“Will that be … small, regular, or super-sized?”

If you have ordered French-Fries at a fast-food counter you recognize the mantra. “Will that be … small, regular, or super-sized?”

Each year we are reminded of a supersized dream. We all know the words “I have a dream.” It was… and remains… a bold dream! Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed in spite of the experience of his generation so divided by the color of skin.

Pope Francis spoke about dreaming great dreams. An image popped into my mind … a great drive-thru with God at the window asking “Will that be a small, regular, or my special God-sized dream?”

It made me ask what size is my life dream and how will it become real?

Pope Francis’ “supersized dream”

In the years he has served as the voice of Christ in a troubled world, Pope Francis continuously articulates God’s dream for us. He has not been shy. Anyone familiar with his three major writings and actions knows that. They all spell out for us God’s dream that we increasingly become aware of God’s love for us. Pope Francis constantly pictures what that dream calls us to today.

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.

It is well worth reading the full text of his brief homily.

Often when he speaks to young people he says “Dear brothers and sisters, let us not give up on great dreams.”

Judged by our dreams… and our choices

He continues…

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… drawing 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.

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.

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.

Great Choices for Great Dreams in 2024

• What size is your dream? Human… or God-sized?
• What choices do I need to make today to show that I join God’s dream of all being one?

Originally posted on Vincentian Mindwalk