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Checkers
and the Gospel
June
20, 2004
Fr.
George Smiga
Luke
9:18-24
If
you know the rules for the game of checkers, they will help
you follow Jesus' command in today's gospel. The command is
clear. We are to take up our cross daily and follow him. If
we are to be a disciple of Christ, we must follow in his footsteps.
Moreover, as Luke makes explicit in today's gospel, we must
follow daily. But how do we do that? In what does following
Jesus consist? What kind of decisions do we need to make?
What kind of patterns do we need to establish so that on a
daily basis we can follow the master? Here is where checkers
can help.
A
group of young Jewish seminary students were supposed to be
studying the Torah, God's law. But instead they were playing
checkers. The rabbi came into the room unexpectedly. The embarrassed
boys put the game away and went back to their books. The rabbi,
however, saw an opportunity for a lesson. “Students,” he said,
“there is no part of God's creation that cannot reveal to
us the ways of righteousness. There is nothing which God has
created that cannot point to us how we are to follow God's
ways. So it is with the three rules of checkers. The first
rule is that you cannot make two moves at once. The second
rule is that you must always move forward not backward. The
third rule is that once you reach the last row, you can move
in whatever direction you wish.” With that the rabbi left
the room. Now the students were at first confused over their
master's words. Soon, however, they realized that he had taught
that if they were to follow God's will, they should live each
day with focus, forgiveness, and compassion.
We
who are called to be disciples of Jesus, would do well to
imitate those same three qualities in our desire to follow
him.
We
should try to live each day with focus. Instead of making
many moves in many directions, we should determine which one
move is most important and make it. There are so many opportunities
in life, so many possibilities, so many desires, so many dreams.
The secret to happiness is to discover which of these many
possibilities is the most important and then each day to make
a move towards it. Our relationships, our family, our integrity
is too important to become lost in a confusion of moves. We
must determine one move, the most important one, and then
implement it. Our lives must have focus if we are to follow
Christ.
We
must also practice forgiveness. None of us are perfect, we
all fail in many ways. Yet the challenge of life is to move
forward. The only way to move forward is to regularly forgive
ourselves and forgive others, to let go of the mistakes so
that we can move on. We are called to move forward rather
than look backwards over what might have been. Guilt and regret
do not contribute to a healthy life. They only hold us back.
It is only by regular forgiveness that we can move forward,
that we can follow Christ.
Finally,
those who wish to follow Christ must be people of compassion.
We must realize that life is not only about ourselves and
our own needs. Disciples of Jesus identify with the feeling
of others and extend themselves to the needs of others. It
is only when we reach the last row and place the needs of
others before our own that we will find satisfaction. To follow
Christ we must be men and women of compassion, willing to
be comfortable in the last row. From that position we will
find the freedom to follow Christ.
Make
one move at a time. Always move forward. Find the freedom
that comes from taking the last row. These three rules of
checkers reveal a path to follow God's ways, a way in which
we can follow the master. Now to be sure, there are other
qualities of discipleship and other traits that we should
instill in our lives, but these three qualities are an essential
starting point. Because if we could live each day with focus,
with forgiveness, and with compassion, not only would we be
following the master, we would be winning the game, saving
our soul, reaching happiness here and life hereafter.
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