Friday 29 June 2012

Focus on God


Once again Father Ignatius was taking the Catechism class at the local Catholic school. The fifteen year olds were often quite challenging and their questions certainly merited careful consideration and were always answered honestly; no matter the subject under discussion.

This particular day was known by the class as “Free Day”. They could ask the priest any question on any subject and he attempted his best to answer them.

A cheeky young lady put her hand up eagerly and Father Ignatius motioned her to speak up.

“It must be difficult being a priest Father,” she started hesitantly, “I mean … you can’t do what you want. You can’t go on a date like …”

The whole class laughed.

Another girl sitting next to her chirped in “Or go in the woods in the park with your girl friend”.

“Oooohhh!!!” said some girls.

“That’s right,” interrupted a boy, “priests can’t go riding motorbikes fast, or have tattoos and all these things we do. They always have to be saintly and walk around like angels.”

Father Ignatius remained silent and tapped the ruler gently on the desk to attract their attention and get them to settle down.

He then said, “A man goes to the doctor's and complained that his whole body hurts wherever he touches it.

"The doctor frowns and replies ‘That is not possible! Show me.’

“The man pushed gently his left shoulder with his finger and then screamed in agony. He then pressed on his elbow with his finger and cried even more in terrible pain. He touched his knee and cried even louder. And then again he touched his ankle and the pain was just as excruciating.

“Everywhere he touched made him cry in great pain. ‘It hurts all over, doctor,’ he said, ‘is it serious?’

“The doctor replied, ‘Not really, your finger is broken.’ ”

The whole class laughed in unison.

Father Ignatius waited until they’d settled down and then continued in his gentle voice.

“Sometimes we get too fixated on the wrong things. Just like the man in the joke.

”That’s when we fail to focus on the right priorities in life. We allow our outlook and our earthly vision to be blurred by the many distractions which this world has to offer.

”Life becomes a series of goals set, targets to be met and achievements aimed for. And we miss the obvious point.

”Set your hearts on the things that are in Heaven, where Christ sits on His throne at the right-hand side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.”

 Colossians 3:1-2.

16 comments:

  1. Fr. Ignatius is so wise, Victor:-)

    Sometimes, I think it's not just the earthly details that are distracting, don't you think? We can also focus on little details of our faith and lose sight of what's most important, too, I think.

    Thank you for this story, Victor. I'll think about it, today.

    God bless:-)

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  2. You're right Vicky.

    It's often very difficult to discern what the Lord is saying to us and we get distracted and lose focus.

    God bless.

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    1. I've also met people that get so wrapped in learning the faith for apologetics that seem to lose their focus on their own personal relationship with the Lord.

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  3. Sadly, at that age those wise words were probably lost.

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  4. Good point well made Athanasius.

    Often people get too wrapped up with details and lose their personal relationship with God.

    He speaks to all of us individually. Sadly many are only willing to serve Him in an advisory capacity!

    God bless you.

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  5. Thank you Colleen. I appreciate your support.

    God bless.

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  6. What a great story funny and teaches something I agree many people are too fixated on all that is wrong in their lives instead of focusing on all the good things in their life

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  7. You're correct Jo-Anne. That's how we sometimes lose focus on what's right.

    God bless you and your family.

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  8. A beautiful message in this post, Victor. You always have a nice mixture of humor and lessons in your posts. I'm very glad you blog. I like both your funny side and your serious side :)

    God bless!

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  9. Thanx Mary for your encouragement and support.

    God bless.

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  10. Victor,

    I love your Fr Ignatius stories most of all. Always something to think about and discuss. Thank you.

    God bless

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  11. Thank you Sue. I value your opinions and thank you for your support and encouragement.

    God bless you and yours.

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  12. This is exactly what I've been doing. Poking here and here and here to see if it hurts. IT HURTS! But there are so many other things to be thankful for. Thank you for this wise story.

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  13. We all tend to do that Sarah, at one time or another.

    We focus on real or imaginary problems rather than pray and hope for God's solutions.

    God bless.

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  14. Nice one, Victor!

    We never seem to understand the problems in the world are because of us and never because of God and perfect will.

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  15. Thanx Remedia,

    We tend to create the problem and then run to God for help in solving it.

    God bless.

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