|
Viewpoint
Clerk’s enthusiasm for boy’s adventure extends
Christ’s hand
By WILLIAM C. GRAHAM
I arranged to go on an expedition
with one of my nephews last month in preparation for his entry into first
grade. We went off to the Target store near their home, and chose first a
backpack, then a lunch box, pencils (no pens in first grade!), a large eraser,
a notebook, folders, crayons, felt-tipped markers, and then a shirt and pair of
slacks. He arranged everything in the cart just so, and transferred everything
carefully to the counter when we made our way to the checkout.
He politely waited until it was our turn, and then announced good
news of great joy to the young cashier: “These are my things! And I am
going to be a first grader!”
The cashier appeared to be a high school student, and on a busy
summer afternoon might not have cared particularly about her small
customer’s September destination. But this young woman was uncommonly
filled with both grace and wisdom, and she replied enthusiastically, observing
that he had all the supplies he needed, seemed very well prepared and was sure
to be successful. He smiled broadly and nodded his agreement and his
thanks.
I had just visited a friend before we went to shop, and he had
prominently displayed an icon of Peter, having failed to walk on the water,
taking the outstretched, helping and saving hand of Jesus. But here before me
in the checkout lane of a suburban Target was a new icon, the same scene, but
with new faces. Peter was a small boy stepping out on his excellent adventure,
and Jesus was a blond behind a cash register in a red Target polo shirt. I had
not gone to Target expecting to see the face of God, but such surprises are
consistent with our tradition. Elijah the Prophet looked in all the wrong
places, failing to find God in the strong and heavy wind, or in the fire, or in
the earthquake, but unexpectedly in a tiny, whispering sound.
I remembered Matthew’s account of Jesus about to feed the
vast crowd (14:13-21). The disciples wanted to send everyone away to find
something for themselves to eat. “You give them something to eat,”
said Jesus. Here is an important moment in the development of our eucharistic
theology: It is not just what God does for us that brings about God’s
reign; it is also what we do one for another.
If my young nephew is always surrounded and supported by family
and friends who encourage him, assure him of his possibilities, buoy him up,
challenge him and cheer him on, he is likely to be successful in all he
attempts, and thus will God’s will be done. All of our children and,
indeed, all of us, deserve nothing less.
I could not help but contrast that grace-filled moment with an
encounter I had the previous Sunday after one of the Masses in the parish where
I assisted in the summer months. A man approached me and asked, “Do you
know what you should do?” I understood immediately that by “you”
he meant “you all,” not just me, but the pastor, and all American
priests.
When someone whose name I don’t know asks me, “Do you
know what you should do?” my first impulse is to say, “Yes, I do know
what I should do. I should not listen to what you are about to say.” I
didn’t say that but did listen, and he told me that we priests should tell
the rest of Catholic people that whatever may ail the church, we should stick
together, and not lose faith, and keep our eyes and minds on what is most
important.
That exact idea had been the constant theme of my preaching all
summer long. How had he missed that? No Good Listener Award for him! Further,
just 30 minutes earlier, he had heard his pastor develop (and rather
brilliantly, I thought) the idea that it is not just what God does for us, but
what we do for each other that will bring about the progress and healing of
peoples: “You give them something to eat.”
If our attitude is that the priests should hop to and get it done
(whatever it is at the moment), or if we think a crisp George in the
basket once a visit is the key, we have missed hearing the gospel, we have
failed to extend the hand that is not just ours, but is the very hand of the
healing, saving Christ.
The fellow who wanted to send me off to do what needed to be done
was justifiably concerned in this season of the church’s purification. And
he was certainly correct about the fact that in the boat -- the church -- the
wind will die down, and we are where we ought to be, and there we will be safe,
and there we will meet the Lord.
But to get to the boat, to recognize it as the place where we
belong, we often need the extended hand that belongs both to Jesus and to each
of us. My model today is the young clerk at Target; may she live long and
prosper; may all those she encourages flourish; may God’s kingdom come,
and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
William C. Graham, a priest of the Duluth, Minn., diocese, is
professor and chair of the theology department at Lewis University in
Romeoville, Ill.
National Catholic Reporter, September 27,
2002
|
|
