At the end of the school year

It seems that life is filled with moments of accomplishment and and equal number of new beginnings.  Here is the text of the reflection I offered to the people who gathered to pray earlier today.  It's based on the scripture texts proper for the thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Set your face

There’s great excitement in the air.  Children have just completed their academic year, and are beginning their summer holidays; graduates from Kindergarten to Grade 12 have closed the book on one chapter of their lives, and are eagerly ready now to turn the page and begin the next exciting adventure.  There’s great excitement in the air because there are new beginnings beckoning.

As these new horizons dawn, the scripture passages provided for today’s encounter provide us with two words of advice: make up your mind, and then once that decision is made, keep focused.

At pivotal moments in life, there are decisions to be made.  It’s wise to consider all the options before you make up your mind, but it’s often necessary to weed out some of the choices, and even then, we have to choose one option.  Saint Luke tells us that when Jesus knew that his time was running out, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.  Not all the decisions we have to make are easy ones; in fact, some of them are very difficult because the choice to follow one path means that we must close the door to other possibilities, and sometimes the alternatives are just as enticing, but if the goal is worth the effort, no amount of effort is too much.  Jesus knew that he had to go to Jerusalem, and he knew that in Jerusalem, he would be put to the test, but he also knew that this was what he had to do.  He had done his homework, he had asked the questions, he had pondered the alternatives, he had prayed about it.  This was the task to which he was being called, so he made up his mind, and turned the page.

When we have difficult decisions to make, do we do our homework?  Do we consider all the options?  Do we kneel in prayer and ask for guidance?  Do we wait for God to answer?  God doesn’t always answer the way we would like him to, but God always answers in the way that is best for us.  At times, the answer challenges us, and challenges can be scary, but God only gives us challenges that will help us to grow, so it’s important that once we’ve made up our minds, we need to keep focused.

The disciples who accompanied Jesus as he made his way to Jerusalem were also students; they were being trained in the art of discernment.  Jesus sent them as messengers ahead of him on the way.  Their task was to prepare the way.  The task of the disciple is always to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, but blazing a trail is often the most challenging of tasks.  Some of the terrain is fertile and relatively easy, but sometimes there are more difficult landscapes, more demanding challenges, and the disciple can easily be discouraged, but even when the messengers are not well received, we must remember that God is the one who has called us and who guides us: our efforts must always be focused on him; we must never forget to kneel in prayer in order to discern the choices we must make.

Distractions come in many shapes and sizes.  Sometimes, we truly do want to follow, but we need to first consider all the options because every choice comes with certain facets that we can see, and others that we can’t, and once the choice is made, we cannot turn back.  Can we choose to follow in the footsteps of a man who openly tells us that the life to which he invites us will not always be easy?  Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

There will always be a part of the human heart that might wonder: if I had chosen another path, would things have been easier, would I have had more privileges, would I have been happier?  There are always other options: let me first say farewell to those at my home, but once we have set our faces toward Jerusalem, we must remain focused on following Jesus because only he can adequately answer the needs of the human heart, all other temptations will eventually prove to be inadequate, so set your focus on Jesus.  Leave the dead to bury the dead, and be courageous in telling others the good news of Christ’s gospel.