Not For Anything (ptI): Cura Personalis

The month of May brought forth great upheaval and great joy. Dear friends are getting engaged/married (Congratulations!!! and many blessings!!!! Hugzzzz), or are confronting crisis in their present relationships with loved ones/people around them (Hugzz too).

At mass this week, I was captured by a simple article reminding me what caring for the people around me translates to in daily living - to be faithful in attention, to constantly watch out for, through the inevitable ups and the downs.

I dedicate this article to all friends and the first two paras. especially to newly weds and about-to-weds, and searching-to-weds :)

NOT FOR ANYTHING

In Sydney last Saturday to celebrate a wedding, I read a piece entitled
“two of us” in Good Weekend. The last paragraph caught my attention and moved
me. Speaking about her marriage of 53 years with eminent medical scientist,
Derek Denton, Dame Margaret Scott, founder of the Australian ballet school, had
this to say: “I’ve always wanted to be with Dick. Of course, marriage is such a
constant change every day; sometimes it’s boring, sometimes its exciting,
sometimes it’s joyful, sometimes it’s awful. Who knows? I’ve never ever taken my
wedding ring off, not for anything, not even for repairs.”

When I read these words, I was remained of the true story some years ago when divers located a 400-year-old ship off the coast of Northern Ireland. Among the
treasures found on the sunken ship was a man’s wedding ring. When it was cleaned
up, the divers noticed that it had an inscription on it. Engraved on the wide
band was a hand holding a heart. Under the engraving was the inscription: “I
have nothing more to give you.”

Not for anything. I have nothing
more to give you. Stories of enduring love like this set the scene for this
weekend’s gospel of the Good Shepherd. If you have ever had the privilege and
good fortune to visit the Holy Land and see a shepherd in action, you would
surely have been struck by his constant care and watchfulness. Not for anything
would he abandon any one of this sheep and expose them to danger or loss. They
are his lifeblood. He knows and calls each one by name.

We speak a good deal these days about pastoral care. Indeed we even have pastoral councils advising us on the affairs of our parishes. That little word ‘care’ comes from
the Latin meaning ‘attention to’, ‘watching out for’, honouring the symptoms
before rushing to find a cure. Cure without proper care, as Peter Van Breeman
once said, is meaningless. We need to befriend problems before we can find a
proper solution to them.

To the extent that we watch out for others, we are all pastors. While we might not resonate with the rural connection here, we all have the responsibility of shepherding others, of attending to their welfare. In the Ignatian tradition, we call this cura personalis, watching out for and caring for the individual. For someone like
Ignatius, who was captivated by the fact that God knows us intimately and loves
us passionately as individual people, cura personalis was an essential
ingredient in his teaching. Good shepherding is about being watchful and
faithful in our care for others. Sometimes frustrated and disappointed, good
shepherds are ever hopeful and never walk away. Not for anything.

Fr Chris Gleeson SJ
Parish of St Ignatius
(Toowong)
Forth Sunday of Easter