By Fr. Matthew Ruhl, S.J.
When I first took this job at St. Peter Claver in the Toledo District, I took on the responsibilities of 35 village churches and 30 primary grade schools…really, an absurdly impossible task.
Then, when saw the awful conditions of the grade school buildings, Ms. Celia Usher, General Manager of Catholic Schools, helped me appreciate the fact this was a nationwide problem. So, I took on the job of Chairman of the Bishop’s Commission on Education at the Bishop’s bequest. As a result, my 30 primary grade schools became 112 grade schools, a much greater impossibility than my original 30 primary schools.
It occurred to me that Catholic Schools of Belize has millions of dollars of long-deferred maintenance, and so I realized we needed to raise five million dollars to put our house in order…the most impossible, the most absurd undertaking of my 65 years of life! Yet, I genuinely believe God is asking this of me, of us, for the 32,000 children in our Grade Schools. But I thought to myself, “C’mon God…this is all just too much. The impossibility of it all overwhelms.” Then, I overheard the Archangel Gabriel say something to Mary.
When Gabriel told Mary she shall conceive and bear a son without the help of a man, Gabriel summed up his annunciation with these words to Mary: “…for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Ooooh my goodness, yes. My Catholic Faith kicked in. Our God is God of the impossible. Our God is the God of miracles and wonders. Doubt and anxiety will not drag me down. I will not fear absurdity or impossibility. I relish the challenge. Bring it on and let God be God.