Saturday, December 29, 2007
"Behold this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Lk 2:34-35)
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A woman who was a saleslady went into a jewelry store and said, "I want a precious stone which is ugly on one side and beautiful on the other."
That sounded like a strange request, but the jeweler sold her a stone called a geode. It looks like a rough stone on the outside, but its hollow visible inside is full of purple crystals. Then he asked the saleslady what she wanted such a stone for.
She said that sometimes she had a problem getting people’s attention, so she could sell them something. But she uses the stone this way: she pulls it out of her purse, shows it to people and remarks, "If you found this dirty funny-looking stone on the road, you wouldn’t pick it up, would you?"
"No" they’ll say.
Then she turns it over and asks, "But if you knew that the inner side of the stone was filled with these beautiful valuable gems, you would pick it up, wouldn’t you?"
Then she would come in with her sales pitch, "You don’t know what I’m going to tell or its importance to you, until you hear it. It may be one of these gems."
Almost always, they hear her out. (Charles B. Roth) [1]
There is certainly no other person in the history of the whole human race that surpassed what Jesus went through. Without a doubt no one else received the same amount of love, with an equal dosage of rejection that was given to the Son of God. Many saints in heaven, in attempting to follow the way He had taken, could not exceed what Our Savior suffered in order to redeem the world.
Indeed, genuine discipleship requires us to undergo the same challenges that our Lord endured. If we have decided to follow Jesus and call ourselves His disciples, and yet have never before encountered opposition, then there must be something wrong in the way we imitate His way of life, or the way we try to live out the Gospel.
As the Scriptural snippet tells us, our Savior was destined to be a sign of contradiction in the world. Indeed, He was, and even today, He remains loved by some and hated by others.
Perhaps we do not meet with the expected conflicts within our families and community because we deliberately avoid them by compromising our faith and values. We end up making deals with our adversaries, because we do not have the courage to stand up for truth and justice. We’d rather keep the peace than rock the boat, so to speak.
It is very unfortunate that we find many so-called disciples in the Catholic Church today who are of the same mindset. They deliberately avoid experiencing contradiction by giving in to worldly demands, rather than practice what the Church truly teaches. It is no wonder there is now a crisis developing in the Catholic Church at this point in our history because of such people.
When we reflect upon it, to be Christ’s follower consists of two sides much like the precious stone in the above narrative. While one facet promises us a life of abundance and considerable joy, the other aspect requires us to go through persecution, opposition, sacrifice and a great deal of suffering through the way of the Cross. Most people, however, on seeing the element of suffering, no longer seek to discover the beauty of the promises destined for His disciples.
Let us do our best to be faithful followers of Our Lord by willingly allowing ourselves to be signs of contradiction in our own lives where ever we may be. Let us implore the Holy Spirit to help us succeed in this undertaking.
That sounded like a strange request, but the jeweler sold her a stone called a geode. It looks like a rough stone on the outside, but its hollow visible inside is full of purple crystals. Then he asked the saleslady what she wanted such a stone for.
She said that sometimes she had a problem getting people’s attention, so she could sell them something. But she uses the stone this way: she pulls it out of her purse, shows it to people and remarks, "If you found this dirty funny-looking stone on the road, you wouldn’t pick it up, would you?"
"No" they’ll say.
Then she turns it over and asks, "But if you knew that the inner side of the stone was filled with these beautiful valuable gems, you would pick it up, wouldn’t you?"
Then she would come in with her sales pitch, "You don’t know what I’m going to tell or its importance to you, until you hear it. It may be one of these gems."
Almost always, they hear her out. (Charles B. Roth) [1]
There is certainly no other person in the history of the whole human race that surpassed what Jesus went through. Without a doubt no one else received the same amount of love, with an equal dosage of rejection that was given to the Son of God. Many saints in heaven, in attempting to follow the way He had taken, could not exceed what Our Savior suffered in order to redeem the world.
Indeed, genuine discipleship requires us to undergo the same challenges that our Lord endured. If we have decided to follow Jesus and call ourselves His disciples, and yet have never before encountered opposition, then there must be something wrong in the way we imitate His way of life, or the way we try to live out the Gospel.
As the Scriptural snippet tells us, our Savior was destined to be a sign of contradiction in the world. Indeed, He was, and even today, He remains loved by some and hated by others.
Perhaps we do not meet with the expected conflicts within our families and community because we deliberately avoid them by compromising our faith and values. We end up making deals with our adversaries, because we do not have the courage to stand up for truth and justice. We’d rather keep the peace than rock the boat, so to speak.
It is very unfortunate that we find many so-called disciples in the Catholic Church today who are of the same mindset. They deliberately avoid experiencing contradiction by giving in to worldly demands, rather than practice what the Church truly teaches. It is no wonder there is now a crisis developing in the Catholic Church at this point in our history because of such people.
When we reflect upon it, to be Christ’s follower consists of two sides much like the precious stone in the above narrative. While one facet promises us a life of abundance and considerable joy, the other aspect requires us to go through persecution, opposition, sacrifice and a great deal of suffering through the way of the Cross. Most people, however, on seeing the element of suffering, no longer seek to discover the beauty of the promises destined for His disciples.
Let us do our best to be faithful followers of Our Lord by willingly allowing ourselves to be signs of contradiction in our own lives where ever we may be. Let us implore the Holy Spirit to help us succeed in this undertaking.
End Notes for this Bible Sharing
[1] "The Next 500 Stories" by Frank Mihalic, SVD, n. 248, "Attention Getter," p.119, Logos Publications, Inc., Manila, 1993.
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