THERE IS a small river on the east coast of Italy near the town of Rimini called the Rubico. It is famous for one reason only; that in 49 BC Julius Caesar with his army came to its banks and stopped. There was a decision to be made: turn back or cross the river to engage his opponent Pompey in battle. One of his officers said: “We can yet draw back but once we cross that stream all must be decided by the sword.” The Rubico was crossed and the course of history changed.
Crossing the Rubico – or Rubicon as we know it – is synonymous with committing oneself to a particular course of action. It implies that the decision made is major and life changing.
Career choices for example which have huge implications in terms of personal fulfilment. For some young people that process begins at a young age at secondary school when subject choices have to be made. An even more important area of decision making involves relationships and especially those with lifelong commitments.
The most important decision of all, a Rubicon by any standard, has to do with choosing the beliefs and value systems we intend to live by. Tomorrow’s readings have something practical to say on the subject. First of all the Old Testament reading reminds us that we have to make choices; there is no escape: “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.”
Elsewhere we are reminded that we are free to choose; that we have free will but must accept the responsibility that goes with it: “to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice”. The Epistle warns against “behaving according to human inclinations” while the Gospel reading gives challenging directions on how we treat one another. Many churchgoers would find it hard to comply with one of them – our Lord’s instruction that “If you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift.”
If we find these things difficult or even impossible, they at least set down standards against which to measure our conduct so we should not lose heart when we fall short. St Paul – note St Paul – knew how difficult it could be: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing.” The challenge is to acknowledge the failures and resolve to do better in the future.
That is where we need to be as a nation. There has been too much talk about economic failures and bank failures and systems failures but not enough about human failures; the poor judgments, the corruption and the abuse of power that has ruined the lives of so many. Some years ago a respected international trust described Ireland as the most corrupt country in Europe but no one seemed to care. The painful truth is that while it may be true to say that many of those responsible in politics, in business and banking and the other professions did not set out to destroy this country, their hunger for power and reward blinded them to those values that might get in the way.
Party politics replaced the national interest and profit before people became the order of the day for too many in the business world. We hear far too much about reforming systems and not enough about reforming
people.
William Temple, one-time archbishop of Canterbury, wrote: “The world as we live in it, is like a shop window into which some mischievous person has got in overnight and shifted all the price labels so that the cheap things have the high price labels on them and the really precious things are priced low. We let ourselves be taken in. Repentance means getting those price labels back in the right place.”
We let ourselves be taken in! It hurts because it is true. – GL