Breaking the Word

Friday, July 11, 2008

Friday in the 14th Week of Ordinary Time (II)
Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot
Anything That’s Worth Doing…

Readings: Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 and 17; Matthew 10:16-23
Picture: CC rodliam

We’ve probably all heard the adage anything that’s worth doing, is worth doing well. It expresses something that’s quite central to what it means to be a Singaporean. Or at least that’s what we’d like to think. It speaks of the importance of striving for excellence in all that we do. And there’s truth in that. If, for example, being a student is something worth doing, then work hard at it. Be a good student. If being a teacher is worth doing, then put your heart and soul into it – into preparing your lessons and caring for your students. If teaching is worth doing, then do it well.

But, as with most things, there’s also a shadow side to the relentless search for excellence, isn’t there? Don’t we sometimes allow our preoccupation with being the best prevent us from attempting things are still worth doing even if we are not likely to excel in them? Not everyone can be an “A” student. Not everyone can be an ace teacher. Should the rest of us not study? Should the rest of us not teach?

The same tendency to refrain from doing what’s worth doing for fear of failure or inadequacy is found in the spiritual life too. The Mass readings for today draw our attention to two areas in which this can happen. In the first reading, repentance is presented to us as something worth doing. Provide yourselves with words and return to the Lord… This is a call that we all need to hear, at least from time to time. But isn’t it tempting, when we do feel the need to go for confession, for example, to think along the following lines? After confession, I’m probably going to commit the same sins again. So what’s the point of confessing? If I can’t repent well, why repent?

The gospel presents another thing that’s worth doing – bearing witness to Christ. And Jesus paints quite a bleak and even frightening picture of the trials that await those who respond positively to this call. Faced with such a challenging mission, isn’t it tempting to think: I’m not really worthy or qualified enough, or courageous or holy enough. I won’t be able to do it well. Better to leave it the professionals and the experts?

And yet, upon deeper reflection, we realize that such an approach is unworthy of true disciples of Christ. For in our efforts at repentance and witnessing – indeed in the whole of the spiritual life – what is crucial is not so much our own excellence as our openness to the loving providence of God. I will love them with all my heart… I am like a cypress ever green, all your fruitfulness comes from me… Do not worry about how to speak or what to say… the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you… Can we help but be reminded of the Parable of the Prodigal Son? There, even though the prodigal provides himself with words and returns to his father, he never quite finishes his speech before his father rushes to him and lavishes his love upon him, enfolding him in the warmth of his embrace, ushering him into the joyful security of his household.

If this is true, then it’s important that we not be too obsessed with excellence – with doing everything well and finishing everything we start – to the point that we are prevented from attempting something worthwhile. Indeed, in today’s gospel, doesn’t Jesus imply that the mission given to the apostles (and to us) will not be completed before the Son of Man comes? Of course, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t put our heart and soul into everything we do. But could it be that while it is true that things that are worth doing are worth doing well, it’s no less true that anything that’s worth doing is worth doing… even badly?

What are the things that are worth doing in your life today?

4 comments:

AnonymousFri Jul 11, 02:27:00 pm GMT+8
Hi Father, I m turning 21. I m friend of therese and my name is clarissa. My email add: clrssayong@yahoo.com.sg

The breaking of the word is very meaningful to me. I learn from st peter and paul to follow god in different way being a priest, a sister or lay people.

God have entered to your life and my life and other people life in different way to help the poor, in need and other way.

I am very happy to be called a child of god. He have give me a wonderful life, family. friend and priest and other thing in my life.

I wonder when will god will send someone to do something for me
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AnonymousFri Jul 11, 05:56:00 pm GMT+8
Haha! One thing worth doing today is to keep posting comments in this blog?

In Luke 10:42, Jesus spoke of Mary having chosen the one thing that was truly necessary (listening to him). If only there's just one necessary thing for me to do each day!

In my experience, there are so many things worth doing that it's often a tough choice! And many times, I wonder whether I'm neglecting to do more worthy things.

Anyway, this weekend, I'll be teaching a catechism lesson to a group of easily bored youths. I know I don't have the gift of the gab. And I have not conducted years of research on that area. So, I will only try my best and pray that the the Spirit of our Father will be speaking in me. Please pray for me too, if you remember.
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AnonymousMon Jul 14, 08:51:00 am GMT+8
Another reflection that cuts close to the bone in efficiency-obsessed Singapore. :)

I have always believed that, if anything is worth doing, it's worth doing well - insyallah as Muslims say. That's why it pains me to see something done half-heartedly, half-done or worse, abandoned mid way. What a waste, I always say.

The philosophy of doing things well pre-supposes that one has thought long and hard about what it is that one is about to do, because doing things right is not the same as doing the right thing. This requires true wisdom, the type that is un-worldly.

The danger with pre-occupation with excellence, as Fr Chris rightly put it, is that it can blind us to everything and everyone else. I know: I have witnessed it with my own eyes. Again, unworldly wisdom is needed to put everything in perspective, as the Scripture readings today teach.

PS: After a drought of ten days, it's good to bask in Fr Chris' daily refreshing reflections again.
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AnonymousMon Jul 14, 01:30:00 pm GMT+8
Hello Father,

Personally I feel it is the fear of not being good enough in something or some task and knowing that the outcome may not be up to mark in the eyes of those we aim to please, that often stops or hinders us in setting out to doing something. This hesitation or seeming lack of heart is caused by the expectation that Fr Chris you mentioned that all things must be done well. But perhaps God loves the effort more than the outcome ? If we trust our hearts more and strive to do things out of love and service rather than merely getting the job done perfectly all the time we may perhaps be able to lead more meaningful and enriching lives ?
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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19