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Before I Forget…
· "What are you looking for?" ~Jesus
While I was staying with the Christian Brothers in Australia, Brother James tried to explain the game of cricket to me. I never quite understood it. It's all this stuff about being at square leg, at gully, silly point and mid-off. Esoteric terminology like yorkers and googlies, French cuts and leg spin all tended to leave me totally confused. The game of cricket, like the church, seems to have a language all of it's own. Talking about googlies and yorkers is much the same as talking about liturgies, Eucharists, and the catechumenate. You need to be on the inside track to decipher the codified language. Brother Thomas told me, "The English, not being spiritual people, invented cricket to give themselves some concept of eternity."
Fr. Ed Hays, in this book St. George and the Dragon and the Quest for the Holy Grail tells the story of George who is a typical middle-class guy. He wakes one morning and senses within himself that he must set out on a quest, a search for meaning. His wife is outraged that she has to stay at home to look after the kids and pay the bills. His boss thinks George is suffering from burn-out and needs some therapy. Friends and neighbors all put it down as a mid-life crisis. But George, not knowing exactly where he is going, sets out. That night he runs head on into a dragon. "Hello stranger, you look lost. Can I be of assistance?" asks the dragon. George tells the dragon that he has set out on a quest, and confesses that like those on a quest, he too feels lost.
"What are you looking for?" asks the dragon.
"I'm not sure," is the answer.
Like George, there are times in our lives when we may feel that there has to be more to life; our hearts are restless and life has to be more than getting up in the morning to go through our daily routines. It's not looking for what we want. It's a search to find what gives us meaning. Like George, we think the answer is "out there." We don't look within ourselves or to the people who are presently part of our lives.
Jesus says to the disciples of John the Baptist, "What are you looking for?" Don't you feel that he is always asking us the same question? What eventually gives way to "who are you looking for?" It invites us to consider, in whom do you entrust your very life?
There were people who looked for ways to destroy Jesus. There were those who were looking for their own glory. There were those who were seeking to feather their own nests and benefit from Jesus' work. But there were those who were looking for meaning and truth. A Samaritan woman he meets at the well in the heat of the day. Nicodemus, with whom Jesus enters into a theological debate. Mary Magdalene, the first witness to the resurrection who mistakes him for the gardener. More than that, in the gospel of John we are told that those who seek do find! People have moments of revelation in the very "stuff" of their daily routines.
We keep inviting our children, teenagers, and young adults to explore the great treasure of a Christian life, to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Many do not know what they are looking for. And yet, they sense that their search for meaning and identity is somehow caught up in their search for God. They sense that there is an invitation to 'come and see'. As we encourage our young people in Christian discipleship, they may begin to discover who they are and who they are to become, who they are called to serve and to whom they are to entrust their lives. And like George, they won't walk the journey alone, but will choose a companion to walk with them.
I enjoyed the Aussies game of cricket, but I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking for. There was a temptation to give up and say I'll never understand what an "orthodox drive through cover" means. The language and rules were confusing, and it seemed that the rules could change in every game. There are lots of confusing things in our lives, even the simple games we play.
Think about it. What are you looking for? Who are looking for? Don't let all the rules and language we use in church scare you or your children. The Christian journey is all about an invitation from Jesus (to live his gospel) to come and see.
What are you looking for in life? We believe that Jesus is the Answer, the Way, the Truth, the Life we desperately seek.
Father Bill
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