Wednesday in the 7th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Farm or Mist?

Readings: James 4:13-17; Psalms 49:2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11; Mark 9:38-40
Picture: CC stuart100

I’ve just finished reading a novel. It tells the story of an American farmer, owner of a large and successful farm in Iowa. Just before his retirement, in an effort to avoid having to pay a large sum in estate duty, the farmer decides to sign over ownership of his farm to his three daughters and two sons-in-law. But, from the moment the transaction is finalized, the story begins a slow and painful descent into darkness. The youngest daughter is unhappy with the arrangement and becomes estranged from the family. The father comes to regret his actions, even as he begins to slide into senility. He brings a lawsuit against his two elder daughters and their husbands. The suit fails and the farmer later dies of a heart attack. The second daughter succumbs to cancer, but not before watching her husband drink himself into a watery grave. The farm itself becomes saddled by debt, forcing the husband of the eldest daughter to leave for Texas to find work, but only after his wife decides to leave him for a waitressing job in town. Finally, the farm itself is sold at a loss, and the two remaining daughters end up having to fork out money to cover the balance in taxes.

It’s only a novel, a fictional story. But isn’t there truth in it too? Quite coincidentally, doesn’t it resonate with the message that we find in our readings today? Continuing from where we left off yesterday, the first reading speaks to us about the problem of pride. Another translation uses the word arrogance. This is the attitude that presumes, erroneously, that our lives are completely within our control. It is the tendency to look at life as a farm that we can possess and partition at will. Such an attitude gives rise to difficulties, such as the ambition that we heard about yesterday. Which in turn gives rise to the wars and battles that we often see around and among us. Even our ministerial life is not spared, as can be seen from today’s gospel. No less a disciple than John complains to Jesus about someone who seems to be encroaching on the Master’s ministerial territory, on his farm. Perhaps they should drive this usurper away. What we see here is also how the tendency to view our life as a farm generates not just ambition, but anxiety too. We worry and fret over things that are not within our control.

What then are we to do when we find ourselves struggling with such troublesome anxieties and ambitions? Perhaps we need to continue doing what we observed yesterday. Perhaps we need to entrust our cares to the Lord. And how might the Lord support us, if not by uncovering our erroneous assumptions and proposing to us a more accurate perspective on life, the same perspective that the first reading presents us today. When seen from the viewpoint of faith, in the power of the Spirit, life appears less like an imposing farm than it does the morning mist, a passing haze, which lingers but for a moment and then dissipates in the heat of the rising sun. Which of us would bother to claim ownership over such a thing? And yet, as ephemeral as it is, the mist remains precious in the sight of God.

Mightn't such a change in perception be the much needed solution to the conflicts and competitiveness, the ambitions and anxieties that afflict us? When we contemplate the different aspects of our life today, what do we see? A farm to be anxiously possessed and partitioned? Or a morning mist, to be gratefully cherished in the sight of a loving God?