30 June 2019—13th Sunday
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
This Sunday’s Gospel reminds us of two characteristics of Christ worthy of emulation. First is his resoluteness, his focus to fulfill his mission. Second is his tolerance of differences, a sign of his being secure with his identity and mission.
Revisiting Angela Duckworth’s best-selling 2016 book, “Grit,” gives a good framework for our reflection on the Gospel. Duckworth defines grit as the combination of passion and perseverance, which is characteristic of people who are high achievers.
She points out that these high achievers have the combination of determination, manifested in being resilient and hardworking, and direction, having a sense of purpose and mission.
Christ showed these qualities in his person, work and mission. In the prophecy of the suffering servant, his resoluteness is dramatically described: “He set his face like flint towards Jerusalem.”
It was not an easy journey to get to the fulfillment of Christ’s mission. In the Gospel story, he is rejected by the Samaritan town that he passed on his way to Jerusalem, and to this, his response is tolerance.
Later, he asks from his potential followers the same level of resoluteness.
Purpose
As a teacher, I have always believed that the determination, resilience, hard work, resoluteness and perseverance of a person is best developed with the nurturing of a sense of purpose, meaning and mission.
I cannot conceive of mission that is detached from passion. By definition, according to Frederick Buenchner, mission or vocation, the place where God calls you to, is where your deep gladness and a deep hunger of the world meet.
It’s what makes our heart beat, what makes our soul burn. This deep gladness or joy is passion reoriented toward purpose and mission, the deep hunger of the world that we respond to.
It’s this reoriented passion that gives us the motivation and inspiration to persevere. One can say that reoriented passion is mission lived.
Many know that there is a price to pay for perseverance. The entire gamut of qualities— hard work, resilience, determination, etc.—will always lead us to sacrifice and an experience of suffering.
In sports, as the saying goes, “no pain, no gain.” It’s not just the physical pain, but perhaps more so the psychological one.
In recent movements in my own spiritual and apostolic journey, my work with public schools, my mission has become clearer, more focused and the work is more concrete and directed.
Such a stage is a make or break stage. The book “Lean Start Up” talks about how the all-important pivot makes or breaks, if not taken, an idea to become a successful business.
From human to divine
But for mission, there is a second and deeper pivot. If the first pivot is from the realm of ideas, concepts and vision toward a viable product or business, the second pivot is from the human to the divine.
This where I think my mission now is asking me to take this second pivot. The first led us to setting a Teachers College and creating a renewed model of public senior high school education through a pioneering ecosystem of education, training and formation.
We have been developing new partnerships, enhancing curricula and programs, networking for investments and donations, constructing the campus, fundraising, etc.
With all of these activities also comes the “test,” the crucible of separating the wheat from the chaff. As the work becomes clearer and more focused, so do the demands from us who work in this mission.
As I went through all of these, I was ill in bed for three days straight and no matter how much “grit” I tried to muster, my body just kept me down. When I went back to work, I struggled with not having the same energy to work as I used to. Adding to the metaphysical struggle were the deaths of relatives and friends where I celebrated wake and funeral Masses.
All these made me face with some pain and suffering the limits of the human situation in the pursuit of the divine mission.
This week I sought refuge and renewal in my daily prayer with the grace of God reminding me that 14 years, my spiritual director told me, “God wants you to do this.”
I held on to this. I was certain of his fidelity, but I did not know how I was to proceed from here. Until late this past week I heard his voice saying, “I want you to do this. Hindi kita pababayaan.”
This is the spiritual pivot from the human to the divine. This is where human grit ends and grace takes over. “Hindi kita pababayaan.”
Perhaps this is how Christ made his way to the Cross, with resoluteness and tolerance. —CONTRIBUTED