I heard a 47-year-old fable the other day, and it filled my heart with wonder.
It was barely a footnote, the fable, to the main events of the day – a trip that three of us ‘70s-vintage St. Henry’s Prep alums made to see our old stomping grounds…and to catch up with teachers who went on to become lifelong friends.
In the course of our kibbitzing, one notable Oblate recounted his memory of having chaperoned a 100-mile float trip for the graduating class of 1976. Brave man, Fr. Paul: I well remember the hijinks that ensued when he guided me and my classmates on a much shorter float a couple of years earlier. And yet, he re-upped for chaperone duty in 1976…and even double-downed on the outing’s duration.
What motivates such a selfless act, I wondered? Indeed, I realized (as our afternoon visit unfolded) that my classmates and I had been awash in such attention and affection throughout our time at SHP: Men – who had no teenage sons of their own – still somehow found it in their hearts to dedicate their lives to shaping and forming us knuckleheads-by-the-dozen.
I was too raw and self-absorbed to understand it back then, but I see now that it was surely Christ in them doing the heavy lifting in loco parentis. And I think this may be along the lines of what Jesus is getting at when he offers some rather odd guidelines to his disciples in this week’s gospel passage:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…”
This insistence – that we love Jesus above all else – does not spring from any neurotic neediness on His part. Rather, Jesus is working to open our eyes to a deeper reality. He wants us to consider the possibility that love can be bigger than our intimate circle of family and friends. Love flowers best when it breaks free from self-interest, from the sinfulness into which we are all born.
We never get all the way there, I suppose. It’s a lifetime’s journey…often, more arduous than a 100-mile float trip. But if we’re lucky, we find companions along the way who manage to rouse us from our self-imposed limits. Companions, like St. Paul, who point us toward something beyond days spent in the mire of self-sufficiency and self-absorption:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
“Newness of life.” Even 47 years removed from a memorable float trip, it’s a delight to discover how we can be carried along by the current of all those in our lives who freely shared this gift — a gift they themselves had been given.
Fr. Paul Wightman OMI (left) chaperoned many a float trip back in the day…and still smiles when he retells the tale…
We SHP alums have been deeply blessed by the loving witness of men like Fr. Jim Allen OMI (right).
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 