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Samuel Coleridge was an English poet. One day
as he woke up he remembered he had dreamed the lines of a poem, even the
title, Kubla Kahn. He did not
have to compose the lines, they were all in his head. Someone knocked on
the door who stayed for about an hour. As soon as the person left,
Coleridge tried to go back to work, but the beautiful lines had been
forgotten, never to be remembered, and Kubla Kahn remains to this day a fragment of unfinished poetry.
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Many of us have experiences like that. We know
what it is like to be interrupted, life just refuses to unfold the way
we had planned. Mothers of small children may know better than most of
us with wide awake nights and sleepy mornings, and children who always
seem to want attention at the most inconvenient moment.
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It would seem that interruptions are part of
what it means to be human. They come to all of us. Some are minor while
others are far more serious; like when all your plans for the future are
blown away when you are told that, after 20 years with the company,
they are going out of business- interruption! Or after years of married
life, your spouse says I want a divorce, and you have to rethink the
rest of your life – interruption!
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No one is exempt from this: it seems to come to
all of us at some time or another. Jesus had to deal with interruption,
it happened over and over again. Jesus invited His disciples to an
isolated place for some R and R, but an unexpected crowd spoiled the
plan. What was supposed to be a day of rest and recuperation turned into
a day of hard work, and that twist of fate gave us a demonstration of
how Jesus dealt with interruption.
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Unlike many of us, He did not resent and resist
it. Mark tells us that when He saw the crowd, His first reaction was
pity. These people were imposing on His time, it was supposed to be time
off, He deserved a rest and He tried to take one, but the throng beat
Him and His disciples to the retreat site. An insensitive crowd took
over His day so Jesus surveyed the situation, accepted the way it was,
and went to work.
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The crowd reminded Him of sheep without a
shepherd, they did not know where to go or what to do. His pity quickly
turned to action. Mark tells us He began to teach them at great length.
We do not know the content of that day’s lesson, but seeing the
situation and given what we know of Jesus, I think we can make an
educated guess. My guess is that He taught these people who they were
and how important they were to God. That no matter what they had done or
how they had lived, God cared for them, and wanted to be their
shepherd.
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Jesus was people-conscious, but He did make
enemies. Enemies of the powerful because he put compassion above
tradition, love above law, and people above things and institutions.
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How do we deal with interruptions, especially
from people we hardly know or do not even like? People who may need
only a smile or a touch? Everywhere we go we see people like sheep
without a shepherd: some will be lost in hatred, some in cynicism, some
in fear.
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In spite of our own shortcomings, our own
weakness, will we allow ourselves to be used? Will we interrupt our busy
lives long enough to let them know that no matter what, God cares just
by showing them that we care? Can we be extensions of Christ? When
dealing with others, can your motto be the words of consecration of the
mass: this is My body, given for you.
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