Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
What do you want Lord?
When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of (his) disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.” Mt 8,18-22
A few days ago, the passage of the gospel which speaks of the lilies of the field and of the the fowls of the air led us to ponder on the Providence and on the reality of a provident God. It is an experience which seems not easy to be done for people living among the certainties of our western world. The fact of having followed the vocation for the marriage, with the exercise of our professions of teacher and engineer, would have allowed us to live in a certain comfort. However, by having been open to a large family with fourteen children to be educated and grown, we did try, day after day, the reality of a provident God as it is with the lilies of the field and of the fowls of the air. It was a great experience, which helped us to live following the Lord, our only certainty.The surrender again to the today’s Word, as we did many years ago, now that the children have all left home and are self-employed, allows us to still experience the love of God and his Providence. It would be the same experience of which Jesus speaks today, which goes beyond that of the fowls of the air, which have at least their nest, while the Son of the man has nowhere to lay the head, in the evening. We know, however, that since he left the family home and he has followed its mission, he has always found, along with his disciples, a place to lay his head and to rest on the evening. It is, even today, the experience of the missionary ”ad gentes”. Is that what you want from us, Lord, for the time which lies ahead? Or you want that we remain in this nest, which we have built over the years and which continues to be a reference and a meeting point for sons, daughters, daughters in law, sons in law, grandchildren and friends? It would be the continuation of our life as usual, balancing time and energy between family life and testimony. The today’s Word gives us a reason to ponder and to pray about this, also in the light of a suggestion which one day monsignor Giambattista Guzzetti gave us: “The witness – he told us – must be a normal person. If he is normal he can be a witness and a model of life, otherwise he is not. The world can grant only one exceptionality, if these are more than one, these can be considered only extravagances”. We shall pray that the Lord enlighten us on the choices for our future.