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Connections...
September 1, 2002- 22nd Sunday of the Year
15th Sunday after Pentecost
† Those who come after me must deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow me. For those who wish to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for my sake will find them. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"
Matthew 16: 21-27
The hard wind teaches…
An old violinmaker used to select the wood for his instruments from the north side of the trees because, he said, the north side was the side that the fiercest windstorms beat and beat upon the trees. The craftsman had found that wood from the north side was stronger and more resilient; such wood made an instrument that was richer in tone and timbre.
At night when the storms came and the wind blew, the trees would groan under the violent gusts. But the violinmaker would smile and say, "The trees are simply learning to be violins."
[From Daniel's Three Disciples by Jeris E. Bragan.]
CONNECTION: The trees of the wood are parables of Christ's hard-to-embrace words: that in dying to ourselves we become something greater, that in letting go of the fleeting and passing we become richer, that in the suffering we endure we become stronger, in the failures we experience we become wiser. If we are true to Jesus' call to discipleship, we will find ourselves embracing values that run counter to what society honors, taking the first lonely and difficult steps toward reconciliation and peace, putting aside our own needs and wants for what is best for family and community; we will choose to take up the cross, not out of a sense of self-loathing or pessimism, but out of a sense of conviction and hope that the demands of the cross will result in the life and love of the Easter promise.¦
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