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Pag© 2 • Faith Today
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By Theodore Hengesbach
NC News Service
I write this article surrounded
by maps and guidebooks. Laying
plans for a trip East, I’ve gathered
up resources, checked the family
finances, selected points of in
terest to see, calculated driving
time and debated whether to take
the scenic or direct route — all
part of an effort to make sure the
trip is “worth it.’’
Although I’m planning a vaca
tion trip East, this setting also
seems appropriate for writing
these reflections on adult life as
an ongoing journey. For whether
it’s a 10-day vacation or a life of
30, 50 or 70 years, the journey
needs thoughtful planning and a
willingness to make adjustments
along the way.
Our journeys are too potentially
glorious to follow the example of
a couple I know. Shortly before
their first and perhaps only trip to
Europe, they told me: “We
haven’t looked into it much. We’ll
just drive around when we get
there and see what happens.”
Sometimes adult life can be com
pared to the same scene on a
mountain road viewed now from
one angle, then another. At each
wayside we ponder anew questions
never answered once and for all.
What does the future hold?
Will it be better than my past?
Will my relationships with fami
ly and friends get better?
The study of thousands of peo
ple’s experiences reveals that adult
life is a journey marked by certain
relatively common elements:
•The bittersweet event of leav
ing the parental home and setting
out on your own;
•The jolt, often in your 30s, in
coming to terms with personal
limitations;
• The twinge of panic felt,
Roads to go home by
often in one’s 40s, when the
days of life are no longer counted
in terms of the years since birth
but of the years until death;
•The eventual acceptance and
savoring of one’s unique life jour
ney in the mid-to-Iate 50s and 60s.
Adulthood often seems to be
marked by the sights and sounds
of change — new jobs, different
responsibilities, a growing family.
An opportunity for growth may
emerge as we attempt to under-
tand what a given change really
entails for us.
And it is similar in our lives of
faith. As we move from a
childhood faith nurtured by
parents to adult faith, we may
ask: What difference does faith
make for my work life? For my
social life? In what more mature
ways am I invited by my faith to
serve others?
Such questions can challenge us
to a new understanding — and
that can signal growth
The course of adult life is also
marked by the interplay between
control and acceptance. Adult
hood can begin with a feeling of
boundless self-confidence in our
ability to control and direct our
destiny.
But, as we encounter distressing
events — happy events too —
gradually we discover that
everything isn’t under our con
trol. Many things happen “to” us.
Then the journey of adulthood
becomes a lesson in deciding
wtien to act and when to receive,
when to speak and when to listen,
when to accept the graciousness
of others and of God.
An adult’s life is always in the
process of development, as new
events are turned to opportunities
for growth. But this requires shif
ting gears from time to time, tak
ing stock.
Through it all, we can discover
God, the source of all life. Faith is
a gift for seeing the changeless,
vibrant life of God all along the
challenging route of adulthood.
And faith bears the promise that
it is all “worth it” even though
life’s meaning may only be revealed
in dribs and drabs along the way.
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(Hengesbach teaches at Indiana
University, South Bend.)
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Early Christian growth spurts
By Father John Castelot
NC News Service
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain all
sorts of writings: texts of the
books of the Bible, commentaries
on them, the rules and traditions
of the Qumran community which
produced the scrolls.
The scrolls reflected the intense,
continuous study that took place
in the community. For Qumran
had formed originally, not long
before the time of Christ, in reac
tion to what its members con
sidered the corruption of the tem
ple clergy. A usurper had taken
over the office of the high priest,
they charged, and the result was a
general deterioration of temple
personnel.
Having cut themselves off from
what had been the center of their
lives, the liturgy celebrated at the
Temple, Qumran’s members had
to find another center of interest.
They found it in the Bible, and
especially in the Torah, the Bible’s
first five books.
Day and night the Qumran peo
ple studied these books, reflected
and commented on them. During
the day when most were engaged
in manual labor, some were
assigned to study. At night, a third
of the community was busy with
the central task of study.
In a way, this was a sort of in
tensive synagogue enterprise. For
the synagogue, while it was a
house of prayer, was also a house
of study. The word of God was
the center of the community’s life
and there was no end of mining
its riches. This was a thoroughly
adult enterprise.
The first Christians continued
this practice. What is preserved
now as our Liturgy of the Word tism
was for the earliest Christians th^
occasion for continued and con- lett<
tinuous intellectual and spiritual mer
enrichment. the
In a summary of life in the early spai
church, Luke tells us: “They its r
devoted themselves to the C
apostles’ instruction and the com- cess
munal life” (Acts 2:42). Pau
So important was this constant, mal<
conscious growth in Christian *
undertanding and living that wui
when the apostles were faced adu
with a choice between administra- live
tion and teaching, St. Peter spoke con
up: “It is not right for us to mys
neglect the word of God in order hau
to wait on tables” (Acts 6:2). plic
St. Paul’s whole life was C
dedicated to the instruction of his seri
adult converts, and he was never
content with what he had taught
them in preparation for their bap- Joh