At any rate, the elephant was little in the beginning, like a lap dog. The young son kept telling his parents there was an elephant in the house, but they wouldn't believe it. So the elephant kept growing, trying to get their attention. Finally, he was so big he could walk off with the house. At that point, the parents acknowledged the existence of the elephant and he began to shrink back to his initial little doggy size. Obviously, the story was about problems being ignored that just get bigger unless they are acknowledged.
A lot of problems today masquerade as virtues. Anyone who disagrees with them is described as toxic and abusive. The same-sex attracted person has an identity problem as do those who think they were born in the wrong bodies and use surgery and drugs in self abuse to try to achieve the impossible. But if you say that, no matter how kindly, you are vilified and cancelled, described as evil and abusive.
Then there are those addicted to alcohol or recreational drugs and those with mental health conditions who refuse to admit they have a problem. But they aren't the only ones. Since we are all children of Adam and Eve, we all have challenges with sin and temptation.
From the moment we're born the battle begins, the tug of war between vice and virtue, Satan and Jesus. Satan prowls around seeking whom he can destroy. Jesus stands with arms outstretched inviting us to an intimate union. But too often we are rebels. We see God's love as a threat to our freedom and his commandments as spoiling our fun instead of what they truly are, the manual of happiness. Too often we consider God as a boundary violator who needs to be nailed to the cross so we can keep him out of our way.
One of the biggest problems mankind faces, I think, is trying to live a "happy life" without God. Francis Thompson described that in his poem, The Hound of Heaven where the protagonist flees from those strong feet pursuing him. Every place he seeks happiness disappoints as the voice tells him: "All things betray thee who betrayest me." That voice is inside all of us. God does not give up on us and pursues us until our last breath.
So what are the big things in your life? Do you have an elephant in the room that you're ignoring? Is that elephant stalking you, always present in the background because he's not acknowledged? Is he trying to get your attention?
Many young people today are lost and confused. (A lot of old people are too. I'm reminded of the grannies for abortion who think killing their grandchildren is a blessing. I laughed when I went to their website. They are having financial problems and rebranding. Presumably they are dying off and will disappear.) But back to young people. Speaking to a woman who counsels at a Catholic college, I listened to her describe how so many students have no goals, no idea where they're going or how to get there. In many cases we are losing young people because we have not given them a vision. Proverbs 29:18 warns that without a vision the people lose restraint. In other words, they look for love in all the wrong places.
How can we help? Our job as serious Catholic Christians is to foster vision in the young. How to do that? Grace builds on nature. John Senior teaching at the University of Kansas in the 1970s tried to re-connect youth with the true, the good, and the beautiful through their imaginations by using poetic material to reconnect them with the experience of awe and wonder. Through the Integrated Humanities Program, he awakened students' minds to the beauty of the earth. Without ever teaching on religion or proselytizing in any way, his students began to find their way into the Catholic Church, so much so that the university squashed the program after a dozen years of phenomenal success.
Senior developed a list of a thousand good books beginning with the pre-reading years. His list is well worth studying. He also encouraged listening to classical music and visiting museums and galleries to experience great art. In an age when objective truth was under attack, Senior's students embraced it and began to promote it. Read about his amazing concept and its success.
Let us all be teachers of wonder, first by becoming witnesses of wonder ourselves. As a beekeeper, I have a sense of awe every time I observe the girls carrying pollen into the hive. The complexity of their community is amazing. A thrill fills my heart if I can find the unmarked queen among all her subjects. To see the bees in their dance and know they are communicating the direction of a nectar source is mind-boggling. Even to watch them chasing the pesky black hive beetles, nasty pests, makes me laugh. And that's just one small example. Magnify that a million times!
"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson
Awe and wonder: they are among the biggest things in life. Let us never forget. Above all, let us share them with the young that they might find the vision that leads to true happiness by discovering the God Who made them. We are all little lambs of the Good Shepherd.
THE LAMB by William Blake (1757-1827).
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild,
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
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