STAY THE COURSE

I was talking to a young family who is going through a rough time. In part they are preparing to let go of their son, who will be joining the U.S. Navy next summer after his senior year. The young man’s parents are struggling to let their little boy go. The recruiter did his best to reassure the young man’s parents that their son would be safe aboard a ship that was out to sea and not on the front lines of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Yet the couple needed more reassurances that their little boy would be safe. They asked the recruiter what kind of training the ship drivers get. After all they seem to be running into each other quite often. 

Saint Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man, who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a practical model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure. Alphonsus is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.

It isn’t easy being a parent, worrying not only about our own stuff and the welfare of our children, or a founder of a religious community, dealing with the quirks of adults and the surrounding community that may not understand the charisms, or a prophet of God. Jeremiah is lamenting in the first reading. He, who has witnessed the destruction of the temple and as he continues to look around sees so much death and poverty of the Nation of Israel. He pleads his case to God, do you loath your people? I have consumed your words and been faithful, and yet, everyone seems to be against me!

I believe when we find ourselves in a bad or hopeless situation, whether it’s a child moving out, we are deceived by friends, or our community disagrees with our moral code. We can tend to get lost in the misery, we start looking backward to reminisce of the good ole days and fret over the future. We question whether our faith is in vain or worth the struggle.

God’s response to Jeremiah, and us, is stay the course, “I will free you from the hand of the wicked and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.” (Jer 15:21) Sometimes we think of God’s mercy in the limited terms of forgiving our past sins and failures. Yet, God promises his mercy surrounds us always, to include in the future. Are we not invited to experience this mercy and grace each time we share “the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16)

Take, eat and drink, unite yourselves to the one who endured the cross for love of us. We are to become what we eat and drink, freed from past sins and strengthened to endure our daily & future crosses, to live in the assurance, God is always behind, before and beside us.