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Greetings, SBT Readers:
The solicitations never stop. Despite my many moves over the last few years, it seems that every not-for-profit to which I ever donated has tracked me down, and is requesting "more." The current strategy, it seems, is to warn me that my "membership" is about to expire, though I never knew that UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Chicago Food Depository, The World Wildlife Fund and more require a membership for the occasional donation. Like government agencies, charitable organizations, of course, are stretched to the limit while the needs of the world are growing exponentially. Everywhere we look, there is some extreme human or planetary need. Take for example, the migrant crisis in Chicago and other cities, where there are too few resources to help those who have been bussed from Texas into deadly winter conditions. Or take the unspeakable horrors of war and the suffering of those living in war zones. The magnitude of the world's agony is incomprehensible!
Even if we donate what we can and help out in other ways, our contributions are miniscule given the needs of the present and the demands of future sustainability. However, we are missing the point if we focus on finite resources; rather, as Christian disciples, we have infinite resources to offer -- prayer, love, compassion. Moreover, Pope Francis suggests a different way of looking at "the poor ones":
The poor, always and everywhere, evangelize us, because they enable us to discover in new ways the true face of the Father. “They have much to teach us. Besides participating in the sensus fidei, they know the suffering Christ through their own sufferings. It is necessary that we all let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to recognize the salvific power of their lives and to place them at the centre of the Church’s journey. We are called to discover Christ in them, to lend them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them. Our commitment does not consist exclusively of activities or programmes of promotion and assistance; what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism, but above all an attentiveness that considers the other in a certain sense as one with ourselves. This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198-199).
Many Blessings!
Elizabeth
SUNDAY REFLECTION
Link to Readings
As Jesus passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them,
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
Walking along a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.
Mk 1:14-20
The Call of the First Disciples in Mark's gospel is so very different than the version we read in The Gospel of John last Sunday. In Mark's account, John the Baptist has been arrested, and his disciples have most likely returned to their former way of life; for his part, Jesus has begun to proclaim the Good News, continuing the Baptist's call to repentance. And then he encounters Andrew, Simon, James and John...
All it takes is a few words and the fishermen drop everything and follow Jesus. His words awaken some yearning that demands to be honored, for their response is immediate. Nothing deters them. The world of fish, fishing boats and fishing nets no longer satisfies them; nor are family responsibilities enough to hold them back. Assuming that the fishermen are married, it doesn't seem as though they stop to discuss their plans with their wives, or that they even say "goodbye" to their loved ones. Zebedee, in fact, is left to run his fishing business with the help of hired men, while his sons, James and John, pursue a different kind of fishing...
In all the gospel accounts, The Call of the Disciples follows the first step in The Hero's Journey, that mythical pattern we find repeated in the world's ancient stories, as well as in film, literature and the lives of those who have made great contributions to the common good; it is also a pattern many of us can see reflected in our own lives, if we examine the moments when we, too, were called. The starting point, paradoxically, is a often a sense of discontentment, a feeling of boredom and lack of fulfilment, the conviction that there must be more to life-- or that we could be contributing more. For some, this manifests as restlessness, the compulsion to achieve more, possess more, be on top of one's "game." For others, there may be the vague sense that something is missing, a gnawing feeling of general unhappiness...
For Andrew, Simon, James and John, the "thrill of fishing" must have faded. Day after day, they would be up at dawn to sort through their catch from the night before and to prepare the fish for market; then, at nightfall, they would be out with their boats once again, casting their nets into deep water, hoping for a catch. In between fishing and sorting, they would be mending their nets. It was the same every day, just as it had been for their fathers and grandfathers before them. No doubt they earned a good living or Zebedee would not have afforded hired hands -- and, no doubt, it was a way of life they expected their own sons to follow. But if they were content, they would not have left everything immediately.
On The Hero's Journey, "something" greater than ourselves calls us out of the familiar into unknown territory. Whether we leave our comfort zones for the sake of a new career, or to follow a personal dream, or to serve others, we --like the first disciples-- know that we cannot "stay home" without jeopardizing our happiness. And so it is when we hear God's call in our lives: At first we may feel a gentle urging, then a stronger pull, and then a driving force that is so powerful that we know beyond any doubt that this is what we MUST do. Of course, we can always say "No!" but to do so would be to live small shriveled lives when God is inviting us to soar to the highest heights -- typically, not to become wealthy, powerful or famous, but to grow spiritually, to become agents of change, to transform the world. Naysayers may try to stop us, suggesting that we are delusional fools or that terrifying dangers lie ahead; however, when the Holy One calls us, then we know we have everything we need for the journey -- the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14).
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