"He who sets hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom. . ."
This line stuck with me all through the afternoon. I heard it in Mass and I kept hearing it. And I realized that one of my great accomplishments in life has been to do contour plowing on perfectly flat surfaces. When I look back over my Christian life it is a history of setting hand to plow and looking back. Don't know if I'm waiting for an audience, encouraging others ito join me in the thrilling life of plowing the fields, or just thinking--"It's awful hot out here, and back at the clubhouse I could have a tall iced-tea with mint, or lemonade--you know there's really no need to subject yourself to all this fuss and sun. After all there's others to do the work, and they're far better at it."
Each person probably has different excuses--"I am not worthy." "I am afraid." "I'm bored." "I don't want a menial job." You name it, there are probably a billion reason not to set hand to plow and really only one to start--it is our call in life as Christians. In order to be Christians, in order to serve God, we must do so without reservations.
I think Jesus was well aware that there were likely to be many false starts and many abortive attempts. And so He warned us--don't try this at home with Professional supervision. That is to say, we'll get no where on our own and He knew that. So, with all good will, we need to try once again, and let prayer pull the plow with our eyes firmly set on Him. This done, all other things will fall into their rightful place.
