Farewell Thoughts

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

As we come to the conclusion of the Easter Season, both the reading from the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospel of St. John feature farewell discourses. In the first reading, we have been listening to St. Paul as he says goodbye to the various people with whom he has worked. The Gospel has been taken from the rather long farewell discourse that St. John has written for Jesus. One of the features of both discourses is the fact that they contain warnings about the future. Scripture scholars agree that these warnings are not necessarily "predictions" about the future so much as they are statements about the realities that are present in the community at the time they were written.

In both instances we are warned that the road ahead will not be all "smooth sailing." There is really nothing in that warning that should surprise us. We are, like the Israelites of old, walking through the desert on the way to the Promised Land. Our journey is and will continue to be fraught with difficulties. There is really no way for us to avoid it. However, some of those difficulties will come from within the community. Those difficulties could and should be avoided if we simply listen to the warnings and heed these precious words. I speak here of the unity issues which will and still do beset the community.

Jesus prays that we will all be one. Paul speaks of the wolves that will try to undo his work, wolves who will be other missionaries with their own message rather than the message of the Gospel. Such wolves will tear apart the community by preaching their own Gospel, working to establish their own kingdom. All of us will be tempted in this fashion. It is a very human problem. One of the themes that has coursed through the Gospel is to remember that we have been chosen by God to do God's work. We did not choose. We work for God, not for ourselves.

Yesterday I celebrated Mass for the Religious of the Cenacle as they opened their Province Assembly. Next week my own community will gather in St. Louis to celebrate our triennial chapter. Many religious communities gather at this time of the year to remind themselves of that to which they have been called and to examine how they have answered that call. It is a time to examine our collective conscience and plan for the future. It is something that all of us could do on an individual basis.