Sunday Reflection with Fr Terry Tastard: 14 October 2012

Scene from Of Gods and Men

Sometimes scripture should trouble us. Sometimes it should cut across our normal way of thinking and bring us up short. The Bible would have no weight if it simply confirmed every opinion of our opinionated minds. Today’s gospel is a case in point. In the shorter version (Mark 10.17-27) a young man asks Jesus for advice. The advice is to give everything away and follow him. Indeed, the advice is quite specific: ‘Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor’ (10.21). Imagine this: a young man or a young woman about to launch on their career asks you for advice. Would you tell them to liquidate their possessions and give the income to the poor, preparatory to following Jesus? One of the most heart-rending films that I have seen is Into the Wilderness (2007). Based on a true story, it is about a student who on graduating gives away his money to charity and goes to live in the Alaskan wilderness, where he dies of starvation. In this case his yearning for poverty and simplicity seems to have been primarily ecological. We would be more likely to encourage a young person to save, to take out a pension, to try to get on the housing ladder. We would probably say to a young person that you can be financially prudent and still be a Christian. And indeed, that is so.

Yet consider another film, Of Gods and Men (2010). Again based on fact, it is about a group of Trappist monks in Algeria who have many ties with the local Muslim people. At time of fundamentalist terror they have to decide whether to abandon the monastery, and the local people, or whether to stay. They know that to stay risks their lives. Nearly all were rounded up, marched off and beheaded. This film is also moving, as it shows us very human people: a monk swears, there is bickering, there is fear. But there is also a facing up to reality, an honesty about what might await them, and a gentle determination to stay where they are as a praying, befriending presence. It costs them everything.

To me the difference between the two cases is not that one is right and the other wrong. The difference, rather, is that in the case of the monks there is what the Bible calls discernment. The decision is not made alone – indeed the community upbraids their prior for wanting to make the decision for them. Rather it is made in consultation, in openness, in prayer, the consultation including their superiors in Europe. The lad who goes into the Alaskan wilderness, however, is acting alone, without reference to others. Spiritually this is a dangerous thing.

We are right to be prudent, especially those who have family responsibilities. In fact, setting our finances on a sound basis is surely essential to stewardship, which the Bible also encourages. In scripture we are invited to see our resources as entrusted to us by God who asks us to use them wisely, considerately, and yes, prudently. But there has to be room for generosity, for compassion, for actions that sometimes go beyond what is prudent. For gestures of faith, if you like, as part of our following of Christ. I must confess that on the sadly few occasions when I give something away I hear the voice of Jesus about the poor widow who puts her mite into the Temple treasury: Everybody else, he says, gave what they had left over from their abundance. But she gave all that she had (Mk 12.44). And I know that I have given only the surplus. The Christian men and women who have challenged me to deeper living have not necessarily been people who liquidated their assets. But they have been people who somehow found a way to live courageously, generously, creatively, in their following of the Master.

Fr Terry Tastard is Parish Priest of St Mary's, East Finchley, in north London.