12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (23.06.13) http://www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk/
THE LONG HAUL
Children, sometimes unintentionally, ask loaded questions. One sure to make some parents groan is: “Can we have a dog?”. The adult brain has flashing images of carwindow / bumper stickers saying, ‘A Dog Is Not For Christmas – It’s Forever!’. The child enthusiastically promises to ‘feed and wash the dog’ and, oh yes, ‘train the dog’ but overlooks to ‘walk the dog each day’. Parents know that enthusiam, like good intentions, may not last. Then it will be the parents who have to care for and exercise the animal!
The quality of commitment is not eaily nurtured in upcoming generations. It requires, daily, the marshalling and application of one’s willpower. Dedication is seen as hard graft. By contrast, today’s youth are encouraged to find easy and pleasureable lifestyles through the Internet, music and TV. The Jesus of Nazareth ‘Way of the Cross’ is seen as way off the mark not only by youth but also by their elders. The practice of gratifying every passing whim for a make-believe peaceful life usually turns out to be destructive.
The motivation for a personal discipline of commitment, partnered with dedicated application, is either fear or love.
For a contemporary exposition of fear-based commitment you may like to read ‘Escape from Camp 14’ – ‘One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West’ (Blaine Harden – Author) It details the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.
For a contemporary exposition of a love-based commitment you may like to read the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John plus The Acts of the Apostles.
Recent Popes and now, especially, Pope Francis attract the youth. The Popes believe there is an, as yet unfulfilled, appetite in young people which only a living faith in Jesus can satisfy. Yet Jesus’ declared conditions for discipleship are uncompromising – “If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) The ‘long haul’ proffered by Jesus is at variance with a society which identifies long haul with transoceanic air travel.
The recently celebrated Feast of Pentecost identifies a God-gifted contemporary experience, available to all who open their hearts to God. Through it, God’s love is breathed and experienced and personal commitment, with the requisite personal application, becomes a chosen personal ‘long haul’ way of life to celebrate a love for God – whatever the circumstances.
Sophie Tedmanson’s fairly minor report from Sydney in ‘The Times’ of May 8th. 2013 caught my eye.
‘Two Kiribati men have been rescued after spending almost four weeks drifting across the Pacific in a broken-down fishing boat.
Eiirito Tataua, 40, and Teikauea Tegiaa, 20, survived on raw fish and a sprinkling of rainwater after the engine on their 14ft aluminium skiff broke down off Bahaba Island, near their home in Kiribati’s Gilbert Islands.
The pair were rescued almost 435 miles (700km) from their island home. The men were dehydrated and malnourished. They could not have survived much longer in the open ocean.
Once the men were fed and rehydrated, they spent at least an hour praying in the ship’s chapel before phoning their families back home in Kiribati.’
Praying for an hour …. before telephoning their families. The words are quite arresting. What a demonstration of commitment! What a revelation of a daily application to prayer. These men are, in every sense, ‘long-haul’ Christians not momentary ‘sprinters’. The foundations of their spiritual lives as well as their skill as fishermen must have come through their experience of family and village life.
Personal growth in the knowledge of and love for God is best fostered in community. The stable family is the best school for nurturing respect for life and love for one another. Just as it is through the immediate family that we learn about the wider family, so it is between our immediate family and our Baptismal family. This in turn leads on to the human family.
In adult life, we are called, daily, to walk along a particular path that God has marked out for us. The details are not revealed in advance, just the concept:
“If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
Jesus had the companionship of Simon of Cyrene on his Calvary pathway. We, on our lifetime’s ‘long haul’ journey, have the communion-companionship of Jesus himself, our Shepherd, Guide and King. We find our encouragement and confidence in Jesus who, in Matthew 28:18-29, tells his disciples then and us today: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.”
There’s no doubting that Jesus is in it for the ‘long haul’ with us.
PS: If you have access to the Internet you might like to check out a fascinating article ‘Guidelines for the Long Haul’ by Ronald Rolheiser OMI