R.S.V.P. / James F. Finley.


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“R. S. V. P ”

Rev. James F. Finley, C.S.P.

MARCH 22, 1959



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In the last three weeks as we con-
sidered three of Christ's first words, we
have said some hard things and offered

some harsh comparisons. We said them
because they needed to be said in the

general analysis we were making of our
time. For an age of soft lives and dull

consciences, someone must say hard

things and make harsh comparisons.
But for today and for next Sunday, we
should like to turn our topic more specif-

ically to you. . .each one of you. We give
over the general attitudes and the vast

purposes of God's plan and the tremen-

dous scope of Christ's work to save to

consider the individual you. . .not the

groups of you and the nameless con-

gregations of you that listen. . .but the

individual you who, alone, hears my
voice...the individual mind that weighs

my words, the individual heart into whose
soil they fall.

With all that I have said in the past

weeks, I was very conscious that none

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of it could radically affect your life

unless you were deeply aware that

Christianity is never a compulsion; it

is simply an invitation. To lose that
notion is to lose the truth of how Christ
is in our lives; to forget that is to

spoil our service, for to serve Christ

from any other motive than having been

invited is to change ourselves from

companions of Christ to slaves. To
serve Christ in fear or resentment is to

cripple Christianity and to cheat Christ,

because such an attitude lessens what

we do and robs Christ of the good He
can use.

Christ must have had this in mind

when He spoke his forth word in the
Gospel. Almost in keeping with our

own analysis, He turns His words from
the general aspects of His mission and

begins to deal with particular persons.

The scene of the word is again the
country where John the Baptist is

preaching. But this time Christ merely

passes the crowd on the edge and walks

by without stopping. John sees Him and
cries out, "Behold the Lamb of God."

Christ does not stop but keeps moving

along. Suddenly two of St. John's

disciples break from the crowd and

hurry after the retreating Jesus. They

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have almost caught up with Him when
Christ stops and asks them # "What seek

ye?" Of the two who followed it is
Andrew who speaks: "Master", he says,
"Where dwellest thou?" Jesus beckons

them with the words: "Come and see."
This was really the first declaration

Christ made that He sought disciples to
His way, but it become a pattern for all
the calls that Jesus made on any of His
followers. There is no recorded account

that He called any of his disciples by
any other means than an invitation.

Peter stood by the lake and Christ

walked by and said, "Come"; He asked
John and James to "follow" Him;

Phillip joined them a few days later but

only at the invitation of Christ; Matthew,

the tax collector, was added with the
same words of invitation. Considering
these six situations I think we can
safely argue that Christ followed this

procedure of invitation with all the

twelve.

In fact, the incidents in the future

life of Christ are our best argument that

He followed this procedure of invitation
not only with His twelve apostles but

with everyone who came close to him.
He used this method for the moments
that demanded great decisions or for the

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moments that seemed of little importance.
Christ may have phrased his call differ-
ently as He applied it to some specific
problem in the life of the person before

Him but most often, under any situation,

Christ's wards carried the impact of that

one word of invitation, "Come!"
I think if I were forced to name a

favorite word of Christ, I would select

this word, "Come." He uses the word
over and over again. . .and notice, He
never uses it as a command. . .it is
always a simple invitation.

Take the simple story of the gospel

that describes the first missionary

journey of the disciples and their return

from that journey. Of all people, Christ

knew the discouragement, the rebuffs,
the trials these men endured in this
first experience at preaching for His

sake. He knew that now was the time
for them to get together and compare

these experiences, to ask questions, to

learn lessons that would be profitable

for them on their next outing as

missioners.

As the Master, as the Divine expert
in preaching and converting, Christ

could well have acted the martinet and

demanded that if the disciples wanted
to continue at this work they HAD to go

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to school and learn from Him the tech-
niques of their vocation. The gospel

shows us that Christ made no such

demand. Knowing how much He is going
to depend upon them and how much re-
sponsibility for Christianity He is going
to place in their hands, Christ still

does no more than invite them to further

learning. "Come apart with me," He
says to the return followers, — "Come
apart with me and rest awhile."

Another expressive incident in the

gospels. . .and only one of the many. . .

is the occasion where Christ meets the

Samaritan woman at the well. Here is a
woman who has lived a succession of
marriages and divorces. Christ reveals

that He knows the story of her life and
shows her that there is more to life than
this folly and stupidity of on-again,

off-again marriage. He tells her that He
can give her the water of life. . .the

living water after which she should
truly thirst. The Samaitan woman
petitions Christ for such a boon.

His answer is not to rebuke her for
her evil life, not to demand anything for
now. His words are in the pattern of
His previous calls to others, "Come to
me and bring thy husband."

Before we go on, let's add one more

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situation to these others. This occasion

is almost a must because it has become
the class story of Christ and His in-

vitations to souls. Remember the rich
young man? The dramatic picturizations
of this moment show Christ as he gazes
lovingly upon a searching and sensitive

soul. The young man has eagerly pressed
forward to speak to Christ directly and

he asks — "Master, what must I do to
gain eternal life." Our Lord tells him

that he must keep the commandments.
The young man yearns for more and tells
Christ that he has complied with this

requirement from his youth.

