Process and Event
It was in the summer of 1975 that I first put on the uniform of Horsham High school. The shirt felt tight around my neck, and the blazer was ill fitting, scratchy and awkward… I went tremulously through the front gate, found my way to where I was supposed to be and began.
Question. When I went through the gates for that very first time was I a student of Horsham High School or not?
There is a line of reasoning which says Yes, of course! My name was on the roll, and I was in a classroom.
There is another line of reasoning which says that I had a ways to go. That I actually became a student of the school as I made friends, played 500 at lunch time, went to the school fete and danced like an uncoordinated teenager at the social. All the time I was becoming a pupil of the school. I gradually became enfleshed in the life of the school community and the school became a part of me. There was an invisible something else that was going on apart from homework, classes, school bells and the uniform.
Gradually the uniform became more comfortable, more a part of me and who I was. Some days it was a joy to put on and I looked forward to the day at school. There were other days when I would much rather have slipped into my flared jeans and a suggestive T shirt (this was the 1970s after all) and wagged. Most of the time the uniform was just second nature. I put it on and went to school without a second thought. It was just what I did. It’s who I was.
St. Paul understood uniforms. Check out this morning's 2nd lesson where he is writing to the Ephesians. He cleverly uses the uniform of a Roman soldier as a kind of parable.
The belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness, with your feet fitted with readiness. The shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, the word of God.
Pauls says put these garments on. There are days when it is a joy to put them on. There are other days when we don’t want to put them on, but most of the time, hopefully, it is just second nature and we just put them on. It is just what we do. It is who we are. People of Truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, who read our bibles, come to mass and say our prayers. See the end of the second lesson this morning for Paul's encouragement about prayer.
Now all that might sound gooey and lovely, but have a look at Paul's imagery. A sword, a helmet, a breastplate, a belt. This is fighting gear!
Paul well understands how difficult it is to follow the path of the pierced and broken Saviour. He has obviously experienced his own temptations and allurements, or in his own words ‘The flaming arrows of the evil one’.
And just as God cannot stop loving us, so too the evil one cannot stop tempting us and tiresome as it is, we must make a conscious effort and a confident decision each and every day to put on our fighting gear. There will be times when we will have to choose these garments frequently throughout the day. Sometimes the arrows from the evil one are fast, furious and frequent.
I don’t remember when it was. There was no special day or event that I can recall in my very sketchy memory, but at some point I felt as if I had become a student of Horsham High School. Even though I had been putting on the uniform day after day, had been enrolled and going to classes, somehow now the uniform was comfortable. I belonged to the school and it belonged to me.
My hope is that there has been such a time or even several times, when you have found yourself thinking. “I now belong to Him and He belongs to me”. I have become and I am becoming, the person I was called to be. I am part of that community which is on this side of the grave and the other. The heavenly host and especially in this parish, Our Lady of Dunkeld, St. Peter of Glenthompson, St. Mark of Cavendish and All the Saints of Penshurst. The people in Church with me, they are my chums who have learnt lessons with me and encourage me still. They too have had rubbish days and sparkly days.
By choosing to put on the uniform consistently, faithfully daily, especially when we don’t want to, then we come to know who we truly are and we can rejoice in being who we are. A moment's reflection will tell us that we were in fact that person long before we walked through the school gates. We have in fact, always belonged to Him. It just took us a few years, many lessons, some whacky teachers, some homework and a crazy uniform to get us there