She recommends we do small things with great love. If you still have a breath, you can begin again, begin again, begin again to bring forth the heaven within you.

 

It is a lifetime work to keep releasing the angel from the human stone! The ultimate accomplishment: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”