Since my
first year in seminary, at the end of august, my seminary classmates and I, who
are now priests, have taken a week or two vacation up in the Algonquin Highlands
in Ontario, about four hours north of Toronto.
We canoe a little bit, we swim, we don’t really fish much, we really
just enjoy the quiet of the wilderness, good food, and good fellowship. Two weeks without cellphone, internet,
television, is a perfect way to get ready for the busy-ness of the school year,
when parish life really begins to kick into high-gear.
And it
usually takes a day or two to adjust from going the busy, loud world to the
quiet of nature. That first day and a
half, it really feels kind of strange, not having something to do. But then things begin to settle, we settle
into the quiet, and then you really begin to notice the beautiful surroundings:
lapping of the lake, the gentle breeze.
It’s a wonderful atmosphere for good prayer and reflection and spiritual
reading.
What does
this have to do with our readings this weekend?
Well, we need moments, to quiet down and recharge and to focus on what
really matters. That is the purpose of
our upcoming parish retreat in October.
This is why we observe every week a day of rest, the Sabbath day, to
become quiet and to focus on what really matters.
The Catholic
Philosopher Svoren Kierkegaard said that the present state of the world and the
whole of life [with so much noise and busy-ness] diseased. And If he were a doctor
he would prescribe as a remedy for this disease, “silence”
From the
book of wisdom, we hear about our human condition, “For the corruptible body
burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many
concerns.”
We know all
to well about the many concerns which weigh down upon us don’t we? Our health,
job, family obligation. And our culture
certainly doesn’t help things when it drums into us over and over that we are
not happy until we have the next toy, the perfect house, the perfect car, the
perfect family, the perfect job. It’s not a coincidence how our faith can
sometimes take second-place to all of these worldly pursuits and distractions.
But for
Christians we need those moments every day where we remember that our first
loyalty, our first pursuit, are not the things and riches and pleasures of this
world, but God, heaven.
And Jesus
explains what exactly discipleship means, in the Gospel this weekend.
But Jesus, turns to this large crowd and offers one of the most
challenging teachings in the Gospel.
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
What’s he saying here? No
pursuit, no object, no relationship is to be more important than following
Jesus faithfully. Our deepest identity
is Christian, our deepest loyalty is to Christ.
If we are ever caught in a dilemma, caught between what Jesus expects of
us and what the world wants from us, we must choose Christ.
A very powerful story from the life of the saints is that of St. Francis
of Assisi. Francis was the son of a rich
merchant and after a deep conversion desires to hand everything over to the
Lord. So he starts giving his
possessions away to the poor. Francis’
father demanded that he stop. But the
words of today’s Gospel resonated in Francis’ heart, “anyone of you who does
not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple”. Dragged into the town square before the whole
town and even the bishop, he renounced his inheritance, he even gave up the
clothes he was wearing, and walked naked out of the town.
St. Thomas Aquinas had a similar story.
His parents had big plans for him, but Thomas wanted to join the
Dominican order to preach and teach the Gospel.
His parents literally locked him in a tower for a year, even paying
beautiful women to visit him, to coax him to get married. But he resisted, even what his parents wanted
for him, the expectations of his parents, knowing that he had a deeper call to
follow the Lord in a unique way. And he
did, he joined the Dominicans and became the greatest theologian in history and
a saint.
And all of those worldly things: toys, relationships, associations must
be hated to the extend that they hinder us from being faithful to Jesus. Not even family can be our ultimate concern. Spouse and children are to be cherished, but
not more than being faithful to God.
In this day and age, a great danger can be for parents to make their
children so central to their own happiness that their relationship becomes
disordered. It’s disordered for parents to
try to relive their own childhood or find meaning by living vicariously through
their children, and also for parents to let the kids run the show, giving in to
any and all of their children’s requests because they want to appear as “the
cool parent” or “fun parent”. Parents do
well in instilling modesty and self-discipline.
Family is to be cherished, but again, not more than being faithful to
God. Yet, here’s the good news: when we
are faithful, when we follow the commandments and the teachings of the Church, then,
as faithful disciples, we become the people God made me to be. We become the loving, charitable, generous,
joyful people God made us to be.
C.S. Lewis, great Christian apologist said, “You cannot love your fellow
man fully until you love
God…When I have learned to love God better than I love my wife,
then I will love my wife as God does.”
Our love for one another, can only be as strong as our love and
faithfulness to God.
We do well, as St. Augustine said, to love God first and everything
else, only for the sake of God.
Everything we do in life must be done to glorify God. Jesus himself taught us, “Seek first the
kingdom of God”. And he’s not just
speaking generally. Every day, in every
choice, seek to glorify God. It’s
impossible to do, if all we have is busy-ness and distraction, so every day we
need quiet time for serious prayer, reflection, scripture study.
The remedy for so many of our ills, so much of our anxiety, so much of
our dis-ease, can be found, as Kierkegaard said, in the silence where we can
encounter the Lord in prayer, and seek his will, and fall in love with Him
above all else. How much of the violence
and anger and tension in the world would dissipate if we put down the
cell-phones, turned off the internet, and television, and video games for an
extra half-hour every day, and read the bible, prayed the rosary, reflected on
our life in light of scripture and the teaching of the Church.
The cost of discipleship is our whole life, our whole self. May the Holy Spirit assist us in being rid of
all that keeps us from giving our whole self to God and encourage us in many
good works this week for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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