GOING WITH THE FLOW

What a wonderful idea! Let's row from the Scottish mainland to the Bass Rock -the world-famous sea-bird sanctuary. A pleasant afternoon's outing; Not all that far -just over a mile. Nothing to it! At least that's what some of us young Dominican students thought, as we set out for the harbour. After all, the weather was fine. One of our number was ex-navy, so he should be an expert oarsman. And Peter and I had proved to be reasonably competent with a skiff on the local reservoir.

We foresaw no problem as we expected to skim across the pond-calm sea towards the rocky protuberance. We eagerly looked forward to seeing thousands of birds nesting precariously on the narrowest of ledges. Others would be gliding gracefully, patrolling the sea. Filled with anticipation, our greatest longing was for the spectacular sight of the gannets suddenly folding their wings and plummeting down into the sea, and rising triumphantly with a fish. This was going to be a truly memorable expedition!

And we made splendid progress. Even for the inexperienced among us the rowing seemed almost effortless. Rapidly, as the distant shrank, the Bass Rock seemed to grow larger and larger. We were all elated. We were carefree. We were having a great time! And we expected it to become even better.

We were startled out of our peace by a frenzied skipper yelling from a motorboat rushing madly towards us. “Turn round immediately! Head back home!” “Why should we?” we retorted indignantly, “What's the problem? Why the fuss?” “You’re being swept along by a powerful current,” he warned, as he drew alongside us. And we amateur oarsmen had been priding ourselves on making such easy progress!

What a mightily different story, when we turned the boat round and tried to row back to the harbour! To hold his position, even our experienced ex-navy oarsman had to struggle with the oars. A super-human effort was needed to make even the slightest headway. That was frightening. Wisely he adopted the tactic of heading directly inland and rowing close to the shore. There the current against us was less strong and we were able to make gradual progress to our harbour. Chastened, relieved and a little scared we stepped onto dry land. In future we would certainly take advice from the local experts before setting out on any further adventures. We had learnt our lesson!

This experience has reminded me of how easy and enjoyable it is for us to 'go with the flow.' We're swept along by public opinion. The enthusiasm of the crowd is infectious. It's exhilarating. We don't want to be left behind. We don't want to miss the excitement. We see no dangers ahead. We would be ashamed to heed the timid ones, those lacking the spirit of adventure, those kill-joys, presuming to warn us!

When we’re carried along by the flow of the crowd we fall in with the secular values that surround us. That can lead us into all kinds of sins. It's very true, if we're encouraged to experiment with drugs. We want the thrill they're supposed to promise. We kid ourselves we can stay in control. We don't want to be left behind. So we 'go with the flow.' We don't see the dangers.

And not only young people can be under the  enormous pressure of being swept along by all sorts of powerful emotions. The same is true of us adults! We too can be swept along by the crowd!  We want to show affection; we're put under pressure to do so. We can be so confident we can stay in control and pull back whenever we want to. To our lasting regret we discover that this has proved to be impossible.   If only we would all listen to the wisdom of those who have seen what a mess we can make of our own lives and other people's lives when we 'go with the flow' of the crowd, the flow of our powerful emotions and desires!

We should all hope someone will warn us of the dreadful risks we are taking. We should all hope we will have the sense to listen, and to turn back before any of us gets badly hurt. That is the lesson my expedition to the Bass Rock has taught me.

My way for meeting God must include heeding the warnings He gives me through the Church, the Scriptures, family and friends. God is not a kill-joy, nor are they. But His love and theirs makes them want to protect me from harming myself and other people. Paul puts this beatifully,

“Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and mature,”

(Rom 12. 2).

Isidore O.P.

In a fortnight Peter will reflect on Meeting God through Encroachers