Companions on the Journey
Life will always be full of problems - even for the Christian. As our Lord said, “In this world, you will have trouble.” It’s the opposite of what we hear in commencement speeches about changing the world. Christ says instead, “I send you out as sheep among wolves.” But it’s also true that hearts touched by grace can change. “Take courage,” Jesus said, “for I have overcome the world, and I will be with you always, even to the end of time.”
So we go into the world not to change the world, but as a people who belong to the One who is changing our hearts. And there’s a difference. We don’t go out into the world as “problem-solvers” promising to fix everything. Rather, we go out witnessing to an event: “I was blind, but now I see.” We do not go out to argue. We are sent to witness by living what has happened to us.
And what is it that has happened to the Christian? Well, Christ happened to us. He looked at us, called us by name, reminded us of who we are to God, and filled us with the confidence to change our lives and to live differently in this world that never changes. We are not problem-solvers. We are companions on the journey, calling life good because of the One who is with us.
But how do we remain with Christ? It is by accepting the companionship He offers to us. When He said, “This is how people will know you are my disciples: if you love one another,” He was teaching us that we remain in Him by belonging to one another in the communion of the Church, by living a companionship together in the Spirit of Christ.
The world thinks that the purpose of life is to solve problems, but we believe that the purpose of life is to belong to one another by the Holy Spirit so that Christ can be present to us. Because when Christ becomes present in our lives through the companionship of another, while we will still have problems, we are unafraid of them. The problems remain, but the fear is overcome.
These companions challenge us, but do no violence to us by trying to change us or fix us. They do not treat us like problems. They treat us like people. And they look ahead with us to what is to come - to our destiny with God. A companion is given to us for the sake of the mission. He or she does not try to fulfill our desire for a perfect love, but looks with us toward the perfect love of God. But people who marry another person, for example, in order to solve a problem, find themselves in a tomb that goes nowhere.
It is the difference between pain and anguish. A loving mother experiences pain as she gives birth, but not anguish. Anguish comes from the hopelessness that sees pain as useless, as going nowhere. But the mother who knows that she is loved by God, even while giving birth to the child – and who sees the child as a gift – finds joy even in the pain of childbirth. She is like the man dying from ALS who says, “Sometimes I forget that I’m sick,” and when asked how, replies, “Because my caretaker loves me.”
We live in a world that says freedom comes through the eradication of the problems of life, even if it means eradicating our neighbor, or our child, or our spouse, or our enemies. But that is not what freedom means to the Christian. True freedom says to the devil and the problems he creates, “You have no power over me that has not been permitted to you by my Father in heaven for my salvation – you do not hold me hostage. Destroy this body and God will raise it up again.” Christian freedom, born of the accompaniment of one who loves me and honors my vocation, accomplishes something greater than fixing the problems of life. It saves me from fearing them. +