"Everything has its rise and fall until the return of the Son of Man." Father Tim Hepburn said this at a conference 12 years ago and it has stuck with me. Every ministry, every job, activity, even their relationships have their highs and their lows, their ebbs and flows. When water ebbs, it drains away from the shore. When it flows, it rises up!
I got to thinking about mountain top experiences, those experiences that put you on a high like being on top of a mountain. I remember when I first went on church retreats, I loved the feelings they brought and it was hard to leave.
Water ebbs and it flows. It doesn't do one and not the other. Neither can we just stay on top of a mountain. We have to come down from the mountain.
When I was on Summer Staff at Covecrest, a Catholic youth camp, it was one of the best summers of my life, and it was literally in the mountains. As the end drew near, I was having a hard time with the idea of leaving this holy and heavenly bubble of love to go back to the secular and tempting grind of college. What I came to realize is that I HAD to come down from the mountain and leave the bubble so that I could live out Gods calling for me on my college campus!
The other importance of coming down the mountain is greater appreciation for the mountain top experiences. How much more beautiful is a view we don't see all the time? I know people who live in the mountains who have to come down for a change.
One of the reasons I love my job so much is because of the valley from which I came. I have a heightened appreciation!
Covecrest is gorgeous, but I know that if I lived there all the time, I'd want a different view.
The Mass never ends. It must be lived, whether it's a morning weekday Mass Iran Easter Vigil.
After all, the disciples too came down from the mountain.
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