Newsletter 25th June 2023 (12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) )

Wherever you go, I shall go

Wherever you go, I shall go/ Wherever you live, there shall I live/ Your people will be my people/ And your God will by my God, too. This promise of fidelity from the book of Ruth reminds us that Christ will live and go with us, wherever we live and wherever we go. But it also invites us to care for people because they are his people, too. Christ asks each disciple to be his partner in the work that God the Father sent him to do in this world. And he promises to be our partner,       whatever our work, whatever kind of life we live, wherever we go. We follow him, trusting that he is with us, not just for a moment, but for the whole of our lives. Wherever we go, however we live, “the Lord is at my side.” His commitment to us is lifelong despite our own inability to think of him always, or even despite our occasional thoughtless rejection of him. The mystery of God’s call to us and of our response to him is that he is always there for us. “I am at your side; you are my friends,” said Jesus, even to disciples who sometimes lose the way.

“Wherever you go, I shall go.” If we take those words to heart we can accept the risk of going out to others in his name. In saying “yes” to our life as Christian disciples, we can, like Jeremiah, go forward in a zigzag fashion, going somewhere, but not always directly or in a predictable manner. “Do not be afraid,” Christ said and still says. Christ is not for the fearless but for those who must control their fears. Neither is he for the perfect but for those who need his word of            forgiveness. If this ideal of going the journey of life with Christ seems beyond our reach,           remember how once said to his friends, “With men it is impossible but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” I follow Christ best when I realise that the gospel ideal is beyond the reach of my own strength. It is then that I can lean on him and build on the strength of the Lord who is always at my side.