GETTING THERE!

One of the up-sides of being moved every so often is that it encourages one to trim back on the amount of unnecessary items one has accumulated over the years. You know the kind of things – I’ll-hold-on-to-that-it-might-come-in-handy-again-sometime – and of course the ‘sometime’ never comes. I find it very annoying when I pick up something to pack, and realise that it is still in exactly the same place as I placed it when I was unpacking on my arrival in Paris, and it hasn’t moved since! Why don’t I get rid of it, instead of giving somebody the job when they’re clearing out my room after I die? And yet ……

Yes, it’s all about packing these times. Thank God I’ve most of it done now and duly dispatched to London. The easiest thing to do was to pack my books, clothes etc. into lots of small, easy-to-carry bags, put them in the car, drive to Calais, take the ferry to Dover, drive to London, unload, and drive back. I’m not going to bore you with details of my adventures on the road – suffice it to say that I saw a lot more of London than I ever intended!

I have to apologise to the men of the world – I’m afraid I let the side down! When I got lost, - not my fault, you understand; where there should have been a sign-post there was a building site, and I guessed wrongly – I actually asked the way!! I know, I know, matter for confession! But it was so easy that I couldn’t resist the temptation. You see, I was sitting in the ‘wrong’ side of the car, so I didn’t have to lean across the passenger seat to speak to people on the pavement. Granted, I had to stop a few times before I came across anybody who could speak English, and who knew anything about London. But there was no mistaking the Irish accent of the saint who eventually put me on the right road!

Isn’t it amazing how often that kind of thing happens – something you expect to be a difficulty, in this case driving on the wrong side of the road, turns out to be an advantage? But as we get older we learn more and more to expect the unexpected. I suspect the people in today’s gospel hadn’t yet reached that degree of wisdom – they certainly weren’t prepared for the unexpected message from Christ – “tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you”!! No soft words, no euphemisms here!

But then, Jesus isn’t in the business of pretence. He isn’t about fine words, but about adopting an authentic way of life. It’s easy to find people who will say “yes, you’re right”, but will it make any difference to them? Sometimes we need to forget the images, even the good images, and deal with the realities. And the reality is that our world needs people who are prepared not only to say ‘yes’ to Jesus and His way of love, but are also prepared to follow through on that ‘yes’ and manifest that love in their lives.