Staying Focused
Every day, just outside a small village in India, an old man sat crosslegged as he stirred ordinary dirt mixed with water in an old pot. After hours of stirring, he reached into the pot and pulled out a large gold nugget. Day after day, people watched him sit, and waited for the moment when he would reach for the gold nugget. When he pulled it out, they would murmur with amazement.One day a brazen young man approached the old man and asked, “Will you show me how you do your trick?”“Certainly,” the old man replied. “It isn’t difficult. All I have here is an ordinary pot, a simple stick, dirt that you can find anywhere, and water from the town well. I pour the dirt and the water into the pot and begin to stir. After a while a lump of gold forms, and I reach in and remove it.”Immediately the young man found a pot, stick, some dirt, and a small bucket of water. He poured the dirt and the water into the pot and began to stir. He stirred all day long, stopping frequently to see if the gold had begun to form. He continued stirring the next day, clear into the evening. But no matter how long he stirred, no gold nuggets could be seen. Not even a small one.Finally, he went back to the old man for further instructions. “Tell me, step by step, what you have been doing,” the old man said politely. Quickly the young man recounted everything he had done. When he finished, the old master thought for a moment. “It seems I neglected to include one important detail,” he said. “While you stir you must never think about the gold.” “The Pot of Gold,” Stories for the Journey, by William R. White.It's not so much that we possess things -- but rather that "things" often possess us. Jesus' call to discipleship is to follow him, to live as he did. Following him means that we must be focused. The mission of Jesus is to give of self so completely that we become one with the other. The young man in the story was so obsessed with the outcome that he couldn't focus on the task.The Letter to the Hebrews tells us today that the Word of God is a two-edged sword. We are moved to rejoice in Jesus' power over the forces of pain and suffering. Yet, though we call ourselves his disciples, we are loath to abandon self as he did so that we might bring that same power to bear in our time.In the face of poverty, we continue to be mesmerized by the glitter of shopping malls. Even in these difficult economic times, it becomes more and more difficult to separate ourselves from such allurements and focus on the message and mission of Jesus, which is to care for those on the margin, the poor, the alien. Scripture scholar Eduard Schweizer points out that "Giving up one's possessions is not a prerequisite of discipleship -- it is a consequence of it."Not only things entrap us. It's also our talents and our time. So often what is needed in the giving of self is just that: giving of ourselves. Everyone of us has some giftedness. Volunteering in our parish, local school or hospital is something all of us are able to do. Even for those with young families and busy work schedules, a once-a-month visit to a nearby nursing home would be a powerful symbol of discipleship, to say nothing of being a great object lesson for the children. The Gospel calls us to use our talents for others. Time is a gift that we seldom think of as worth giving. We come late; we leave early. We are compelled to check the clock at every turn. We are possessed by time, and that robs us of opportunities to be present to our God, to our families, to our friends, to our faith community. For the sick, the elderly, the lonely, the anxious, all that is most often needed is our presence. Would it be such a burden to attend a parish youth activity a couple of times a year? You don’t have to do anything; just be there for them.This Eucharist, our celebration of the Sabbath (a Hebrew word that includes the meaning of no time), is a precious opportunity to refocus our energies on our call to discipleship and see in our possessions, our talents, and our time invitations to be the Body of Christ. Again today, we reaffirm our baptismal commitment to refuse to be possessed by things, or even our own talent or time so that the gifts of Wisdom and the promise of Christ will be ours: "...in the present age a hundred fold....and in the age to come everlasting life." 