Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

The Foolish and the Wise

“Once upon a time, ten young women were invited to greet a bridegroom with lighted torches and songs, so they got their torches and oil and began to wait.” If that story sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve heard it as the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

The parable makes the point that we don’t know when Jesus the Bridegroom will come, so we have to make sure we are prepared for his arrival to take longer than we thought. The foolish women knew when the bridegroom was scheduled to arrive and thought that was enough. But the wise ones knew that schedules don’t always hold, so they were ready to wait and brought enough oil for their torches so that they wouldn’t run out.

Don’t a lot of us set up God’s schedule for him when it comes to our desires? I do, anyway. I tell God not only what I want but when I want it. And when things don’t happen when I want them and God doesn’t act according to my timetable, I get impatient and upset. Does that sound like you, too?

The fact is, God and his grace will come when it’s the right time, and the right time is whenever God decides. Of course we’re told to pray with expectant faith, but waiting for God and his grace isn’t like taking clothes to the dry cleaners. There’s no sign saying, One day service. Jesus’ story reminds us to be patient and be prepared to wait. It’s the wise thing to do.

Influence and Power

Influence and power — the two aren’t the same. Some very influential people weren’t powerful. Think of Einstein or Mother Theresa. Conversely, some very powerful people didn’t have a very deep or lasting influence. Think of the politicians (presidents and monarchs, even) who left only faint marks on history.

Jesus never claimed power for himself but called himself a servant instead. And he said that he wanted his followers to act like servants, not rulers. Remember the scene at the Last Supper. There Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and told them that he’d given them an example of how they should be.

On the other hand, he certainly believed that his own teachings and actions would be very influential, as would those of his followers. He told them, in fact, to think of themselves as the light of the world and salt of the earth. He let them know that through their efforts and God’s help the world could become more like the Kingdom of God.

As you think about it, would you rather be powerful or influential? Furthermore, some people say that institutions often lean towards power rather than service or influence. Do you agree?

WLGTDWI

Tina Turner sang the question years ago: What’s Love Got to Do with It? When it came to religion, Jesus’ answer was, Everything! He once told a questioner that love (love of God and love of neighbor) was the most important commandment in the Jewish law and that everything else made sense only in light of this two-fold love.

If love is so important, and if Jesus said that he wanted his followers to be known above all as people who knew how to love, then we owe a big debt of gratitude to those who’ve taught us how to love God and others — and, maybe just as importantly, how to receive love.

We celebrate Thanksgiving next month. Perhaps we can take some time to think about those people who taught us about love or share a memory about how they did it.

You’re most welcome to share in the comments section something about learning to love or about how you, especially if you work with young people, try to teach them to love.

Shared Images

Jesus said that since human beings bear God’s image and likeness, they belong to God. It’s wonderful for us to know that we bear the divine image, for it tells us that we are in a special relationship with God. But if you think about it for a moment, doesn’t God himself bear our image and likeness ever since the Word of God became human in Jesus?

To believe this means the human and divine can’t be pulled apart. Because of God’s gracious creating us in his image and then God’s taking our image onto himself, divinity will always be part of who we are and humanity will always be part of who God is.

If all this is true, then how does that affect how you treat someone who physically abuses his or her spouse?
Any thoughts about this?

Divided Kingdoms, Divided Selves

Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. But aren’t we all just that — houses divided against ourselves? Plato said that our passions were like chariot horses seeking to run each in their own directions instead of pulling together. St. Paul said that people are caught in the frustrating situation of wanting to do good but doing evil instead. Yet, still, in our deepest desires, we long to be one thing, which is another way of saying we wish to live with integrity.

How can we be at peace when we are constantly at war within? And the strain of keeping our divided selves from totally collapsing is enormous and exhausting.
I wonder if that answer is that, if we want to cease being divided, we must give in to that which is stronger and better than us — to God.

The English poet John Donne expressed this in his Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

No project of self-improvement, no exercise of willpower can make us whole and undivided. Only our surrender to God can do that. It’s probably the work of a lifetime. But we won’t be acting all by ourselves as we try to put ourselves into the hands of the One whom the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins addressed as “Thou mastering-me God.”