(The Nationalist, c. October 2001)
Priests and members of religious orders are lucky people. Every year they get a week off to go on a retreat, a change from their usual life and activity, a time to stop and stand back and take a fresh look at things and to ask themselves questions about their life, their priorities, about what they’re doing and where they’re going.
Not everyone is so lucky. Many people would like to be able to do the same but either have not got the time or the money or cannot leave home for so long. But it is possible to do a retreat at home. Here’s a way.
Go through the New Testament, that is, the part of the Bible written after the time of Jesus Christ, and about him. Start at the beginning and continue until you reach the first question. Take it as being directed to yourself and try to answer it.
The answers Jesus is looking for are not ones we remember from the days of our childhood catechism or something we learned in a book but what we believe and live. Jesus asks us these questions, not in the manner of an examiner testing our knowledge, much less that of an interrogator trying to catch us out, but rather that of a loving friend who is helping us to understand ourselves more fully and who wants to lead us forward beyond ourselves towards God. The questions open up a dialogue with Jesus in which he takes the lead.
Take, for example, the first question you will meet, Matthew 5.13: ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?’ Many questions acquire a deeper meaning if we take the trouble to look at their context and see what they point to. Others are much more searching and penetrating, such as ‘Who do you say that I am?’ or ‘Do you love me?’
In the New Testament, there are some a hundred and twenty different questions posed by Jesus. By taking one a day, we could make a four month retreat without ever leaving home. At the end we would know ourselves better and know also where we stand before God. The questions help to draw us out so that we come to know, accept and love ourselves as the first step towards doing the same towards God and neighbour.