Given the recent state of my game, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the presence of the critter that scampered across our fairway a few weeks back.
Its white-and-black pelt was impressive – striking, even. Noble and bold in the summer sunlight.
Hey, Little Buddy: Are you trying to tell us something about our ball-striking today?
But none of that natural beauty enticed us to approach the animal for a closer look. Just the opposite, in fact. We cut the skunk a wide berth – even as we noted, ruefully, how it had picked the correct foursome to follow: as golfers, we all pretty much stunk that day.
It’s an odd calling to be a skunk, one would have to say. Imagine arising each day, already clothed in formal attire. Dressed to the nines. The gala awaits. Yet nobody wants to come anywhere near you. The mere prospect of an odiferous aura means your dance-card will likely remain blank all evening long.
It’s certainly not a vocation to which I’d aspire. A skunk is sorta like the Jeremiah of forest critters: “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce, let us denounce him!’” On the other hand, I’m struck by how Jesus tells us to expect just such a reception from the world around us.
There’s a price to be paid for living an authentically Christian life. We know that going in, just like a skunk does when it greets each new day. We are likely to be shunned, cancelled, shouted down, denounced. Frankly, it’s a frightening prospect…and fear is a reasonable reaction.
When we notice the fear creeping in, that’s when we are being called to communion, it seems to me. It’s when we need and want to cling to Christ. The world tells us one thing. Jesus tells us another:
Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
It’s important to recognize, I think, how often our egos get in the way of living such a life. Here’s the truth: our beauty accrues not from external factors apparent to the world, but mostly from hidden things – among them, the blessed assurance that in God’s eyes, “[we] are worth more than many sparrows”…and that (as Jeremiah discovered), “the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion!”
Where do we look, to find our strength?
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 