Sunday, July 19, 2009AD
16th Sunday in Greentime
To Rest a While, but….
Jesus was not a work-aholic like St Paul, as St Mark recounts the Gospel today. Jesus urged His followers to come apart and rest awhile. “Everyone needs a break sometimes”, as the song goes. There was an urgency to proclaim the need to snap out of the dream (of the System) and get back to basics, but don’t burn out your batteries.
A catchword-phrase here at St Patrick’s
for many years has been “God comes first.” We accent that usually in the springtime, with the phrase, “even on summer Sundays.” Recalling the given in childhood psychology, “values are caught, not taught.” What is important to parents become quite apparent to children early on. We augment our annual catchphrase, “God comes first, even on summer Sundays” with the words from the liturgy of baptism for the blessing of the Dad, “(The Dad) and his wife will be the first teachers of the child in the ways of faith and hope. Let them be the best of teachers, bearing witness to their faith and hope by what they say and do in Christ Jesus.” Do we always see that borne by cultural patterns in our immediate world today?
Recently, a memorial Mass was offered here on a Sunday morning for a 14 years old boy who died in 1977 of leukemia. His family gather yearly to commemorate His going home to God at such a young age. His parents commented on the absence of many younger families here at Mass that Sunday. Someone said in response, “They are all away this summer.” Maybe!
The Hindu tradition speaks of 4 distinct stages in human living. 1) First all humans experience roots and wings, viz., childhood and education and nurturing by family. 2) Next comes early adulthood when the challenge to young adults is to “build your tower, make your mark and take the world by storm. However, as Catholics, we do the best we can to follow the Gospel of Jesus in the process. As Pope John Paul said many times, “there are no moral freezones for ethical behavior.” The third stage is the walk in the woods, when we realize that life is more than building a tower. It is the realization that there is something more. We usually associate the “walk in the woods” with a crisis within one’s family, one’s world or one’s self. We ask ourselves the question poignantly put by singer, Miss Peggy Lee, many, many years ago, “Is that all there is to life?” What does life all mean? 4) We hopefully will enter the fourth stage, the (w)holistic fool, when we learn that authentic human living involves learning how to bear the pains of life (which will come), to make leaps of faith and ultimately, to surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery that is constantly staring us in the face and yet, we are usually moving too frantically to think about.
Our culture experiences these stages as a group. Most sociologists would say that our American culture is still in early adulthood. (Compare Chinese or Japanese or Hindu or most European cultures.) Is this not reflected in the fact that much American culture worships youth and avoids the idea of getting old? As a result, the goal of American culture is the goal of early adulthood for individuals, viz., build your tower, make your mark and take the world by storm. As Mel Brooks said many years ago, “It’s good to be the king.”
Still, individuals, one and all, someday have to take the walk through the woods. We experience the painful mysteries of life, the sorrows, the tragedies, the failures, the accidents, the reversals, the disappointments of life over which we have no control. We are driven to fix, to understand and to control our reality and that it is all right if you follow Jesus’ guidelines. Eventually, you can’t then. When you emerge from your walk in the woods, as a result, you end up either pathetic, angry or wise.
Jesus and His Movement want you to end up a wise human. He wants you to learn that no matter what happens, good or not so good, the Paschal Mystery of ascent, descent and transformation is always in process in your life and in the very life of the universe. We can plug into the reality of the Paschal Mystery in all stages of life in Christ Jesus. This is not a luxury item for anybody!!
It is one thing for young adult Catholics to plug into connection with the Paschal Mystery when they want. They might feel that they do not need the encouragement of Catholic community and Word and Sacrament all the time, only when desirable. (For many, religion becomes a luxury item, something one uses when one feels.)
However, values are caught, not taught. What happens with the youngsters influenced by their parents’ preferences? Do children get the idea that religion is something we do on a Sunday “when we don’t have something important to do” (quoting a confirmation candidate here in a petition letter to the parish a few years ago? Are some children deprived of an authentic human inculturation process inadvertently by parent’s downplaying the importance of an ongoing Catholic connection on the Lord’s Day throughout the year?
Our visitor last weekend whose son died of leukemia when he was fourteen noticed the dearth of young families (at the 10.30 Mass!!) She said that she wanted to think that in the fourteen years that God had given them their son, she hoped that they had introduced him to the fact that God is with us on days good and not so good as well, on the joyful, sorrowful and glorious days of life. What about the children today and their parents?
In baptism and confirmation, we become disciples (students) and apostles (ambassadors) for Jesus. During the remaining days of the summer, bring up the subject of God’s coming first, even on a summer Sunday, when you meet up with relatives, friends and neighbors, no matter where.
Jesus was not a work-aholic and does not want His followers to be fanatics. We all need to rest a while. However, the Third Commandment (Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day) stresses that God comes first, even, and most especially, on a summer Sunday. Little children need to be reminded by word and example. 071909AD jfq
