A Gentle Presence in the World

The 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

After I graduated from college, I took a year off and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, with a couple of friends. We bought a small ship there—a tramp steamer—and supported ourselves by hauling cargo all over the Baltic. It was a fantastic experience, and the people of Scandinavia were exceptionally warm and kind and courteous.

I stress how polite they were, because when I flew back to the States, I landed at Kennedy Airport in New York. When I got through customs and was heading towards the baggage claim, the first thing that grabbed my attention was this big guy dragging a heavy suitcase and bellowing at his poor wife. “Marie, shut your mouth!” Actually, there was a very nasty word between “your” and “mouth”… but since this is a family church, I’ll leave that to your imagination. So much for my welcome home!

In the gospel today, Jesus sends the 72 disciples out in pairs to be his advance men in the towns and villages he planned to visit. From his instructions, we can see that the Lord anticipated that there would be warm and gracious welcomes in some communities, but in others, they might run into the likes of Marie’s charming husband.

The Lord was certainly wise to make sure that each disciple had a partner or companion when they set out. As so many of us have learned in life, successes are always sweeter, and hard times easier to bear, when you can share them with a close friend or someone you love. Besides, the disciples’ work wasn’t easy. It’s often hard to get people to be open-minded enough to reconsider their faith and their attitudes. So Jesus knew that each pair could rely on each other and encourage one another and draw strength from each other when the going got tough. But the main thing is, they were able to go out and prepare the way for the Lord… to be laborers for his harvest.

When I first started studying French in junior high school, our teacher introduced us to the great French singer, Edith Piaf. One of her signature songs is Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien—which loosely translated is, “I have no regrets.” I know that in looking back over my own life, I don’t have any regrets over the things I did. I didn’t always make the best decisions, but I can see now that at least they were learning experiences. On the other hand, the regrets I do have are for things I did not do… risks that I was too afraid to take… maybe with some opportunity or some relationship. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if only I did them. I guess I’ll never know.

The Lord is telling us today that this “no regrets” business is equally true in spiritual matters—especially in our efforts to further the kingdom of God. If we’re afraid to speak up or take a little risk in putting out our faith, then we may wind up with regrets. And I don’t think any of us intentionally wants to disappoint the Lord.

The fact of the matter is, as we move through life, we encounter many opportunities to show that we are Christians. We have many opportunities to tell people around us that God is active in the world… and that God is active in our lives. But how many of these opportunities do we take?

We all run into situations where we see friends and family members and even perfect strangers doing things we think are a mistake. We may even want to help. I had to laugh when I read one of my “Dear Amy” columns the other day. A woman wrote in that she had a young guy come to her house to do a termite inspection. He saw her dog and remarked how he was getting married and had to give his own dog away because his fiancée is allergic. The woman wanted to tell him not to marry that girl if it meant having to do such a terrible thing. Amy basically told her to butt out.

So yeah, sometimes we may think we have the answer to solve somebody’s problem. We want to barge right in and tell them what to do—or even better, tell them that God will sort everything out and make it all better if only they’d have more faith or pray harder. I can almost hear you thinking: how far do you think that approach would get you?

The opposite approach might be to look the other way and just ignore the problem. But isn’t that one of those lost opportunities that we might regret? How does that help us to answer God’s call to show love and be a laborer for the Lord’s harvest?

I wonder if there might be a third way—kind of a middle ground—where we can give witness to God and yet at the same time let people come to find faith in their own time. Actually, I believe there is.

We do this by a certain constancy in our life… by always showing friendship and caring and compassion to friends and strangers alike. God’s love isn’t supposed to be an emergency flashlight we reach for when the power goes out. It should be a constant glow in our lives—and a key element of who we are. As people get to know us and see how we reflect God’s peace through all kinds of situations, they will be drawn to seek that same kind of peace in their own lives. And that’s precisely what our mission is all about.

I pray today that we will all be willing to cultivate the self-control, courage and stamina to be a gentle presence in our little corner of the world. If we try, Jesus promises us—like the 72—that we may rejoice, because our names are written in heaven.