24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

This year marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. In Washington, there is a monument to remember the men who gave their lives so that women and children could have the lifeboats. Every year the tuxedo clad members of the Men’s Titanic Society gather at the monument around midnight to drink a champagne toast to the memory of the brave men who sacrificed themselves in the frigid waters on that fateful night.

Jesus tells his disciples, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it.”

We may wonder if we have the courage to follow this teaching. Perhaps when the moment confronts us, there will rise within us an unknown power to make the hard decision. In his book, The Power of Myth, the late Joseph Campbell said, “People who risk their lives to save others demonstrate a breakthrough of the meta phorical realization that they and the other are one… the true reality is in the unity with all life.”

Deacon Dick Folger