SPIRITUALITY OF ACCOMPANIMENT
Lessons from the Risen Lord (Lk 24:13-35)
contd...
Lesson 2: Start from THEIR CONCERN (v.17 -19a)
‘I always wanted to be a Medical Practitioner! But I just couldn’t and I want my son to make it by all means!’, says a father. ‘I prayed when my son was born that I will make him a priest unto the Lord; and I have made sure he joined the seminary’ says a mother. Carl Jung says, ‘much of what a child lives is the unlived lives of the parents.’
Accompaniment is to walk along with the young in their journey towards their fullness and the challenge is to begin from where they are. The tendency however is to demand that they live up to our expectation, or measure up to our standards and deserve our appreciation and assistance. But Jesus pictures here an altogether different picture. He enters their world, instead of requiring them to enter into His world. He begins with thinking about what disturbs them, what matters to them, what their priorities at that particular stage of life are.
Lesson 3: Make MEANING for them (v.25 – 27)
A young seminarian once came to me with a problem. His problem was that he was being taken for granted. For the past two years he had slogged looking after a group of boys and was forced to do it the third year, while some of his own companions are not expected to work as much. Hence he had decided he would do nothing that would require an extra effort from him. After spending a while with him and posing a few questions, he was struck by one question – ‘why are you doing what you are doing?’ He stopped all his complaining and started contemplating that question. Two days later he came to tell me that he would not be frustrated with what people do to him, for he said he had found that his mission was to serve those boys whether someone forced him or not.
The disciples failed to see the whole picture. They were totally lost with the immediate sorrow and suffering that were there. Jesus challenges them to contemplate the bigger picture. That makes sense for them. Though they were not able to see immediately the meaning that was being made by Jesus, they knew something different was being presented to them, something different from what they have been seeing, something which has always been yet new, something that clarified everything that had gone before. Jesus enables them to make meaning out of everything that was happening around them. When a growing youngster resents the present, or blames the past, or wrestles with some problem, we are called to challenge them to contemplate the bigger picture. We make them understand the purpose and meaning behind a series of experiences that they are wading through and enable them to develop within themselves the patience needed to see this truth.
(to be continued...)
