Question: Where Are You Going?

Answer:

 

Huzzah! I have successfully linked up these two blogs.
We're movin' the party over to this blog, but you can find the link on this page as well:
http://goyouaresent.blogspot.com/

Follow it!
Thanks,
See you there!!!

 

15. You are Sent

Okay…. imagine a tiny little baby inside its mother’s womb. For nine months, it grows silently and all that it needs is given to it through its mother. When mom eats, baby eats. Perhaps mom reads to it, or sings to it or tells it of her hopes and dreams. Then there comes a day when there is no longer enough womb for baby to fit in. And so with one robust huff and puff, mom propels the baby out into the world to go and go and do something with its life.

(Okay, maybe it's not quite like that...)

 

How about this? Every year, high school and college graduates get together in their respective stadiums and collect their diplomas. And even though the students appropriately call this graduation, the schools call it “commencement.” The idea is, of course, that this isn’t so much the end of something as it is the beginning of something greater, the catapulting of hundreds or thousands of young people into the “real world” to go put into practice all they have learned and studied.

 

We have all experienced this “sending forth.” As kids, we were told the rules, and then turned loose to go play. We were given directions, and then told to go do our work. Often, our parents saw us off at the bus stop or at our classroom on the first day of school. Perhaps they helped us pack our bags and encouraged us as we prepared to go away to college. At work, we were most likely trained by a person or group, and then experienced the stepping forward into our own role, when they were no longer there for constant support.

Some people would call this “growing up.”

Whatever you call it, this growth in our personal autonomy is important to our growth in maturity as persons. We learn to take ownership of the skills and knowledge we have acquired. We put into practice what we’ve learned; we give what we’ve received. Our formation/education/training is incomplete if we don’t “go forth” with what we have learned. We will forget it; it will erode or die.

Christians are (or should be!) quite familiar with this “sending forth” as well. After all, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19). This is the GREAT Commission, the call of every Christian to take part in the Church's universal mission to evangelize. Catholics should be even more familiar with this idea, since they hear some sort of commissioning or “sending forth” at the end of every Mass (which incidentally, comes from the Latin word Missa, which means to send):
Go in peace.
Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

What you have just received, go and give witness to! Go and live the mystery you have celebrated! Go and become the words you have heard!

Ultimately, this is the challenge. The world tells us not to rock the boat, not to offend or be politically incorrect. All the while, they advance their agendas and proclaim their dogmas which offend the very nature of humanity. And because it is easier and less overwhelming to do nothing, that is often what we do.

Consider this your “sending forth.” I have spent this year blogging on the nature and meaning of humanity. Whether you have read just one or you have read all of the blog posts, I urge you to continue to explore these topics more deeply, always searching sincerely for the Truth. Share what you learn with others. Do your part to become what you were created to be. Clearly, what is written here is not all there is to say about humanity. And clearly, the crisis of humanity which first inspired this blog is not yet resolved. What is needed is a generation willing to pursue Truth at all costs – Truth that cannot be found in its fullness apart from Jesus Christ – and to bear witness by their words and lives to what it means to be truly human.

Go, you are sent.