(The Nationalist, 25 August 2006)
We live in a rapidly changing world, and people of all ages can find that difficult to cope with. Sometimes it seems that change is the only constant. Things are getting faster. Not only that, but they are getting faster, faster. Things that were regarded as certain in the past are now questioned, or even rejected outright.
Changes in attitudes come gradually, and surprise us when we reflect on what has happened. For example, language has changed, and, as a result, so have ideas and actions. From talking about certain things as sin we came to speak of them as deviance; from speaking of deviance we came to speak of preference; then from preference to choice; and from choice to freedom. People feel unsure about right and wrong, because what was regarded as wrong before is now sometimes regarded, not simply as right, but as a right. People find it hard to get their bearings, and drift, directionless.
We have to make choices; it’s part of being human. If they are to be good ones, we need to be awake and aware; we can’t go along in cuckoo land, dreaming that the sky is always blue, and the grass always green. We need to be awake to the realities of life, to look the truth in the face, recognize it, and call it by name. Examples of people not being awake: people talking about drugs as if they were only a distant problem when they’re everywhere; people not aware of the danger of smoking, though sixteen people die in Ireland every day through smoking-related illnesses.
The gospel is a wake-up call: in it, Jesus often calls on his followers to wake up and think. Don’t drift through life; think through it, he says.
There’s a bible story about people being challenged, ‘Are you going to follow God, or not?’ They answered ‘Yes’. If we don’t love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, we’ll love something else with our whole heart, soul, and mind – and the most likely candidate for that role is the Ego. Either way, we make a choice. And to sit on the fence and do nothing is also a choice.
Similarly, in the gospel, Jesus once challenged his disciples: ‘Will you also go away?’ They answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we believe, we know that you are the Christ, the son of God’. Confronted by the choice, they made their decision for God.
Maybe we feel we can’t go as far as they did. But we can always make our own the prayer of the man in the gospel who said, ‘I believe, Lord; help my unbelief’.
If we do give ourselves to God we will find that others things fall into place: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and all others things shall be added unto you’.
For those in a hurry: Choice and commitment are two sides of one coin.