It seems really forbidding but this resoluteness in Christ can be our starting point for reflection. Two inter-related concepts are at play when it comes to one’s resolution. Firstly, it is commitment and secondly, the pledge one is able to make is determined by one’s sense of freedom. For our present ears, one hundred percent sounds rather daunting because it feels rather slavishly restrictive. But it is not as oppressive as one perceives because, in the recent past, it was like that.
Take two examples. The first instance took place recently. In conjunction with the Cathedral’s Ruby Jubilee, we celebrated the anniversaries of couples, 25th, 40th, 50th and above. Couples these days rarely reach 50 years and above. Main reason could be death of a spouse because people are getting hitched at an older age.[2] However, by and large, married couples find it hard to go the entire length. No judgement on those who failed. A more relevant reason could be the primacy of personal autonomy. “What about me?”.[3]
The second case in point comes from a past when inter-continental travels were few and far between. Missionaries used to leave their countries of birth and many never returned home. The cemeteries of older parishes are graced with graves of priests and religious who, following the Lord, in manner of speaking, “took on the flesh” of those whom they serve and became as one of them. These hands who took the plough never looked back.
When there is determination, then lines will have to be drawn and boundaries will have to be marked. Coincidentally the 2nd Reading speaks about freedom. To follow Jesus whole heartedly, we need freedom and His Gospel’s demand challenges our notion of what freedom should be like.
We think that freedom is tied to personal autonomy or individual liberty but it is not. Just to be able to do what I want, when I want and how I want, is not freedom. A serial murderer can definitely exercise that kind of liberty but no one here would even dare to define that as freedom. True freedom is bound to one’s identity and this identity is not self-manufactured—like I feel womanly and therefore I am a woman. In Jesus, His resoluteness was directed to the fulfilment of His true destiny. He needed to go to Jerusalem, not to face what awaited Him, but rather to fulfil His role as the Saviour of the world. The urgency of establishing the Kingdom of God took priority over all the other freedoms that He might have enjoyed.
Likewise it has to be for us if we were to follow Him. Our entire existence should be directed to the inauguration of the Kingdom of God as we heard in the Gospel.
Today marks the closing of the World Meeting of Families. In a way, both the examples of the permanency of marriage and the magnanimity of missionaries are expressions of the two Sacraments of Service, namely Matrimony and Holy Order. Both these sacraments express the commitment and identity of our discipleship. We serve and follow Christ through the Sacrament of Matrimony which establishes the family and through the Sacrament of Holy Order which institutes the sacerdotal ministry of shepherding His people.
Now, in the service of the Church, either through the family or through priesthood, “I, me and myself” is not selfish. It may be misguided because it comes from a space of self-preservation. We balk or hesitate at the idea of giving our all and everything. Our sense of self or our definition of autonomy is close to absolute which explains why our generation is allergic to commitment. We are afraid that it might chip away at our hard-won freedom.
What is more? We are promised a vision that self-actualisation is the only way to personal fulfilment. The other day a radio DJ was commenting on the winner of this huge jackpot and one comment was striking. She said, “I would rather be rich and miserable than be poor and miserable”. Hidden within this sentiment is an idea that money is our ticket to freedom and with it, one can buy happiness. Our materialistic generation has come so far to deify the spontaneity of freedom so much so that commitment feels very much like a millstone around our neck. But commitment is a constituent necessity for being who we are. To wit, once again, think of a relationship that is moving towards marriage. The very idea that a partnership should be open in the sense that both are seeing other people is anathema to the core of our being. No marriage can withstand this kind of fluidity. A good example would be Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith both famously touting a kind of open relationship that in the end recognises that it is impossible to maintain it.
If marriage as a human institution instinctively calls for an all or nothing commitment, why can we not think this of the relationship between God and us? There is a radicality of discipleship in which God demands no less than our hearts. It is true that one cannot serve both God and mammon because the human heart is made for this singular divine commitment and true freedom comes from our covenant with God. We should get it into our heads as early as we can that freedom, as in unfettered personal liberty, cannot guarantee our happiness. Sadly, we can be blindly committed to ourselves, thus failing to recognise that the freest self is discovered in focusing on the Lord. Look at all our saints. They only have eyes for God and if we give Him our hearts, we will find ourselves. The odyssey to discover our deepest and truest self, as so many are led to believe, is supposed to be the crown of human quest. It is a futile enterprise because it does not gain us happiness. Only the resolute searching for God does.
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[1] We “turned” green on the Tuesday after Pentecost. But Sunday after Pentecost was Trinity Sunday (white) and the Sunday after that was Corpus Christi (white). Now the Sunday properly turns green.
[2] One marries at the age of 38 and a silver jubilee (at age 63) would be a bonus. A golden anniversary would have been an achievement.
[3] There is a growing phenomenon in more affluent societies that when the children fly the coop, couples get on with their individual lives. It is like the duties of child bearing and rearing are over and now the couples should be free to pursue their individual interests.
