WATERED LIKE A TREE PLANTED ON A RIVER BANK

 

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress but still bears fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Some of you here today may identify with some of these experiences. Exactly halfway through my seminary training, the Catholic Church went from being calm, serene and predictable to being stormy and chaotic – almost overnight. We changed, not with a whimper, but with a bang. My first year at Saint Meinrad in the Fall of 1964, we wore cassocks to class one semester and then cut-off jeans and shorts the next. One semester, we could be kicked out for drinking beer on campus. A few semesters later, the monastery opened the “Unstable,” a beer and pizza pub that still exists today.  We went from celebrating Mass in Latin with the priest facing the wall to celebrating Mass with the priest facing the people. Churches went from hushed whispers to endless talking. People used to look down on you if you didn’t go to Mass. Now, they look down on you if you do! People used to admire you if you became a priest or nun. Now they think you’re nuts if you do!

Some like to blame Vatican Council II for all this, but to jump to the conclusion that Vatican II caused all this is simplistic and quite naïve. There were monumental cultural shifts going on in those days in our society that would have affected us even if Vatican II had not taken place at all! In fact, Protestant Churches, Jewish communities, families, marriages and universities were all affected by these same cultural shifts in their own unique ways.  

By the time I was ordained in 1970, I knew even then that I was going to serve the Church as a priest in the eye of a storm – in one of those many tumultuous periods in church history that come around every few hundred years. Just as I was about to get on the bus, hundreds of priests and nuns were getting off. I knew even back then that I was going to have to learn to ride the waves and shoot the rapids, without puking my own guts out, if I was going to be able to help others weather the storms of change.  I realized even then that I needed something to hang onto – a rock-solid image or two that would keep me from going under.

The Quaker Song “How Can I Keep from Singing?” was hot back then and seemed at the time to be exactly the image I needed. Andy Gardner of Indianapolis sang it at my First Mass and I have played it every anniversary for the last 54 years. “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? Through all the tumult and the strife I hear the music ringing. It sounds and echoes in my soul; how can I keep from singing?”  Many know it as my “theme song” back when I was pastor at the Cathedral.

The second image I chose was the image from the Prophet Jeremiah in our first reading today. That reading is, of course, based on Psalm 1. It speaks of a tree planted along a riverbank, whose roots go deep underground and out into the running water. This tree doesn’t depend on good weather or bad weather because it has an underground water source to sustain it. Its leaves never droop and it always bears fruit – through thick and thin, in good times and in bad.  I have always wanted to be like that tree!

These two images – the solid rock that “no storm can shake” and the “tree growing along a riverbank” - have sustained me during 54 years of change and chaos.  As a priest, I have always tried to “cling to the rock” and to be like that “tree with long roots.” So far, it’s working!

During the sex abuse scandal in the church, I was very concerned about the nearly 200,000 Catholics in our archdiocese, especially those who had given up on the church or who were barely hanging on before that scandal came to light. At first, I thought there was nothing I could do to help them. I was mistaken.    

In 2002, it occurred to me that I could enlarge my pulpit if I had the chance to write a weekly column in The Record dedicated to offering the average Catholic an encouraging word. I was both challenged and humbled to be given that opportunity. I wrote that column every week for fifteen years.  Now I have my own blog where I can post my homilies and other writings for an even broader audience. So far there have been 552,000 (a half million) page views of my Encouraging Word blog.

Then, there were my Parish Missions, a time when extended preaching could be done over three nights or even a few weekends. I have preached close to 75 Parish Missions over the years, in three states. I got more requests than I had time to honor because of the hundred plus national and international priest retreats and convocations that I have led in ten countries. Now that I have moved on from Parish Missions and Priest Convocations, I decided not to throw those presentations in the trashcan but publish them last month in two books so that even more people might find them helpful.   

