What size is your dream?
It is a mantra in many fast food counters or drive-thru windows! “Will that be small, regular, or super-sized?” Recently Pope Francis spoke about dreaming great dreams. The image popped into my mind … a great drive-thru with God at the window asking “Will that be a small, regular, or God-sized dream?” It made me ask what size is my dream. 
God’s “supersized dream”
God’s dream is an image he uses frequently. John, in his gospel, describes God’s dream for us. “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). God’s dream for us is more than our being perfectly regimented toy soldiers who only obey every command. God dreams of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who truly love one another.
In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis reminds us to dream and to hope. There is room for each person at God’s table. Each person brings their own gifts, talents, knowledge, expertise, experiences, and self to the world. Rather than reject our differences, it is important to acknowledge and even celebrate the richness in our human diversity. We are many parts, but one body. Let us celebrate our humanity and practice dreaming once again— of unity, of peace, of justice, of truth, of love. On the Feast of Christ the King he wrote…
Let us not settle only for what is necessary. The Lord does not want us to narrow our horizons or to remain parked on the roadside of life. He wants us to race boldly and joyfully towards lofty goals. We were not created to dream about vacations or the weekend, but to make God’s dreams come true in this world. God made us capable of dreaming, so that we could embrace the beauty of life.
Pope Francis spoke directly to young people when he said “Dear brothers and sisters, let us not give up on great dreams.”
How do we make super-sized dreams come true
Pope Francis writes…
Yet how do we begin to make great dreams come true? With great choices! At the last judgment, the Lord will judge us on the choices we have made. He seems almost not to judge, but merely to separate the sheep from the goats, whereas being good or evil depends on us. He only draws out the consequences of our choices, brings them to light, and respects them. Life, we come to see, is a time for making robust, decisive, eternal choices. Trivial choices lead to a trivial life; great choices to a life of greatness. Indeed, we become what we choose, for better or for worse.Yet if we choose God, daily we grow in his love, and if we choose to love others, we find true happiness. Because the beauty of our choices depends on love. Remember this because it is true: the beauty of our choices depends on love. Jesus knows that if we are self-absorbed and indifferent, we remain paralyzed, but if we give ourselves to others, we become free. The Lord of life wants us to be full of life, and he tells us the secret of life: we come to possess it only by giving it away. This is a rule of life: we come to possess life, now and in eternity, only by giving it away.
- If we choose to steal, we become thieves.
- If we choose to think of ourselves, we become self-centered.
- If we choose to hate, we become angry.
- If we choose to spend hours on a cell phone, we become addicted.
Great Choices for Great Dreams in 2021
- Do we recognize that God’s dream for us is bigger than our dream?
- Are we parked on the roadside of life or race boldly toward a supersized life with God and our sisters and brothers?
- What choices do I need to make today to bring about a kingdom of peace, justice, and love?
My wife and I have been taking part on Sundays and Holy Days in a drive-in Eucharist. We remain masked in our parked car throughout the celebration. There’s no drive-thru communion. The ministers come to us give us the host–before and that, of course, they come for the first and second collection.
We receive the same communion, the same gift and the self-realizing dream of Jesus’ real presence. But, then, it’s up to each one to let the one we receive to whisper to us how to make the dream big and “inventive to infinity” (SV.EN XI:131).