HELPING OTHERS ISN’T EASY!
Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
The scribe in our gospel seems to have been carried away by the feelings of the moment and said to Jesus, “Teacher, wherever you go I will come after you.” But Jesus popped his bubble, “The foxes have lairs, the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” We are not told whether the scribe changed his mind at that thought or not. It is easy to get enthused about great works, another thing to get personally involved in them.
Many people these days are interested in many admirable causes. The rights of the unborn, the homeless, the starving, the abused, the environment, the health and the protection of people all over the world invite us to pitch in and give of ourselves. And we might, but for how long, and how much? We might get enthused, but like the scribe not realize what it is we are really getting ourselves into.
Helping others, really helping others requires much more time and attention than our hobbies and diversions of golf, bridge, bird watching, and window shopping. The person who wants to follow in the footsteps of Christ will find the going very rough at times - often frustrating and discouraging.
“Teacher, wherever you go I will come after you.” “The foxes have lairs, the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Ease and comfort and convenience were not important to Jesus. Nor can it be important to anyone who really wants to join him in his work. Did that scribe realize what he was getting into? Do we?