Considering the low-grade depression that we have seen in our church in recent years, we must look for ways to give people reasons for hope! We need to find ways to prevent this from continuing. Th most effective way to do it is by obviously living the Christian faith. By that, I don’t mean turning into some kind of religious fanatic who “hate” in the name of “love,” fooling no one!  We can do this. We must do this. We do not have room for self-righteous indignation or verbal, printed and visual theatrics.  We are all responsible for turning this around – even if we must do it one-person-at-a-time. We must get back to the business of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world and quit getting distracted by all that is happening around us.    

During all this, I have been impressed by the faith of people in the pews. I try not to be discouraged by those who do not show up, but to be encouraged by those who do show up!  When I was almost drowning in discouragement several years back, their continued faithful presence at Sunday Mass preached an encouraging word back to me.             

I believe that the present purging and cleansing in the church will ultimately be good for the church. The truth will set us free, even if that truth does sting in the meantime.

The words of Jesus to Peter in the gospels, after his Bread of Life teaching, are now being addressed to us, “Will you go away also?” Do not join those who give up! Let us join those who search for even better reasons to stay!

 

 

 

 

 

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! 2025 #7

Last year, every Saturday I featured a post called "Wisdom for 2024"

This year, every Saturday, I will post a series of unusual personal experiences

from the past under the title "You Can't Make This Stuff Up."

Sometimes, names or locations will be changed or disguised to protect the guilty!

Besides, I am retired! What can they do, fire me?

IN A PINCH, YOU JUST HAVE TO MAKE-DO

One of the requirements for working in "the missions" is to be quick-thinking on your feet in a crisis combined with the ability to keep your mouth shut so no one will know! 

When I was working in the "home missions" of our diocese, down along the Tennessee border and miles away from a "church goods store," I found myself facing a minor shortage. I forgot to get ashes for "Ash Wednesday." I didn't realize it until a half-hour before the service was scheduled to start. This required using my imagination and my ability to keep a secret at the same time. 

I was smoking cheap King Edward cigars at the time and the only alternative I could come up with on the spot was to use the ashes I found in one of the ashtrays from the day before. The ashes were supposed to be the ashes coming from the burnt palm from last year's Palm Sunday service, but palm was nowhere to be found!  

In my panic, I remembered that Canon Law 144.1 says "ecclesia supplet" ("the church supplies") for occasions like this. Since both palm ashes and tobacco ashes come from plants, and neither involved the validity of any of the Sacraments and this being a minor emergency, I concluded that I could proceed. 

Nobody knew about the source of the ashes, but me! That Ash Wednesday went off with neither a hitch nor a suspicion, but in the years that followed, I was definitely prepared!  

A LITTLE VALENTINE HUMOR FOR THE HOLIDAY

“If love is a journey, I’m still at the airport waiting for my flight to board.”

ANOTHER WONDERFUL PRAYER

Let me share here a little something an elderly friend of mine gave me before she died that she had written down in her own hand. Maybe she composed it herself, but I suspect she copied it from elsewhere. Either way, it was written in her own hand. It really describes her deep faith best. I came across it again recently and I thought some of you might appreciate it as well. 

I do not understand all mystery.

I do not know why goodness goes unrewarded,

 love is crucified or righteousness is defeated.

I do not understand the mystery of pain or the destruction

of fair spirits by hideous afflictions.

I do not understand all of the Bible or always see the will of God.

But I do see Jesus and trust him for what I cannot see.

I do not know where this journey of life will end for me

Or what will happen to those I love.

I do not know what lies ahead for the world.

Sometimes I cannot see around the next turn.

I walk by faith, not by sight.

In Christ I see a guide for the next step.

And in him I see the everlasting arms of a Father’s love,

 a Savior’s forgiveness, and a home at the end of the road. 

  

GOOD OLD ST. PETER, HE COULD NEVER SEEM TO GET IT RIGHT

        

Jesus said to Simon, who had quit for the day and was washing his nets. “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but if you insist, I will lower the nets again. They caught such a great number of fish that their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners to come and help them. They filled both boats to the point that they were in danger of sinking.

