A few months before my priestly ordination, I was going through a pile of books in an old bookstore and came across a book with the title: “Is There Anyone There?” It sounded like a question that came from the deepest part of me, given that at that time, I was a bit confused whether to make up my mind for the priesthood. I quickly paid for the book, got home and spent the rest of the day reading it. The book tells a story of a young athlete who during one of his customary early morning exercises decided to take a rout he wasn’t used to and fell into a deep hole caused by a terrible flood. But halfway down the hole, he was lucky to catch hold of the root of a tree that cut across the pit. He managed to grab it and hold on to it, thanking God that everything was not yet over. He prayed for help, and suddenly got an idea. He looked up and could see that the day was breaking and decided to shout out: “Is there anyone there?” Unbelievably, he heard a voice that said: “Yes, I’m here. I’m Jesus your savior. I have heard your prayer and have come to save you.” The man replied, “Thank you Jesus!” Then the Lord continued, “Quickly, let go of the root on which you’re holding.” The athlete thought about that for a little while and then shouts back, “Is there anyone else there?” Take a moment and ask yourself whether you’ll let go of the root if you were in this man’s position.
The athlete in this story is a believer like us. He prayed for help when he was in need. We do likewise. Several of us pray only when we’re in need. Not too bad! The man got an answer to his prayer that did not match his hopes. He had faith but no trust. The root of the tree would momentarily hold his life until he reaches exhaustion and would be forced anyway to let go of it and fall to his utter ruin. Perhaps, he reasoned, as we often do, that if God was serious about saving him, He could have thrown down a rope or manufactured some tiny helicopter that would get down the hole with a crew to rescue him. He wanted God to save him on his own terms, not on the Almighty’s terms.
Who is this man? Who is this athlete? He is you and me. We are the ones midway between collapse and God’s salvation. We claim we believe in God but when the going gets tough and things do not work out as it pleases us, we take matters into our own hands, ignore and marginalize God, and seek manmade solutions. We hold on to the root that can sustain us only momentarily. Hence, the cure our society presents for sadness is to get drunk and hooked on happy-pills; for marriage problems, we divorce; for prolonged sickness, we euthanize; for disagreements, we hate, destroy property, and sue.
We believe, yes, but we are people of little faith. Do we recognize that our faith is weak? Then, we should ask the Lord, like the disciples, to increase our faith. We notice that Jesus didn’t just reach into his pocket and pull out some dose of faith and hand to them. There’s no supercenter where we can purchase faith nor can we order some faith-pills on Amazon or an online Faith-store. Jesus’ response to the apostles, “If your faith is as tiny as the mustard seed…” tells us that we need not do too much. We need only trust.
The parable of the unprofitable servant teaches us to anchor our faith in the person of Jesus, in the service of Him and His Church, and on the sacraments of salvation. We must put first at all times the will and pleasure of God. If we do, it is possible let go of our imaginary and false securities. We can let God use us as He wills—maximizing our potentials. As the unknown author of the book, “Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody” puts it, “we could at the same time be all of the above.” In a cantankerous world, Everybody usually thinks that Somebody will do it, but Nobody realizes that Anybody wouldn’t. It ends up that Everybody blames Somebody when Nobody does what Anybody could have done. Be your own person; be a person of faith.
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo