Time for Dinner; My Temper Tantrum

I wrote about this when I was a missionary at the University of Colorado. 

When I was little, my sister's and I had the first 16-bit Nintendo system complete with Mario Bros!  Let me tell you about a tragic and scarring story of my life: I was in the middle of rescuing Princess from the hands of Bowser when my mom came into the room, turned off the game, and said it was time for dinner.  Oh, I was angry!  My attempt to conquer the world with my fingers and save the girl was thwarted by my mom.  At the time my response was "Really??? How important is it that I eat dinner with my family?"  Of course this may seem like an exaggeration, but clearly I remember the story 25 years later.  Besides revealing my own brokenness at the age of 8, it also reveals the following: we can get attached in false worlds, like Worlds 1 - 8 in Mario bros., which only leads to frustration when we are brought back to reality, to life.   

Now I know this is just a video game, let alone a 16-bit video game, but think of all the other false worlds out there that we try to conquer.  No longer are we jumping over enemies and obstacles from  World 1-8.  We are now taking on the worlds of Facebook and Twitter.  In these worlds we are able to project to the world only those beautiful things about our life and never any flaws???  Besides social networking, we take on the World of life.  In this game we, like mario, collect money hoping to extend our chances in life.  We try to gain more power and prestige, maybe by achieving fire Mario, hoping maybe one day we will achieve the all invincible star.

You know what eventually happens to all those who play those games?  The game is turned off and they are forced to go to Dinner, or at least they come face to face to God, who is responsible for the ultimate family dinner!

Do you realize that the Lord is calling us NOW to a dinner?!?  Not just any kind of dinner, but a banquet!  Jesus is not only host (priest) of the banquet, but also the meal itself (the Sacrifice).  How many of us, when it comes to Sunday (or any other day) would rather have our heads down trying to conquer the various Worlds around us?  No matter how many Worlds we conquer (facebook, money, power, material desires), it doesn't compare to the dinner prepared for us by God!

The Lord has worked two ways in my life:  First, the Lord has been patient with me and have given me multiple invitations to join Him for the banquet, but after a while of not heeding to His invitation, The Lord, like my mom, breaks through my various worlds and turns off the game.  Of course, my response to the Lord is similar to the way I responded to my mother.  I respond in frustration because all the time I put into the game was just taken away from me.  All the time taken to build up a chance is torn away and wasted.  

Take a moment now and think of all the stories of people that have had that happen!  How many people have the Lord taken away people's money, prestige, and power.  And how do they usually respond? 

Let's all aim detach us from the worlds we have connected ourselves too.  Either the worlds found in social networking, or even all the ideas that we do no need the Lord because we can collect our own money, prestige, and power.  Let's try not to react in frustration, when the Lord calls us to His Banquet!  Let's start to eagerly work on responding to the invitation that Jesus Christ!  The Banquet has been prepared for us in the Scripture, in Prayer, and completed in the the sacrifice of the Mass!  As it is said in the Sacrifice of the Mass, let us aim to be transformed "with him, in him, and through Him!"  

Oh and have no fear in the end the devil (Bowser) loses and Christ (Mario) rescues his Bride, the Church (Princess).