The Spiritual and Cultural Flouishing of the Reductions

Spiritual Reflection by Peyton Markey ’15

Brandon Adam helps take chipa out of the oven.

Picture yourself as Peter seeing Jesus walking on water. You’re now probably thinking to yourself, “ Wow, I wish I could do that, that’s awesome let me be with Jesus!” Then he calls your name and tells you to come to him. Your wish came true but now you’re afraid; it’s windy and storming but you still have to do it. You just can’t disobey the Messiah. So you gather up enough courage and faith to stop out of the boat and wow you’re actually standing on water, but you hold onto the boat because you are afraid just in case because you are afraid of what happens when you let go. We as ell as Peter wish to be closer to God and Christ but we are presented the opportunity why do we hesitate. I think it’s because if we let go of out personal boat that we think we need then we won’t ever see if again. But Pope Benedict XVI in in referencing Bl. Pope John Paul II stated “if we let Christ into our lives we lose nothing, [no solution] nothing that makes life free, beautiful and great. Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. “So in reality if that boat of ours is good it will always be there while we walk towards. This, analogy also brings up a great point. When we fully commit ourselves to Christ we must not doubt him in any way or else we will start to fall. I’m not saying that if we doubt him our faith lives will change but if we have fully taken in Christ if we doubt he will pull us up like he did peter. And I find if we love and believe wholly we will not need that boat we were in we will then, follow Christ to the boat, he has planned for us to ride in. And finally this is a very moving and beautiful idea.