Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

We haven't read yet of three- or four-month old infants organizing to oppose dependence on their parents. They aren't conscious of their need for a diaper change or for food as lessening of their freedom. Only as teenagers are they really offended by their dependence on adults. And in popular culture dependence is often understood as a sick relationship, a lack of personal control, an inability to stand on one's own two feet. This goes so far that for many dependence has no simply neutral meaning but is always a bad thing.

Possibly only time and experience teach us about legitimate dependence, teach us that we have not made ourselves, that we do not live simply in isolation. We “depend” on others for our shoes, our medicine, our food, for breathable air.

Even our “dependence” on God for our existence is resented by some. How would they react to Jesus' words: “Apart from me you can do nothing?” Or, in the same context, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who lives in me and I in him, will produce abundantly, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15, passim or 1-8).

Clearly, Jesus is not talking about our ability to button a blouse or operate a computer. He is stressing that the strength we need to better our world, to begin each day with hope and courage, to persevere in the good, all this is made possible by our sharing in his life. Our dependence on Christ does not limit us but allows us to do what our weakness and lethargy would not. If we live in him we live with his strength.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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