Tuesday 26 March 2013

Nathaniel Hawthorne's the 'great stone face' elaborates on an age old theme. People await the coming of the wise one who will lead them and bring an era of prosperity. In the story the people sought this 'ray of hope' in one whose physiognomy bore a marked resemblance to a rock formation. However, in a stunning turn of events quite contrary to the general feeling of an outsider taking the reigns of administration, 'Ernest' a common villager around whom the story revolves turns out to be the prophesied one.
'No prophet is accepted in his own country', says Jesus.To me a 'prophet' in today's jargon would be a missionary. Hence in one's perennial desire for a dynamic pastor one looks out to the horizon. As the old adage goes the 'grass is greener on the other side'. No wonder we would welcome an outsider in great pomp while the one who is among us we push to obscurity.
There was once a great feast in the village. The village leader declare that the feast being a community affair everyone was to contribute a minimum of one glass of wine to provide for the night's festivities. One miserly villager debated that if he put a glass of water into the barrel it wouldn't make a difference to the quantity of wine that would be there at the feast later that day, imagine the consternation of the chieftain when turned on the faucet of the wine barrel and out came water.
I fear this too may be our predicament if we don't 'pull up our socks', because Jesus commissioned us to go out and proclaim and not to await the Good News. Hence, we can gain inspiration from a quote by Zig Ziglar on our line of action, "If it is to be it is up to ME".

Nathaneal George.SDB

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