FOLLOW
ME!
‘Follow me!’ You would need to be full of confidence, perhaps
like St Paul, to say that to another! I once committed myself to another’s lead
on a mountain side when we were lost. But what happens when someone you trust
lets your down? I had trust, appreciation and admiration for the first leader
of this country for twenty years (from 1974). But then, in 1995, my trust
crumbled. I felt let down.
Now it has happened again. Someone, whose compassion for
people with disabilities made him a star for thousands who followed his
example, has been found to be a weak fragile human being. I was one of those
who was deeply inspired by Jean Vanier and, like so many, became involved in
the work he began. Now it turns out that he was leading a double life:
announcing the ‘good news to the poor’ on the one hand and exploiting
vulnerable young women on the other. Jean was such an influential person that
the organisation he founded commissioned an inquiry involving experts from many
professions to study the evidence and make their judgement.
Those of us who hoped for some soothing conclusion that
would somehow diminish the impact of the revelations are not only disappointed
but now know the situation is much worse than we feared. We are prepared,
perhaps, for a political leader to dash our hopes. But it is harder when a man,
seemingly embedded in the gospel, proves to quite other than we thought. (The work he founded, l’Arche, is untainted by
his behaviour and lives by its own, often heroic, values).
What do we do when we feel let down? Get angry? Start
blaming? Become cynical? All these. But they don’t help. In the end we have to
reflect; was I transferring my ideals onto another, allowing that person to
carry the crown I am too scared to wear? Was I allowing another person to be my
hero because I had not the courage to be a hero myself? Have I hid in another’s
shadow, content to bask in their glory while evading the responsibility of
cultivating my own?
When Jesus said, ‘you are the salt of the earth, you are the
light of the world’, he was talking to each of us – not to our leaders. We are,
each of us, individuals, responsible for our own choices. These people I
mention were human beings, tainted by their own unprocessed lusts. Despite
their gifts, they could not cope. In the end they let us down. Instead of
getting angry with them for failing, can I try to embrace the struggle of being
‘salt’ and ‘light’ myself?
5 February 2023 Sunday
5A Is 57:7-10 I Cor 2:1-5 Mt 5:13-16
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