Stepping Out of the Boat: Living Religious Life with Courage and Risk

The Cost of the Treasure

I have written about this before, referring to the Gospel parable of the pearl and the treasure hidden in the field: whoever finds the treasure can possess it. But for this to be possible, he must pay the price—exactly everything he has.

Commenting on today’s Gospel scene, Brother Luca Refatti said:

“To know whether the guy on the water is Jesus or not, Peter puts his life in danger. If it is not Jesus, Peter will drown.
Let it sink in: the only way to find out if it’s the Lord is to risk your life. To truly know Jesus, we must be willing to risk everything; to truly know Christ, we must become a bit like him—ready to give our lives away.”

Risk and Daily Commitment

Religious life is not a choice that is made once and for all. Rather, it is a daily decision to give one’s life again and again. You can ask any of the brothers—provincials, socius, or the Master of the Order himself—and they will all agree without hesitation.

One of my confreres, who has already worked in many places and taken on various tasks, will soon begin a new job in Rome. We laughed recently that even after so many years, there are still things ahead of him that can completely surprise him and, as he himself says, genuinely terrify him. Things that require risk.

“Why take such a risk? Because we have no other choice. Because we know: if we don’t risk our lives for Jesus, we are already lost. Because we have found no other Savior from sin and its consequences (death included). Because Christ is not just our best hope – is our only hope. And at the end, it is always the Spirit who blows and forces us to make this dangerous step out of the boat.

In order to be credible preachers of Christ as Savior, we have to pass through the radical experience of needing salvation […]
Unless we dare to throw ourselves into the stormy waters, we will never have anything to preach.”

Courage in the Midst of Fear

Maybe that’s why I feel so comfortable among them — because even though they allow themselves to name their fears, everything that is so human in us, ultimately they are not afraid of risk, and you can still see courage and passion in their eyes.