The math professor's six-year-old son knocks at the door of his father's study.
"Dad", he says. "I need help with a math problem I couldn't do at school."
"Sure, just tell me what's bothering you."
"Well, it's a really hard problem: There are four ducks swimming in a pond, when two more ducks come and join them. How many ducks are now swimming in the pond?"
The professor looks his disbelief: "You couldn't do that?! All you need to know is that 4 + 2 = 6!"
"Do you think, I'm stupid?! Of course, I know that 4 + 2 = 6. But what does this have to do with ducks!?"
The question we may ask ourselves after Easter is What do the events of Holy week have to do with our lives? This is a very serious question.
What is the challenge of Easter? Did we get it? Will it change our lives at ground zero? To answer would require more than a few hundred words, but let us look at one of the key passages leading up to the sacrifice of Christ and its impact on us.
Isaiah 49:1-6 tells us: "The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away."
If we do not see this as applying to our lives and our talents, then we have missed the calling of Easter. Jesus Christ did not preach only to the tribes of Israel or die only for the tribes of Jacob.
"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the tribes of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (49:6).
"Come, follow me," (Matthew 4:19). That is our mandate! To take Christ's message out to all the world, starting with our family, our parish and our community. As we become Christ we give the light of Christ to the nations.
While travelling around the world as a high school student, wealthy heir William Borden felt a calling to become a missionary. He wanted to reach out to the suffering. He wrote these words in his bible: No reserve.
After graduation Borden turned down several lucrative jobs and echoed his decision by writing these words in his bible: No retreat.
After his ministry training, Borden travelled to Egypt. There he was struck with meningitis and died at the age of twenty-five. In his bible he had written: No regrets.
May we approach life's challenges during this year of Faith and this time of Grace with Borden's motto: No reserve, no retreat, no regret. If we expect others to follow our example as Christians, we need more than a lame duck approach to discipleship. And that's what this story has to do with ducks!
