The Urgent AND the Important

The preparations for World Youth Day '08 in Sydney now seem like a lifetime ago, though there are moments about it that I recall very clearly. One of them was the journey of the Cross and Icon that travels the world, inviting young people to become pilgrims gathered for this celebration of faith, life and communion.

The lead up was filled with meetings planning the logistics; risk assessments covering everything from where the truck carrying the cross would park to how many local police and witches hats would be needed to divert traffic, and negotiations over which of the local parish priests would lead the angelus, and where the bishop would vest for the adoration of the cross and blessed sacrament. Details that typified the old adage about the urgent crowding out the important.

As a result, when the cross arrived it didn't feel like a very prayerful experience for me. That is, until the moment a primary class stepped up to present the Gospel in front of more than a thousand students gathered from across the region. The same passage that we hear this Sunday.

In it we hear that John has been arrested and that Jesus, taking this as his cue, begins his public ministry. He heads to the sea of Galilee and calls Simon and Andrew as they are mending their nets, 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.'

It's the kind of typical Rabbinic wordplay that they would have heard before - from fishermen to fishers of men - but something about the figure of Jesus moves them in a way they haven't been moved before.

And it's here that I remember the voice of a small, but remarkably confident twelve-year-old that stood up and proclaimed in a loud voice, 'At once... they left their boats and followed Him.'

'At Once'

Among all that happened that morning, from the witches hats to white cotton gloves, traffic police to episcopal grace, these words and the urgency that they convey, struck me and have stayed with me.

They beg the question, am I prepared to answer the call of my baptism to bring the Good News to a world increasingly in need of God's healing love with the same urgency?

Comments

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Early in the final year of my teacher training at Mount Saint Mary's I fell in love. Within months I had decided that this girl was the one. By the end of that year I was off to the country as a beginning teacher, leaving her behind in Sydney to complete her own studies. For the next three years I lived alone in small flat next to the local footy oval. I involved myself in sport, community service and work, and kept myself very busy. I enjoyed it all, but without her, it was never home. In the latter part of my third year, I was applying for four or five jobs a week, longing to get back to her. After what must have been twenty-five or thirty applications a principal asked me straight out in an interview why I was so determined to come back to the city. I told him the truth, and within fifteen minutes of the interview, he offered me the job. I called my mum, and then I called Shayne. My experience of long-distance love (and telephone bills) is why the opening line of th...

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

In this Sunday's Gospel we hear the story of Mary and Martha. It is Martha, we are told, that welcomes Jesus into her house, and immediately she sets about doing exactly what is culturally expected of her. She begins to serve the Lord. We aren't given the details but we can imagine that she is preparing food, drink and welcome for Jesus. And that she would have come to wash his feet. Yet when she does, she finds that her sister Mary is there 'sat at the Lord's feet and listening to Him.' The Gospel tells us that Martha is frustrated - upset that she is doing all the work while her sister assumes the posture of a disciple. And it tells us that she directs her frustration at Jesus, not Mary. "Don't you care..." As we have come to expect, Jesus' answer challenges Martha's righteousness. Mary, she is told, has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her. The story ends abruptly, and we don't get to hear what Martha'...

Pentecost - Year C

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. The entrance antiphon proclaims that 'The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling within us.' The immediate and vivid memory this prompts in me is primary school, felt banners, guitars and children's voices belting out... ♫ God is dwelling in my Heart. He and I are one. All His joy He gives to me, through Christ His son. And with Jesus in my heart, what have I to fear. For He is the Son if God. In my Heart he is near. To this day it's a loud sense-memory, and a happy one. In the first reading this Sunday we also hear a loud sense-memory from the apostles. 'Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house.' The Gospel tells us that they were all gathered in one place 'for fear of the Jews.' It's not clear whether there is any particular threat that they are hiding from, or whether the...

Scripture Reflections Seeking Understanding

Search This Blog