Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
October
11, 2017
Two
Left Shoes
I
am writing this from Chicago, where I am on retreat and attending the annual
conference of my religious order, the Society of Catholic Priests, an
international group of Anglican and Episcopalian clergy and vowed religious who
follow a rule of life focused on the spirituality of the real presence of
Christ in the Eucharist, a life fully supported by the sacraments of the Church
(including giving and hearing confession), and mutual prayer and support in our
lives and ministries. I went to the
airport in Medford early Monday morning to catch a flight through Denver;
trying to save a bit of sleep before I left for the 5:30 a.m. flight, I arrived
at 4:45 just in time to check one piece of luggage filled with vestments and
worship bulletins. But I had not counted
on the unusual scene at the airport early on a Monday morning starting the work
week: there were over 150 people in line
for security! And for the first time in
years, I had to take off my belt and shoes in the TSA checkpoint. When I looked down, I realized that in the
early morning darkness (trying to let Elena sleep undisturbed as I prepared for
the flight) I had inadvertently put on two left shoes from unmatched pairs of black shoes. I had brought no other
pair and was in for an uncomfortable and embarrassing week among, at least in
part, some of the most sartorially demanding clergy of the American Church!
But
by the time I got to the gate, the flight had already left without me, taking
my checked bag along with it. “What a
miserable start to a week!” I thought to myself. The United agent helpfully booked me on the
next available flight that would get me to Chicago, one through San Francisco
about 6 hours later. So I had time to
return home (my daughter-in-law uncomplainingly making an immediate second trip
to the airport to pick me up). But
there was a silver lining to the dark cloud of the missed plane: at least I could catch a little more sleep
and get a matched pair of shoes! And when I called my Society convener to say I
would be late and miss the first day of Provincial Council Meetings, he
graciously said it was no problem since the first day was not a business
meeting of the council. At home, I was
also able to accomplish a couple of tasks at home that I needed to do before my
departure but had run out of time for in the rush to get to the wee-hours plane
I had missed. So by the time I actually
arrived in Chicago later in the day, easily recovering my errant luggage, I
felt like maybe God was looking after me: helping me to get a matched pair of
shoes on my feet for a week’s retreat.
It
is often like that in life, I think. We
rush about in the dark, fearful of deadlines and lost opportunities, making
bumbling and embarrassing errors. We
sometimes run into the very disasters we hope to avoid at all costs. But if we just keep on going, and doing the
next thing required of us, things work out.
God provides, and sometimes the very thing we hoped to avoid turns out
to be a blessing.
There is a traditional Chinese story
that tells of accepting the way things are, the Tao: A farmer had only
one horse. One day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to commiserate
over what they saw as his terrible loss. The farmer said, “What makes you think
it is so terrible?” Later, the horse came home--this time bringing with
her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's
good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “What makes you think
this is good fortune?” The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild
horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad
luck! The farmer said, “What makes you think it is bad?” A war came, and
every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's
son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the
farmer. “What makes you think this is good?” said the farmer.
Trust
in God means accepting what life throws at us.
As St. Julian of Norwich said, “all will be well, and all will be well,
and all manner of thing will be well.”
Grace
and Peace.
Fr.
Tony+
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