Dear friends,
the story of the world, the history of everything,
is also the meaning of our life. 
To make sense of our life and find happiness,
we need to know how we fit into the big picture; we need to see the Plan of God. 
 
God is the origin of all things. 
All things in this universe have a beginning, a cause;
the original Cause of all things is God. 
God has always been – he is eternal;
he is all powerful, all knowing, and is everywhere present. 
Other religions know these things about God, such as Islam, but God has revealed something more to us,
which we know as Christians. 
 
He has revealed that God is ‘Trinity.’
God is 3 ‘Persons’, yet One God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This has been revealed to us through God’s Son. 
These ‘Persons’ are the relations in God. 
The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father,
and this Love is the Holy Spirit. 
 
And so Christians know that God is pure Love, Eternal love,
this has been revealed. 
 
A characteristic of love is that it wishes to share.
God chose to share his love, and wow! He shared it! 
He created this universe and all things,
and this is when time began. 
God is the origin of all things, we know this by faith.
But even scientists now effectively say that the universe had a beginning.
For centuries, scientists said that there was no beginning,
that the stars and galaxies had always been there. 
 
Christians said that there was a beginning, God made all things, that a universe cannot ‘make itself.’ 
But then, scientists found out that they were wrong.
A physicist who was a priest, and later an astronomer, discovered that the universe is rapidly expanding. 
Scientists have changed their mind, and now they teach that the Big Bang started everything,
that at the beginning, there was, from one little point, a flash of light and energy more intense than has ever been, and came forth all matter, and all that we know, from that one moment.
 
And it is interesting that in the beginning of the bible,
it tells us that God said, Let there be Light! And there was.
 
God created the world; he created all things, and this earth. 
He brought about life on this earth: 
the bible describes it as a gradual process:
simple life first, plants, then more advanced,
then animals, and finally human beings to whom he gave a spiritual  soul. 
 
In that beginning, the first persons were happy,
but then came temptation.
The fallen angels, the devil, tempted mankind.
Not trusting their Creator, our first parents sought their happiness apart from God and sinned.
We lost grace and death entered the world. 
 
But even in the beginning, God made a promise of hope for us: he promised that one day would come a Savior who would restore our life with God, so that we could find happiness.
The first half of the bible, the Old Testament, is really a preparation for this coming Savior.
It is filled with signs and symbols, 
pointing forward to the coming Messiah. 
 
For example, Noah and the ark. 
Noah was a just man who God selected to save his family. 
They built the ark, the waters came, 
and the ark brought them to what is described as a beautiful, new world.
Wonderful. A rainbow, happiness. 
It is described as a New Creation. 
 
Well, this story is a sign.
Noah, the just man, who saves his family, 
is a sign of the coming Savior who will save his people.
The beautiful New Creation where he brings them, is a sign of heaven. 
 
Take another story: Abraham and Isaac.
Abraham is asked to sacrifice his beloved son.
He goes with Isaac up the hill.
Isaac, carrying the wood for his own sacrifice on his shoulders up the hill.
 
But God stops this sacrifice, 
it was only a dress-rehearsal for something greater. 
God the Father will offer his own beloved Son for us.
Jesus carries the wood of the cross up the hill, to die for us,
to save us from our sins. 
 
Another example: 
Moses leads the people through the parted Red Sea to save the them from the tyranny of Pharaoh. 
This is a sign of how we are saved from the devil, by passing through the waters of Baptism.
 
So after the long period of signs, the Messiah came;
the Son of God, in the year 1, came down from heaven and was born into this world, to live our life, to share our life.
Jesus grew up like us, he worked, he suffered like us and he died - like us.
But he rose in his glorified body to conquer death, so that we can do the same. So that we can ascend with him to heaven.
 
God himself, the Son of God has united his Divinity to our humanity, to share in our human nature. 
Well, we are born into this world in a natural, human state;
but beginning in our Baptism, we begin to share in the Divine life of God.
As we live our life, we try to conform our life to that of Jesus,
to be another ‘Christ’ on earth; and then we die. 
But we have the great promise that we will rise in glorified bodies like Christ, and ascend to heaven with him. 
 
Before the Lord ascended, he established his Church. 
In the Acts of the Apostles, we read of all the things that Jesus’ first priests were doing in the early church, 
doing what he did: baptizing, offering Mass, teaching, and even miracles. The Church was growing.
 
But before the apostles died, 
they passed on their authority to other bishops and priests by laying on of hands – the church continued.
St. Peter was the first Pope. Since him, there have been 266 Popes who have led the Church;
the Bishops today are the successors of the apostles. 
After the apostles, came the age of martyrs and saints.
So many who gave their life for Christ.
 
More saints every century, saint Agatha, St. Bernard, 
St. Barbara, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, 
St. Theresa, Padre Pio, Mother Teresa ----
 
If we draw a timeline, we have the Creation, the beginning of everything;
then we have the time of waiting for the Messiah,
with all the prophecies and predictions and signs – 
then year 1, the Son of God comes down from heaven;
God enters our world, lives our life, dies our death, and rises,
and ascends to heaven, so that we can do the same. 
 
But before he ascended, he establishes his Church, to be with us, and give us the power, by grace and the sacraments, to do what he did.
Then so many saints through history - the church continues to grow. 
 
This is the story of the world, of salvation, not just the story of Catholics, but the meaning of all things for all people;
it is like a drama being acted out, a play. 
But the truth is, in this timeline, this drama, that you – each of you, and me – are part of this drama, in 2018. 
We each have our role to play, to try to live as Jesus wants us to, to be ‘another Christ’.
To play our role well, for him in this one life that he gives us.
 
Our role may be to be a son or daughter now,
to be a parent, to be a carpenter, a teacher, a nurse, or ….  
 
God is calling us to be the best Christian children, parents, friends, that we can be.
We are part of a great drama, 
and knowing this, makes life worth living.
Jesus has left us the Church to teach and guide us;
he has given us the grace of the Sacraments to help us be excellent Christians.
So let us live out our role in this drama of life as perfectly as we can,
in order to praise God and please him and find his happiness in this life and in the next. 
The saints wish to help us, the angels wish to help us,
and the Blessed Virgin Mary wishes to help us.