Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
My dad is a farmer who really values straight rows. The window in my parents' bedroom in our old farmhouse overlooked his brother’s field and some seasons, his brother’s crooked rows taunted my dad! In the gospel today, Jesus invites us to straight rows in our plowing and presumably in our planting the seeds of the Kingdom of God.
If you plow a field or ride a bike and continue to look back and gaze for any length of time at what is behind you, you naturally turn in the direction you are looking. You may continue to move forward but eventually you will go in a wide circle and come back to where you started, having not gotten anywhere. I think this is what Jesus is pointing to when he says that we can’t look back when we commit to following Jesus.
Even when our desire to follow Jesus is great, it is so human to say, I’m committed, but first let me…I will feed the hungry, but first let me stock up for my family; I will clothe the naked, but first I’ll buy a new coat for myself; I am committed to each person’s human dignity, but I can’t tell my father or mother that what they just said is racist; I am committed to proclaiming the Kingdom of God where all are welcome, especially the “widow, the orphan, and the immigrant;’ but when the kids grow up or I finish school, and I have time to speak up…Lord, my spirit is willing, but…! With each, “but, first..but, wait,” we look behind at our life before we give/gave it all to Christ. We want to hold on, to look back. While it is natural to look back every now and then, let us not be complacent and turn in on ourselves.
Today, let’s practice making straighter rows, so that God might look down upon us and smile at how we’ve cooperated with God’s grace to plow a little straighter and plant seeds of the Kingdom of God. This is the adventure of a lifetime. And we will never know the beauty of this experience unless we commit to this journey.
-Kelly Adamson