Luke 5:1-11

Every time I read a passage about good old Saint Peter, the Apostle, I chuckle to myself!  I have read and preached on them many, many times since I was pastor of Saint Peter Mission Church in Monticello, down along the Tennessee border, south of Lake Cumberland.  Good old Saint Peter has to be one of the worst “people pleasers” in all of scripture. He is always kissing up to Jesus and then proceeding to fall on his face. You have to love this bumbling old fisherman, who had an almost insatiable desire to please Jesus whom he obviously loved so much. 

Peter would have made a great clown for kids. I sure children back then loved him because you can’t help laughing at his antics. Nowhere are those antics more obvious than in the gospel stories about him.

First, his name was originally “Simon.” It was Jesus who gave him the nickname “Peter,” meaning “Rock.” I am sure the other apostles might have thought that “Mr. McGoo” or “Marshmallow Man” would have been more like it. He was always rushing into delicate situations, bragging and making a scene, then falling on his face at the end.

He and the other apostles, in one gospel, are out on a lake in a storm. They are struggling at the oars against the huge waves trying to get to shore, when all of a sudden, they look up and see Jesus walking on the water toward them. Peter, as always, sticks his foot in his mouth.  “Lord, if it is really you, let me walk on the water toward you!” Jesus invites him to get out of the boat and walk toward him. Peter, out of the boat, out into deep water and in high winds, begins to sink. “Lord, help me! I’m going to drown!” Jesus had to rescue him at the last minute.

Today, Jesus is teaching people along the shore from one of Peter’s boats. When Jesus finished teaching, he told Peter to put out into deep water and lower his nets for a catch. Peter had just quit for the day and was washing his nets in preparation for putting them away. A little irritated that a carpenter would tell him, a professional fisherman, how to fish, Peter speaks up. “Lord, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing. We are just now putting the nets away! However, if you insist, we will do what you say.”  Peter started out by “humoring” Jesus and ended up with having to eat his words. When Peter raised the nets, they held so many fish that the nets were tearing – enough to fill two boats.

At the transfiguration, after having been through a powerful religious experience, Peter does not know how to handle it except to open his big mouth and make the outrageous suggestion that the experience be made permanent. “Wow, Jesus, this is so cool! Let’s set up tents and just stay up here forever!”  Jesus is forced to explain to Peter the whole purpose of their peak experience was to strengthen them for the tough days ahead, not something that could be frozen in time!

At the Last Supper when Jesus approached Peter to wash his feet, overcome with humility, Peter begins to protest that he would never allow such a thing! When Jesus explains to him that if he would not allow it, then he could never be a part of him, Peter throws it in reverse! “Well, if that is the case, then wash my hands and head as well! Wash me all over!”  With Peter, it is always an “all or nothing” proposition.

When Jesus predicts that he will be betrayed by one of his disciples, Peter jumps into the discussion to brag. “Even if everyone else abandons you, I will never abandon you!” Not too much later, after Jesus is arrested and the heat is on, Peter denies Jesus - not once, not twice, but three times! “Jesus who?  Certainly, not me! Please, woman, I don’t know who you are talking about!” 

Then there is the story of Peter out fishing again after the resurrection. It is so typical of Peter. First, it tells us that Peter was stripped to the waist so that he could haul the wet nets back into his fishing boat. When he recognizes Jesus on the shore, he gets so flustered that it says he puts on his clothes, jumps into the water and then swims toward Jesus standing on the shore. You can just imagine Peter dragging himself out of the water with soggy clothes, dripping wet, and gushing with enthusiasm.

Second, it tells us that when Jesus asked Peter for some of the fish to put on the grill he had fired up on the beach, Peter runs back to the boat and drags the net to Jesus, dumping 153 large fish at his feet.  You can almost hear him say breathlessly, “There! How’s that? Is that enough? If not, I’ll be happy to go get some more!” Jesus, knee-deep in fish, probably shook his head in laughter at Peter’s impulsive need to please. Jesus, no doubt, sees the big heart inside his clumsy klutz of an apostle, Peter!

