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You
have often read or heard the story in the Gospel of Our Lord’s
sufferings and death, but have we ever really taken a little
time off to think and pray about it in order to grasp the
meaning and implications of what is that He has done for us, to
understand and appreciate the challenge it puts before us. Perhaps
a little story will help us.
THE STORY OF A HEROIC MOTHER
There was once
a pregnant woman who was very ill. She
had been carrying the baby in her womb for about six months. Her
illness was becoming more serious. One
day the doctor came to her and said; “Mama, you must make a
very serious decision. Both
you and your baby cannot live. One
of you must die. If I save your life, the baby must die, and if
I save the baby’s life, you must die”.
The
woman thought and prayed, and after some time she replied to the
doctor, “Doctor, no matter about me, my baby must live.” The
doctor performed a caesarean operation and took the baby safely
from the mother’s womb. The
husband, who was present, loved his wife dearly, respected her
choice, and loved her even more on account of the generous, even
heroic decision she had made. The
mother was delighted to see her baby and, holding the baby in
her hands; she gave to her husband, saying, “Papa, this is my
last gift to you in this world. We
will all meet in heaven.”
A
few days later, as the doctor had said, the woman passed away;
full of love for her husband who had stood by her, and for the
baby for whom she had given her life.
THE DEVOTED DAUGHTER
When
the baby grew and was able to understand, the father told her
the story of her birth, and how her mother had given her life
for her. The young
girl could not restrain her tears but, being a true daughter of
her mother, she soon dried them and said to her father, “Papa,
I know I can not take mum’s place as your wife, but I must do
something to show how much I appreciate what mum did for me. I
must take her place and you must help me, Papa. You
must tell
me all the
details about mum. I
want to be like her. I
want to speak like her. I
want to speak the way she spoke and I want to tell others about
her, the wonderful thing she did for me. I
want to act like her. I
want to do the things she did and the way she did them, the way
she would do them if she were here now. And
when I grow up and get married, and God gives me children, I
will love them the way mum loved us. And
if it should happen that I have to give up my life for one of my
children, I will do it joyfully in the same way as mum did it
for me.”
THE CHALLENGE
The
first part of this little story reflects, in some way, what we
read in the Gospel about the suffering and death of Our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ. Each
one of us can say in all sincerity and truth, “Christ died for
me”. He suffered
and died for each one of us. If
He had not done so, we could never have shared in God’s
eternal life. We
would have been destined to be separated from God for all
eternity if Christ had not died to give each of us the
opportunity of salvation. Christ
died that I might live.
The second part
of the story reflects the only reasonable response to what
Christ has done for us. Christ
can no longer be seen physically in this world, but we can give
no better response, love for love, than to wish, even ardently
desire, to take his place, in so far as that is possible, to be
like Him, that He may be seen in us and through us. Our
over-riding desire in all things must be, like the little girl
in relation to her mother; to think like him, to speak like him,
to act like him and to suffer in the same spirit of love as He
suffered for me.
(Jesuits), in his universally
acclaimed little handbook called “The Spiritual Exercises”,
invites us to respond to Christ’s suffering and death while
kneeling at the foot of the cross, by asking ourselves three
questions, to which only each can give our answer personally:
What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? And
what am I going to do for Christ?
The past is
finished, requiring only thanksgiving and repentance. The
present is here, and I can only examine it, answering the second
question in all sincerity, recognising, for most of us, how far
I am from what I might have been. What
is really important and urgent now is my answer to the third
question, “What am I going to do for Christ in the future?”
This is the challenge, taken up by the little girl in
relation to her mother, put before me. What
is my response going to be?
THINK AND SPEAK LIKE CHRIST
Have I the
courage to think like Christ? Have
I the will to learn all I can about Him, from holy Scripture
(Bible), especially the Gospels, and the authoritative teaching
of the Church, in the spirit of prayer, spending a certain
amount of time each day in this activity, to see and value all
things in the way Christ sees and values them, according to
God’s “Plan of Salvation”?
Have I the
courage to speak like him? This
does not mean talking in the Aramaic language or with a Jewish
accent, as Jesus did, but speaking about the things He spoke
about, presenting ideas, facts and values as He presented them,
according to the truth as He perceived it, and directed to our
goal in life as He saw it. Have
we the courage to denounce falsehood and injustice, to give
praise where praise is due, to condemn and reprimand evil in
whatever form it might present itself, with patience and
kindness, whether other people like it or not?
ACT LIKE CHRIST
Have
I the courage to act like Christ? Is
the “Will of God” going to be the thermometer with which I
am going to measure all my decisions, choices and activities? Am
I willing to make a serious effort to keep God’s commandments,
all of them, always, without exception?
Am I ready to
accept and follow the guidance of those with whom Christ has
invested with authority in the community which He had
established, for those who profess the Catholic Faith, the Pope
as the successor of St. Peter and the Bishops, as those of the
Apostles? Am I
prepared to live out my life, my daily life, according to what I
say and believe?
Am I ready to
love the way Christ loved, in practice, even if I am not called
to lay down my life for my friends, putting aside my own petty
selfishness, willing to sacrifice my own little interests for
the good of others, especially those to whom I am obliged in a
special way -- my wife or husband, if I am married; my children,
if I have any; my people if I am a priest or religious (brother
or sister)?
Am I willing to
strive for an ever closer union with Christ; to pray, to go to
Church even when I am not strictly obliged to do so, to receive
at the appropriate time the Sacraments which Christ has given to
us as the special channels of His grace, no matter what others
think about me, say about me, or even do to me? If
I feel called to serve Him in a special way in the Church, am I
willing to leave father, mother, brothers, sisters friends, home
or country, to go wherever I am sent, totally consecrated and
dedicated to the building up of His Kingdom?
EPILOGUE
Is this not
what the parts of the Gospel read on Passion Sunday and Good
Friday say to me? Christ
died that I might live, and so calls me, as St.
Paul says, to live no longer for myself but for
Him who laid down his life for me. He
calls me to be Him in the world of today, to be another Christ,
each according to our individual vocation, in the environment
and to the people among whom I am called to live and work. I
cannot be the Saviour for there is only one Saviour, but at
least I can show my appreciation for what He has done for me,
not by opposing Him and his work by further sin, but by
co-operating with Him, as Mary did, in his work of redemption.
This was the
logical response of the little girl to the love of her mother
who had given her life for her. Is
it not the logical response which I should give to the love of
Christ who laid down his life for me when He died that I might
live?
It is also the
only way in which I can make my contribution to solving the many
problems of the confused world in which we live.
John McAuley, S.J.
St. Francis Xavier Parish
Kabwe |
