Wonder Woman
She solves problem with the magic only available to a superhero; with the speed of lightning and superhuman insight, strength and power, she brings good to the earth, rids the world of crime and eliminates the power of those gone wrong. She looks like a human, loves like a human, but in a single moment she becomes something else. Problems vanish as she escapes whatever dangers and challenges life brings.
For the Wonder Woman we celebrate today…It’s not that easy — looking backwards from the ending, the beginning seems 
serene and clear, but the reality is different. Listening from the inside out means letting go of what has been and trusting that whatever you need will arrive — at exactly the moment you need it. It means to let go of the plans and the dreams and the imaginations of the life you expected and live from the inside out. It means being willing to disappoint those who expected the usual and to live from the whisper of giving your life for the matters of the heart — for the matters of love — for matters of the unseen.
Who is Wonder Woman? Not someone who lives from the fantasy of a cartoon come to life, but a woman of wonder —
The real Wonder Woman is not the one whose magical powers allow her to escape, but the woman who looks through the darkness into the light — not escaping the danger but facing it. With head held high in the midst of scorn, she listens to the voice of invitation and agrees to face the challenges she cannot imagine.
With no GPS and no one who really understands, she embarks on a path that she knows that she has both chosen and is the one chosen for her. It’s about both freedom and fidelity — clarity and ambiguity — certainty and questions. She knows that there will be those who will never accept the path that she has chosen — living from the inside out — and yet she chooses to take what is deeply personal and make it public. To live the choices she has made that her self-gift may be redemptive.
But, it’s not pretty and no angels are playing silent night in the background. It’s hot and dusty and she has never given birth. The days are long and the road is rocky and she feels every pothole and obstacle and wonders if what she thought was true — really is true. But, it’s too late now — the “yes” has happened and now she lives into the next step. And, as the next step unfolds, she discovers just enough courage for the one ahead.
Wonder Woman — the real one — who made a choice to listen to the whisper of love and give her life for the sake of the message writes a Gospel with her life. Leaving us two words for the days ahead. Reminding us that it takes both of them — not one or the other…but both
Wonder Woman doesn’t wave a wand to eliminate fear — she lives the questions and faces the loneliness of being alone with what she knows. She doesn’t kill off the enemy, but finds the grace to love. She doesn’t escape the challenge of suffering and loss of what she has called home — she is called from there to a new place — and with grit and tenacity she lets the pain give way to the birth of something new. She doesn’t try to send a greeting card to us with pastel hues of ease, but promises that when we have the courage to believe…there we find the light.
How lucky we are, to know this real Wonder Woman of Grace. Of Grit. Of Love.
Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Wonder Woman
