Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr Alan Meechan, SVD – Barcenaga, Oriental Mindoro
Saturday 17th Week in Ordinary Time
When I was a child I once read a poem about a little boy who was dreaming of what he wanted to be when he grew up:
I’d like to be a sailor and sail the deep blue sea,
And all my friends and classmates would come along with me.
I’d like to be a pilot away up in the sky,
And all the people in the world would wave as I flew by.
The boy went on to look upon the romance, excitement and lifestyles of being a film star, pop singer, mountaineer, astronaut, explorer, and so on, but at the end of the poem, he came back to earth again.
But best of all a coalman, that’s what I’d like to be,
Because he’s black and jolly, and always smiles at me.
(In my country, people once kept their homes warm by burning coal on open fires, and the coalman was a familiar sight.)
As I read the end of the poem, I thought, “That’s stupid! Who would want to be a coalman, and go out in the cold and get dirty, when he could be a film star or an explorer or a pilot?”
Now I understand better. The coalman was not some abstract, romantically attractive idea like the others, but a real person met by the writer, and the coalman related to the child in a positive and attractive way. Like John, the coalman did not allow his hard, dirty, poorly paid job to fetter him, but he witnessed to his humanity and was able to reach out to others, accept them and value them, to such an extent that the child wanted to be like him.
Are we effective witnesses? Do we accept others and show respect to them for their intrinsic worth? Do people want to follow Christ because we do?
Do we let our own environment, problems, and weaknesses restrict us, as King Herod did to John. Or do we rise above our weaknesses and fetters, and let the joy of Christ shine in us and become authentic agents of our prophetic dialogue with other people?
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