What is this one thing in your life? Jesus mentioned this when he heard Martha’s complaint against Mary, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” In fact what Mary did was sitting beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. I wouldn’t say this means we all have to sit before the Blessed Sacrament listening to the Lord speak. Rather, it would be an invitation to listen to God’s calling for your life purpose through your conscience which often entails repentance first because we need to reestablish priorities in our life. In this sense, we should learn something remarkable from the first disciples in the gospel when they abandoned their father and nets to follow Jesus. Probably they had no idea what was going to happen and yet they glimpsed that it was a right thing to do.
I remember I had no idea when I left home because of my parents who opposed my asking to let me enter the seminary to be a priest. It was a cold night; I packed a bag and walked out of home, thinking not to come back again. Only one thing I was sure was that I followed someone who would make me remarkable. “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” But it didn’t take long to realize I had no idea how to fish and I was afraid of water that probably prevented any one from plunging into the unknown. With the grace of God, the disciplinary time to learn the fishes and to be not afraid of water followed through the seminary years.
I wonder now how I could do that; where I could get courage to follow my heart. All I can say is that I knew it was the one thing I wanted to accomplish which was imminent and urgent. I knew the time was running out and I didn’t want to pretend I did well when the prophet Jonah proclaimed repentance. I had to repent my sinful life and change my mind. One thing I have ever done well in my life is that in the cold night I left home, not knowing what to do but following my heart. As Robert Frost described in his poem,
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth. / Then took the other, as just as fair / And having perhaps the better claim / Because it was grassy and wanted wear /… Yet knowing how way leads on to way / I doubted if I should ever come back. / I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence / Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– / I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.”