Wayward Hearts

Greetings to all reading this. As the intro thingy says just under the title, this blog is sort of the information home base of St. Andrew's Youth Ministry, which takes place, obviously, at St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church, in Oakville, Ontario. Right now, at the time of writing, this is a brand new ministry venture begun by the parish, and I'm a brand new youth minister. More, I'm a brand new Catholic! But I'll probably take another post to talk about that!

"Grace for the Wayward Heart" is a song from my favourite band, Jars of Clay, in which they talk about the struggles and failings of trying to live out this thing called Christianity. It despairingly asks, "Is there grace for the wayward heart?" It reminded me (as most of the songs on the album that it comes from, "Who We Are Instead") of the most famous and best written short story of all time (so say scholars and critics who know about such things), one I'm sure you've heard, that of "The Prodigal Son". It was a parable told by Jesus in the 15th Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. Jesus tells the story of a rather rebellious young man who says to his father one day, "Dad, I hate it here so much, living under your stinking rules [I'm paraphrasing here ;)], that I wish you were dead. I want my portion of the inheritance, and I'm out of here!" Now, this would break any father's heart, but the father gave the son his share of the inheritance, and off the jerk went. Not being too wise (which hopefully is obvious just in the way he treated his father) he squandered his money on what the Bible terms "prodigal living", thus the title of the story. Prodigal means wasteful. So he blew his money, maybe on booze, maybe on women, maybe on "friends", maybe at the track, or maybe (probably?) on a little of each. He's broke, he's stuck feeding pigs (the ultimate disgrace to a Jew), and he's starving to death, wishing he could eat even the pigs' food. Finally, something happens. The Bible says, "He came to his senses" and we say "about time!" He thinks to himself, "You know, back home I had it really good. Roof over my head, good food, a family that loved me. Even the servants lived better than I do here!" So he decided to go back to his father, and beg that he could be just one of the servants, since he didn't deserve to be a son any longer. As he made his way back, get this, the father saw him while he was still a long way off! The father waited daily by the window to see when his son would return. That's love! What's more, this elderly fellow threw off all social convention and dignity, and ran out to greet his son, embracing him in the hugest bear hug you could imagine! The son gets about halfway through his rehearsed apology when he hears his father cry out to his servants to bring out the finest clothes, kill the best livestock and prepare a great feast, "for," he says, "my son who was dead is alive again!"

"Is there grace for the wayward heart?" Jesus tells us "Yes! There is! Just come home to the Heavenly Father, who loves you!" So maybe you're feeling a little wayward, a little distant from God. Realise that He loves you, and waits eagerly for you to turn to Him again. He's not sitting in Heaven waiting to smite you every time you do something wrong. He's not looking for excuses to send you to hell! He's looking for excuses to welcome you into heaven. He's bending over backwards in order to know you personally!

Maybe you're tight with God. Jesus is your best friend, and you're a regular Joe Churchie. Well, Jesus didn't end the story of the Prodigal Son with his return home. See, the punk kid had an older brother, and this older brother was the "good son", never did anything wrong, was always faithful and obedient. When his black sheep of a brother came wandering home, and his father rolled out the red carpet for him, Joe Churchie got a little offended. He goes to his father and says, "All my life I've been a good guy, I've done what you wanted, I've never done anything wrong! And this son of yours, who cursed you out, took his inheritance, and bailed, is getting a party?! What's the deal with that?!" The father said to him, "Why should I not rejoice? You have been faithful and will get your reward! But this, my son, who was dead, has now come back to life! Rejoice with me!"

We need to be careful not to get that kind of attitude. After all, to some degree, we're all a little wayward, we all need the grace of God to get anywhere. Let us be welcoming to all who darken the doors of the Church, and receive them with open arms! In fact, let's go out and invite them ourselves!

That's what the Youth Ministry at St. Andrew's seeks to be, a place where all of us wayward hearts can come and experience the love and the grace of God in our lives.