Elijah lost his head

Saturday. The rest of the students are having exams. now with Fr Cortese. I was doing some writing on the computer when Jean Paul knocked on my door - I forgot he's supposed to cut my hair this morning. The electric shaver Minnie got me is doing a good job. Found out that almost all the students also have their own shavers as its alot cheaper doing it yourself or another student to help you. Almost 70% of the students here have a crewcut, like really very short. It saves on money.

My headache subsided somewhat when I took another brand of aspirins (Neosed) that Cecilia Cavero left me. It worked. Wihtin 30 min. the headache was gone. That made it possible for me to go out to dinner - one of the rare occassions I get invited!

Well the hosts were Alexander and Gabriella Frolich; a young couple with a 2 yr old son called Emmanuel ("Ninel" for short since that's all he can manage to say). Alex is a free lance photographer and Gabriella is a journalist for Vatican Radio. We had chinese noodles (yes they managed to get white rice noodles from a specialised store far out in the New City!) and chatted alot about the Bible as they had many questions. They're what I call the "John Paul generation" - grew up in the pontificate of JP II and fully immersed in the spirituality he developed for the young Catholics through World Youth Days etc. After dinner, Gabriella played the guitar in a prayer session and then sent Emmanuel to sleep, and we continued chatting about the Bible. By the time I got home it was 10.30pm - pretty late for my standards but it was good to have met up with them again. Very serious Catholics - they meet up once a week with a Dominican priest to discuss theology and spirituality; go for daily Mass in the nearby sanctuaries (Holy Sepulchre is just round the corner) and have a little altar in their apartment where they teach Ninel to pray.

This little encounter got me thinking about today's readngs at Mass. It's all about the prophet Elijah. The belief was that Elijah was/is preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah and the Gospel said this Elijah is none other than John the Baptist himself. Well he sure gave his all in preparing for the coming for the Messiah - he had his head chopped off for it! I wonder if that's our attitude in preparing ourselves. Imagine the students here preparing for the exams the whole week, skipping meals, staying up late in the night etc. Lots of sacrifice. Or Alex preparing dinner the whole evening, thus giving up play time with Ninel. I guess when we feel if it's something worth preparing for, we'd sacrifice some other things in place of the preparation. The problem is not whether we're ready to sacrifice - we're all ready for that. Rather its what we think is WORTH sacrificing for - it boils back to our priorities, our value systems and of course our spirituality. If you make a list today of what you're willing to sacrifice in order to spend time and energy in preparing for it, I wonder how far up the list is God, or the Sacraments, or Catechism, or Faith formation, or prayer. Wanna lose your head over it?