Fr. Senan Furlong OSB
In 1912 the American poet, Robert Frost, moved to England for a few years. Among the friends he made there, was another poet, Edward Thomas, with whom he often went for long walks. One day as the two were wandering in the countryside, they came to a fork in the road. Thomas, who was indecisive at the best of times, couldn’t make up his mind which road to take. When eventually they took one road, he lamented that they should have taken the other. After Frost returned home to New Hampshire, he composed what is perhaps his best known and most quoted poem “The Road Not Taken”. Written in jest to his dithering friend, the poem is rich in possible meanings.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other …
The readings at Mass today concern a choice between two roads, albeit not equal roads like in Frost’s poem: the path of beatitude and blessing, or the way of curse and woe.
The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah is a short poem about the quest for true happiness. We have a choice to make: do we seek happiness by trusting solely in our own efforts and control, or do we tap into another source by trusting in God? These alternatives are presented in two vivid images: a shrivelled shrub in a dry desert, and a verdant tree whose roots reach down into a flowing stream. One is sterile, the other fruitful.
The psalm also speaks of two ways of life – good and evil – and their consequences – happiness and misery. Whoever hopes in the Lord and takes delight in his word is compared, as in Jeremiah’s poem, to a tree that is planted by a stream of water. In contrast the wicked are like chaff that is blown away by the wind during winnowing.
The gospel passage from St Luke presents Jesus’ teaching on blessings and woes. Looking straight into the eyes of his disciples Jesus pronounces four blessings followed by their mirror opposite, a quartet of woes. The blessings or beatitudes are not just surprising, but shocking. How can Jesus say that you are blessed if you are poor, hungry, reduced to tears, reviled and excluded? It’s outrageous. The woes too sound off-key. Surely it is foolish of Jesus to declare you unfortunate if you happen to be prosperous and well-fed, if you laugh and enjoy a good reputation? Everything is turned on its head. Jesus showers honour on those the world shuns, and shuns those the world is inclined to honour. This is Mary’s Magnificat: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Is all this meant to the tell us something fundamental about God and about ourselves? That our way of seeing the world and its people is not God’s way? That what we often hold as dear is not what God cherishes? That what we consider important — the fashionable, the popular, the lucrative, the clever, the witty— is not truly important? That what we regard as a woe may indeed be a blessing and what we deem a blessing may in fact be doing us damage? Perhaps Jesus is provoking us today to take another look, to choose another path, to change our heart?
Tomorrow is St Valentine’s day. The symbol of Valentine’s day is of course the heart, that amazing muscle that pumps blood, life, 24/7 to every part of our body. That is, unless something clogs our arteries. If there’s a risk of obstruction, we know we have to make necessary changes to our life style to keep our arteries open and the blood pumping. Likewise we must make necessary changes to keep our hearts open if the Gospel message is to course through the veins of our lives. The beatitudes and woes prescribed for us today in Luke’s gospel account are like a double dose of medicine that we must take if we are to have an open heart, unclogged and un-shuttered, like the pierced heart of him who poured out his life blood for us.
In the course of a life each of us comes to many a fork in the road and each time we have to choose which direction to take. We can dither and dally, like Frost’s friend, and then regret the choice we made, or we can accept the invitation of today’s gospel to clarify what is truly important and so follow in the steps of him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
And that will make all the difference.