Peter should give us all hope. He always teaches me a lot about our relationship to God. Reading about him, I have come to believe that God is more interested in our goodhearted attempts to be good than our mistakes, that God wants a relationship with us, not matter how rocky it might be!

I believe this is precisely why so many people resonate with the famous prayer of Thomas Merton.           

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not

see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where

it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that

I think I am following your will does not mean that I am

actually doing so. But I believe the desire to please you

does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all

I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from 

that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by 

the right road though I may know nothing about it. 

Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be 

lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are 

ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my 

perils alone.

My friends!  God wants a relationship with you, not after you settle down, not when you can get things right, but now, just as you are, no matter how clumsy and rocky it might be! If you give your heart to God, “the desire to please him will in fact please him.”  If St. Peter can fall on his face, over and over again, and still be loved by Jesus, so can we!

That’s why I resonate with Saint Peter more than Saint Paul. Saint Paul was a religious perfectionist. Saint Peter was full of human weaknesses.  But whether you are more like Saint Peter or Saint Paul, know that God loves you, just as the father in the parable of the prodigal son loved both of his sons – the one who stayed home and got it right all the time and the son who got down with the pigs and had to come crawling back home.

        

 

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! 2025 #6

Last year, every Saturday I featured  a post called "Wisdom for 2024" 

This year, every Saturday, I will post a series of unusual personal experiences 

from the past under the title "You Can't Make This Stuff Up."

Sometimes, names or locations will be changed or disguised to protect the guilty! 

Besides, I am retired! What can they do, fire me?

 A COUPLE OF CASES OF BLAMING THE VICTIM

I have had my home burglarized three times - once in Monticello and twice on Eastern Parkway in Louisville - once in two separate houses. 

In Monticello, the first house I owned was outside the town of Monticello. I did not live there, but used it to house volunteers who came down to donate their services to help the local poor during the summer. I suspected that it was "some Baptists" who did it because they took my stereo and 2 cans of beer. Stereos were common, but beer was hard to find in that "dry" County! Ha!

The second time I was robbed was in my first house on Eastern Parkway while I was at a program for priests at St. Meinrad. This robbery was probably my fault! In a rush to get started on the trip to St. Meinrad, I mistakenly left the living room lights on and the drapes open in front of a huge picture window facing Eastern Parkway. At night, anyone walking down the sidewalk or driving down the street could see my beautiful new stereo system waiting to be taken from a well-lit stage! They came through the back door and left the front door open, when they left with the stereo loaded into a couple of pillow cases. Neighbors called me to come home immediately when they saw my front door standing open. I came home immediately before they came back and started loading the furniture. Luckily, the generous people who gave me the stereo replaced it immediately, but I could not find pillow cases to match my faded sheets! 

The third time I was robbed was in my third house on Eastern Parkway that backed up to Manuel Stadium. This time, with no one to keep an eye on the back side of my house, and it being obvious to the neighbors when I was not at home, they broke one of the back windows, came in and took the good amount of change that I had in a lamp table by the bed. Nothing else seemed to have been touched. The police summarized that they were simply looking for money to buy drugs or maybe to find a gun. 

At the time, I was living downtown at the Cathedral, with Archbishop Kelly, and staying in my house mostly on my days off and various other occasions. When I told Archbishop Kelly about the break-in, and expecting a little sympathy in the process, all he said was" "Well, how pitiful! They broke into your house and didn't see anything they wanted but a handful of change!" 

I was reluctant to sell my third house on Eastern Parkway and move into my present condo, but I have lived here for 19 years without a break-in - mainly because there are two doors one has to go through to get in and because the neighbors are so close they notice all the comings and goings! The big problem now is water leaks from the condo above me - each one a little worse than the last. So far, there have been four in all. The last one was a major leak that ruined the carpets on two floors and some of the ceilings on both floors. The big issue is that "according to condo rules," the one leaked on is the "leakee's" insurance company's fault unless it is intentional by the "leaker!"  I call it "robbery" by another means!