Here is a man who by his own words has
practically put himself under the re-

sponsibility of going beyond the ordinary

obligation of the commandments. He is
giving to Christ the occasion to demand,

to order more perfection in his life.

But there is no demand, no imperious

order thrust upon the rich young man.

Christ will act no differently with this

eager soul than He has acted with the
disciples who surround Him. "If thou
wilt be perfect, "Our Lord says, "go,
sell all that you have and come follow
me."
The keynote of Christianity is pre-

served in this meeting of Christ and a

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soul just as it has been on all other

moments. Invitation was the way of
Christ with the first follower. . .it will

be the way of Christ with the last. . .it
is the way of Christ with everyone in
between.

You are one of those in between. And
you, like the disciples, have heard of

Christ and hastened after him and have

been asked the question, "What seek

ye?" Yes, my dear friends, you have
sought the place where Christ dwells as

you have gone about your life looking for

peace or happiness or success or what-

ever goal you think is the one that will

complete you. You have sought His
place directly, surely, courageously. . .

or you have sought His peace in the

indirection of weakness or cowardice

of sin.

Christ passes by in the life of each

one and the simple word, "Come!" is
uttered. No matter how rudimentary our
education or how shabby our back-
ground. . .no matter how effete or ed-
ucated, how clever or accomplished we
may be. . .the difference with us does
not make for a different Christ or a
different approach. Whether it comes in
a sermon or through contact with a
person, whether it comes by a joy that

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elevates our soul or a tragedy that

strikes deep into our lives, whatever the

means, wherever the time, Christ passes
by and the simple word, "Come!" is
uttered. We receive our invitation to
follow... our invitation not our order.

Which one of us would say that this

is not so? When was the last time, for
example, that Christ whipped or drove

any of you an inch nearer to Himself.

Which of you could say that Christ ever

wrenched or forced your soul to comply

with His wishes for it.

We are free to refuse. The sad proof
of our ability to reject Christ is seen in

the sad stories of those who did reject
Christ. . .rejections that stretch out

from the time before His birth to the

moment of His death. His life begins
with the sad stories of the souls who
slammed doors on Him before He was
born and cried out, "Move on, there is
no room for you at our hearths," and His

life ends with the sad tale of traitor

who kissed Him to His death and cried
in his soul, "Go away, there is no room
for you in my heart."
Between these moments the favorite

word of Christ fell in the souls of many
and they rejected the invitation as we
have noted for example in the case of

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the rich young man. Even so much as a

whole city rejected His invitation

because we see Christ lamenting over
Jerusalem as He prays

l
"Jerusalem,

Jerusalem, thou who killest the prophets
and stonest those who are sent to thee.
How often would I have gathered thy
children . . .but thou wouldst not.'

7

Christianity is a history of rejections

that are tragic because it is a history

of a just God who will not force the love
of the lowliest creatures. But remember

that as it is a history of rejections that

are tragic, it is also a history of accep-

tances that are glorious. Its glori-

ousness is that in freedom, souls choose
and in freedom, souls serve and in

freedom, souls love and in freedom,

souls follow.

And now, what about you. . .you,
alone, listening now in this hour. . .
closed in from the world and set apart

even from the people who sit beside
you. There falls in your heart at this

moment Christ's favorite word, "Come,"
. . .what is your response?

The word may come as the invitation
to accept a vocation and follow Christ

more closely. It may come to you a dis*
tracted sjduI whose faith is weak and
whose purpose of life is wobbly. . .Christ

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may be saying, "Come apart with me and
rest awhile." Maybe, you are discour-

aged and Christ speaks His "Come" to
you as he did to the people of His own
day, "Come to me all you who labor and
are heavily burdened and I will refresh

you." Perhaps, to a married couple

foolishly avoiding children, He speaks
and tells them, "Suffer the little children

to come unto me." Or to a searcher after
truth and faith, He speaks as He spoke
to Andrew, "Come and see."

Christ speaks to each of you and

makes His invitation to follow. It will
be always and only an invitation that

you get. . .not for one moment will He
let you serve in slavish fear and

trembling.

In a previous talk I mentioned a statue

of Christ and called it the rejected

Christ. Let me now describe that figure
of Christ as He stands before. The
figure stands with two arms outstretched,

empty and waiting.

The meaning of two open waiting arms
is obvious; two arms are held out to a

venturesome child trying to take its

first steps in life., .the arms are a sign

that it will not be allowed to fall; the

two arms are held out to a frightened

soul fleeing danger. . .they are a sign

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to it that there is a haven from harm;

two arms are held out to the weak and
the old and the tired. . .they are a sign

to all these that here is support and

strength; two arms are held out to a

lover who knows that they are the
boundaries of the whole world to their
love.

The two arms of Christ may have any
of these meanings for you as He extends
them toward you. You are being in-
vited to enter and dwell within the

safety of these arms. . .and that there

may be no doubt of your invitation,
Christ speaks His favorite word,

"Come!"

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