Transcript of the Video Above

Daily reflections for Lenten Easter, written by Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI.

There’s an old adage now the motto for Outward Bound programs in the US that reads, if you can’t get out of something, get more deeply into it. There’s more than a little wisdom in that line, despite its rather glib sound. Taken seriously, it is a paschal prescription, a challenge to die so that we might live.

Christ illustrated what that means in his prayer in Gethsemane. First he prayed that he might get out of it. Father, let this cup pass from me. Then, when he couldn’t get out of it, he got deeply into it.

The result was the resurrection. Many resurrections for us lie in imitating Christ in this. For example, today there are many people who are very unhappy with their churches, but for all kinds of reasons can never leave those churches.

If that is the case, then the prescription is clear. If you can’t get out of it, get more deeply into it. Enter your church more deeply. See and experience in the tensions, pettiness, divisions and angers of this particular community the basic and universal struggle of all people to come together around one table, to have one heart.

The struggle for one community is singularly the most difficult and demanding of all human endeavors. Your local church offers you the laboratory to work at the project.