SPIRITUALITY OF ACCOMPANIMENT
Lessons from the Risen Lord (Lk 24:13-35) Part IV
contd...
Lesson 4: DON’T FORCE yourself on them (v.28 -29)
I was with a friend’s family one evening. The only child of the family was a 6 year old boy, who was excited because I was there. He began showing me all his treasured possessions – toys, colour books, colour pencils, water paints, finger paints and what not! As he pulled out something with all his eagerness, he pulled down a full set of books and stood there helplessly. With the noise it made I sprang from my chair to rush to his assistance. My friend stopped me instantly and cried out, ‘Sonny, do you need me to help?’ Right enough, the reply came, ‘No, I will manage.’ That was a great lesson for me to understand that we need not force ourselves on the young. They should feel that we are there for them when they need us, at the same time having their own sacred personal space.
Jesus did not want to force Himself on the disciples as they reached Emmaus. Though He knew it is going to do a lot of good to the disciples, Jesus wanted the disciples to choose to have Him with them. Taking the initiative, as the first lesson tells us, is not same as forcing ourselves on the young! When the young reach a point in their life and they think they have reached the destination, like the disciples thought their destination was Emmaus, we are called to push them further and widen their horizons. Without weighing on them, we are called to be there at their side. Accompaniment is not walking in front of them for they may resent following, not walking behind them for it may not help, neither walking over them for that’s not what we want – it is all about WALKING WITH THEM. Walking with them in such a way that they wish more of it.
Lesson 5: Share that PEAK MOMENT (v.30, 31)
Knowing that I was a youth worker, my fellow passenger on a train once shared his concern with me. He recalled his batch of students and in a very special way his classmate who was a brilliant boy at School. When they were in the Higher Secondary school one shocking day, they heard that the boy killed himself consuming poison. I could never take these following words off my mind ever since I heard them from this co-passenger – ‘the educators never made him feel that they were there in his life. Probably he never recognized a help in them!’
Recognising someone as being present in one’s life requires certain peak experiences that are shared. When they saw Jesus break the bread, they instantly recognized it was the Lord! There was a specific experience the disciples had shared with Jesus which they could never forget. In our mission of accompanying the young we need to be there with them right upto that peak experience and not get dissipated well within the way. The young with us should go with experiences that will last for their life and not merely as long as they are with us.
(to be continued...)
