Wow Factor

"Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of?" (Dt 4:33nn) The Lord challenged us with this question this morning in the First Reading. He challenged our ability to see things in our lives with children's eyes and hearts. The ability, the innocence, the sensitivity of the person touched by the greatness of God's things happening in front of our eyes on daily basis, which we, adults, sadly, got used to and take for granted or allowed ourselves to never see them again...
 

Once, when I was just finished with the renovation of Musoma Cathedral, I was told by one young mother about her small daughter maybe 3 or 4 years old who confined to the mother that whenever she was entering the newly restored cathedral she was stopping in her tracks, looking at the sanctuary area with her wide open eyes and open mouth, as if saying - wow! And telling her Mum that she felt God's presence in there, His majesty, His mystery - of course saying all this in her own words, being unable to be precise... But we got the point...

Did we lose it along the way... this ability to ask ourselves, trembling with excitement, discovering and feeling anew God's presence in His house - the church we attend to Mass or enter for private prayer? Do we ask ourselves in awe - did anything so great ever happen before? The God choosing to dwell among us in His church, in the mystery of the Eucharist, in His living Word proclaimed in the Church?

This wow factor, this feeling of awe...if we lose it, if we allow ourselves to get used to holy things, sacrum, areas, vessels, sacraments, mysteries of faith, holy realities - our lives will fill quickly with profanity, shallowness, secularism... we will walk passing by God, without paying attention to Him, unaware of His presence, love and mercy... feeling more and more lonely...