Readings: Deuteronomy 30.15-20 / Psalm 1 / 1 Corinthians 10.31-11.1 / Matthew 8.18-27
“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.”
This is a line from the film, The Hobitt. Gandalf speaks this line when he raises the possibility of an adventure with Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo rejects his invitation because adventures, he says, are nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things. Yet, Gandalf’s call does lead Bilbo on an adventure, which as Gandalf promises is very good for him.
I found myself coming back again and again to this line as I prepared for this homily in which I wish to reflect on Christian life as a journey. A journey that God calls us to, leads us on and promises us will be very good for our salvation. And like all journeys it can be the adventure of our lifetime.
We envision this metaphor of adventure in various ways to describe the Christian journey. Sometimes, it is a rugged track in the forest of life. At other times, it is the bridge over troubled waters or that necessary meandering in the desert of life we have to make. Then, there are times when it is the restful path through a lovely, landscaped park that life can also be.
However we image this adventure of Christian life, I believe what you and I especially hope for is that it will lead us from darkness into light, from pain into healing, from disturbance into peace. Our first reading recognizes this hope when it offers us the choice of life and prosperity over that of death and doom. But we have to make a choice to realize this hope.
“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.” Haven’t we heard Jesus say this too when he called his first disciples to follow him? Perhaps, this statement Jesus makes is more than a request for a companion. What if this statement expresses his deepest desire to call all he encounters into the gift of choosing life to the full? This gift that is the reality of what following him is truly about.
Matthew’s narrative of Jesus instructing potential followers that we hear today is often interpreted as a lesson in Discipleship 101.
Here, Jesus teaches about the cost of discipleship. It demands sacrifice because discipleship is hard work. It involves discomfort and uncertainty because following Jesus is following his way of utterly trusting in God’s providence. Indeed, discipleship asks of disciples nothing less than to let go and let God lead, as Jesus did.
Here, Jesus also teaches about how to respond to his call to discipleship. The disciple should respond promptly, without delay. She should do this confidently because God will care for those she leaves behind. He should fix to his gaze only on Jesus who leads as God leads him, and no other.
The cost of discipleship and the response to become a disciple. These two lessons have to do with following Jesus. But I’d like to suggest that they teach something more: they show us the way to choose life and prosperity in God through Jesus, who calls us into discipleship in order to save us from death and doom.
Aren’t we living out these lessons now? Aren’t we responding to Jesus’ call as best as we can? Aren’t we continuing to accept the cost of being his disciple with our sacrifices? Aren’t we remaining faithful to his promise of living in God’s life and love, even as we struggle to live Christian lives? I believe we do these because we have chosen to live and to prosper.
What evidence do we have to make this claim? Simply these: that you and I come faithfully to Mass every Sunday; that you and I continue to seek reconciliation and peace with God and with one another; that you and I do share our time, our gifts, our riches (no matter how much or how little) to make God’s reign real in our midst.
These speak of being in communion with God and each other. And this communion helps us answer the question, “Where are you, God?” We each ask this question daily in the adventure of our own Christian lives. We especially ask it when we are in pain, confusion and despair. In these darkest moments, haven’t we cried out, like the disciples on the boat swamped by the waves in our gospel passage, “Lord save us!”?
And when God answered our cry, weren’t we surprised to discover God’s nearness? God who is always in our midst, with us and for us. We are reminded again of this astonishing truth when Jesus calms the storm that ends our gospel passage. Can you recall a time or two when God was with you, saving you?
“Where are you God?” “I am with you always till the end of time” Jesus assures us as he ascended into heaven. Jesus himself is our assurance of knowing that we will always find God with us and for us, now and always. This because it is through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus that we experience the nearness of God’s saving love.
The challenge we have is to remind ourselves of God’s presence in our daily life. The Ignatian phrase “Finding God in all things” can help us do this. In our parish, we have heard this repeatedly as a reminder that God is with us. We have been taught how to find God in the difficult and the comfortable, in the discord and the peaceful, in the sad and the happy. And, as a parish, we have been trying to live the invitation to find God in all things, especially, in the poor and marginalized by caring for them.
But we would limit our Christian life, individually and as a parish, if we fixate our Christian adventure on only finding God in all things. Because we will always find God in all the different faces, phases and phrases in our lives, St Ignatius would ask more of us so that we can better mature as Christians.
Why? Because Ignatius recognized that we cannot measure our spiritual progress simply by being able to find God. Rather, the right measure of our spiritual growth, he would advise, lies in how open you and I are prepared to be to let God lead us onward once we have found God.
“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.” Ignatius heard Jesus’ call, and he lived his faith as a journeying Christian. However, hardly anything Ignatius did on his journey turned out the way he wanted it to be. He tried living a life of penance and austerity; God did not want that for him. He went to the Holy Land to live like Jesus; God sent him home. He thought he would become a lay evangelizer; God, through the church, stopped him. In his time, he wanted the Jesuits to be free of attachments and to be on mission anywhere; God thought better and Jesuits began schools everywhere.
With all these false starts, why should we pay attention to Ignatius and his life’s journey? Because, “Ignatius saw that the journey is the thing; this is what mattered most. Ignatius called himself ‘the pilgrim.’ He travelled a long way, and at every step he was alert to the still small voice of God pointing him to what’s next in his life” (Jim Manney).
Today, you and I are being invited to hear Jesus’ voice. He says, “I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.” Jesus is saying this not from some faraway place but beside us because he has already come into our midst.
“Where are you, Lord” cannot be the only question to ask. Wouldn’t it be be much better then for us, as a parish named after Ignatius, to do the right thing and to prayerfully ask Jesus, “Lord, what’s next that you wish to do for me, for us, for our parish?”
(inspired in parts by Jim Manney's writings)
Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore.
photo: ignatiancamino.com
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