16th Sunday Ordinary Time, B
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s Gospel tells of a time when Jesus planned a holiday for himself and his disciples. They all need it. Their lives had been consumed with their work, the more people they helped the more their fame spread, and the more people there wanted and needed help. No one can endure that kind of pressure for very long; so, Jesus decided that all of them needed to get away and rest for a day or two.
The details are not given, but we know they decided to go to the other shore where there would be nothing but wide–open spaces, good food, good friends, and plenty of time to think and talk.
That was how they had it all planned, but that is not how it turned out. As they drew near to land, they began to see what looked like a moving crowd of people. At first, they could not believe it; but when they got closer, there was no mistaking those familiar sounds. It was the same crowd noise that they had left behind on the other shore. The people had followed them on foot, traveling around the northern shore of the lake. Their cherished plans were not to be. Their expected solitude was buried in a wave of needy people reaching out for help.
On some level, that same experience comes to us all. We plan one thing and end up doing another. Life, for some reason, seems to take delight in disrupting our cherished plans. Sometimes it is something simple, at other times it is something far more serious. You made plans for a secure financial future, but the one thing you did not count on was losing your
job. You had plans for a happy marriage and a good home, but your spouse had other plans and walked out. All your life, you had planned for your son’s college education; but when that time came, he chose instead to go to work. For yourself, you had planned a long and active life; but the medical diagnosis tells you that such is not to be.
These are the realities of life. Oftentimes, there is no escaping them; and our only option lies in the realm of response. The question is: how do we react when our plans do not work out?
Jesus could easily have resented the presence of that crowd and their interruption in his privacy. After all, this development was the exact opposite of what he had in mind. He and his disciples had made a conscious choice and a deliberate effort to escape from people for a brief period of rest. But the same people whom they left on one shore awaited their arrival on the other. The planning and effort were all to no avail.
Confront you or me with the same situation, and there is a good chance we would respond with resentment. In our mind, if not on our lips, are the often-repeated questions: why me, Lord? What did I ever do to deserve this?
That kind of response completely overlooks the fact that in this world disappointment and disruption go with the territory. Not even Jesus got to live his life based on his first choice. He wanted things that he never got, and he got things that he never wanted. Surely no one believes he wanted the cross. Like any healthy-minded young man, he wanted life. He wanted acceptance; he wanted to be heard and understood. But what he wanted
and what he got were different things. There is no way to do an objective study of the life of Jesus without concluding that many of his plans did not work out.
Is it, therefore, reasonable for you and me to expect that ours always will? Have we the right to become resentful when it rains on our parade? Not unless we consider ourselves to be somehow superior to all the rest of humanity. In this life, we had better learn to expect the unexpected. We want one thing; we get another. That is part of living and one of the most foolish things we can do is to waste our time resenting and resisting the universal reality. Jesus could have done that, but he did not.
Another thing he could have done when his plans did not work out, was to grit his teeth and go out to meet that crowd, determined that he would somehow make it through the day. And such an attitude would not have been all bad; it would certainly have been far better than resentment.
I heard about the prayer and study group in which the members were reciting their favorite verses from the bible. One mentioned, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.” Another mentioned, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Finally, one woman said her favorite verse is “Grin and bear it.” Well, that woman did not know very much the Bible; but she did know a little bit about life. To every one of us, there come those times when everything depends upon our ability to go on, our willingness to hang on and keep going when we are tempted to
give up. But surely there must be a better option than to grit our teeth and ride it out.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus shows us what that better way is. When his plans did not work out, he did not become resentful, and he did simply endure the disappointment. He used it. He turned adversity to advantage and put it to work. Under his influence, that seashore became a classroom. You can trace that same spirit throughout the ministry of Jesus. When they nailed him to the cross, he not only endured it but also employed it. He took that ugly instrument of death and made it the most powerful influence for good that the world has ever known.
The same spirit carried over to his disciples. When Saint Paul became a prisoner in Rome, he not only endured it but employed that experience. Out of this time of imprisonment came some of his finest writings, including his tremendous letter to the Philippians.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We all have the same three options. We can become bitter and resentful. We can accept and endure, or we can take this disappointment, whatever it is, and use it to accomplish something good in ourselves and our world. We cannot always decide what life does to us, but we can decide how we respond to life. May God give to each of us the faith and courage to make the right choice. Amen.
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