RETREAT IN LENT 2021
Day 15,
Wednesday, 3 March
You do
not know what you are asking
Have you
ever had the experience of doing something against the advice and wishes of all
those closest to you? They do not understand what you are doing and maybe think
you are a little crazy. Jesus had that experience with his disciples. Mathew
tells us in one place (chap 16) that Peter objected strongly to what Jesus
planned to do and in today’s reading (Matthew 20:17-28) even the mother
of two of his friends completely missed the point.
The prophets
of former times had the same experience. It was a lonely calling and we
sympathise with Jeremiah’s (18:18-20) anguish: ‘They are digging a pit
for me’. In the following chapter (19) we get a glimpse of where Jeremiah finds
the courage to go on despite all the opposition: ‘You have seduced me, Yahweh,
and I have let myself be seduced.’ At times he wants to run away from God but
then, ‘there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.’
In the midst of all the hostility he feels, he knows, deep down, that God is
calling him to be faithful, to persevere in his task.
During World
War II, an Austrian farmer, Franz Jägerstätter, refused to serve in Hitler’s army. His family,
his neighbours, his local priest, even his bishop told him his duty was to
serve. A film has been made of his inner battle, A Hidden Life, and it
shows his long agony ending in his execution by Hitler’s government. Today he is a hero in Austria and Germany and
is on the way to canonisation. But is his lifetime he was misunderstood,
insulted and persecuted.
Where do
these reflections come into my life? One of the big questions must be: do I
follow what is deepest within me? Or am I afraid of what others will think?
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