LET YOUR GOOD DEEDS BE SEEN SO THAT GOD WILL BE PRAISED!

 

You are the light of the world. Let your light shine in such

a way that people may see your good works and give God the glory.

Matthew 5:14,16

My fellow Catholic Christians, do you realize who you are? Did you hear those words from today's gospel reminding us of who we are? “You are the light of the world! Let your light shine! Let your good works be seen so God can be glorified!” The Scriptures tell us in other places that “from your mother’s womb, God gave you your name!” “You are God’s servant through whom God’s glory shines!” “From your mother’s womb God formed you for that task, the task of letting God’s glory shine through you!” “You are made glorious in his sight!” “He made you a light to the nations so that his salvation may reach to the ends of the earth!” Jesus tells us in the gospel reading today that “You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world! You are a city built on a hill! Your light must shine before others! Your good deeds must be out there to be noticed!” Yes, we are “the light of the world!” However, we are like the moon and God is like the sun. The moon has no light of its own, the moon merely reflects the light of the sun. Just so, when people see our light and observe our good deeds, we must make sure that God, the true source of our light, indeed all light, gets the glory!

My fellow Catholic Christians may we want to be who we are! May we want to be who we are! I am here to remind you who we are and what our mission is in this life! We were sent to shine! We were sent to shine so that God will look good in the eyes of the world and receive its praise! We should never put ourselves down! We should never underestimate our worth! We should never belittle ourselves nor play small! We should never let others put us down! We were sent to shine! To keep our lamps burning, we have to keep putting oil in them! Therefore, we need to take care of ourselves – take care of ourselves enough to do hard things for our own good so that our light will shine as brightly as possible! We should always resist the temptation to give into the biggest human temptation and that is to settle for too little! Our families, indeed the world, need us to be who we are and all that we can be!

I came across a Bruce Barton quote recently that has been rolling around inside my head for some time now. Others credit Benjamin Franklin. It is not a new idea, but a life script that I adopted a long time ago. It goes like this! “When we are through changing, we are through.” Us old people, when we were young people, might remember Bob Dylan singing another version of this same idea. “He not busy being born is busy dying.” In other words, if you are not growing, you are not standing still, you are dying! If you are “sent to shine,” you absolutely need to keep putting oil into your lamp! You must keep stoking your own fire!

Winston Churchill said, “Nothing gets better by leaving it alone.” In fact, when we “leave things alone” the natural process of entropy sets in – we start coming unglued, we start declining, we begin to rot! Entropy is that spontaneous and unremitting tendency in the universe toward disorder unless there is an opposing force working against it. People, like homes, when they are left alone fall into decay. Even fruits and vegetables, unless something is done to “preserve” them, begin to rot! When we “leave ourselves alone,” we commit what I call “personal and spiritual suicide.” Personal and spiritual suicide is the result of constantly saying “no” to opportunities to grow and change.”

As one who bought into this idea of “self-formation” a long time ago, I have concluded that there are two secret ingredients to becoming all that we can be as ‘the light of the world.” (1) The first ingredient in really loving oneself is a passionate commitment to personal excellence – to loving who we really are – loving ourselves enough to care about becoming our best selves. Really loving oneself does not mean papering oneself. Rather, it means doing hard things for one’s own good. One of the most critical needs here is the need for a capacity for critical and constructive self-awareness. We must be able to know and understand what makes us tick. We must own my own personal histories and heal them if necessary. In short, we must be dedicated to becoming our best as quality human persons first. Let me put that another way. You cannot take a loser and ordain him and expect to have an effective priest! If he is not a quality human being to begin with, all you will end up with is a loser priest who can’t relate to people or inspire them to hunger for holiness. You cannot take two losers and put them through a wedding and expect to end up with a happy marriage and effective parents! If they are not quality human beings to begin with, all you will end up with is a miserable marriage and disastrous parents!

(2) After a passionate commitment to who one is, being the best version of ourselves, the second ingredient in really loving oneself is a passionate commitment to vocational excellence – a passionate commitment to what we do! In other words, if you are parents, commit yourself to being the very best parent you can be! If you are married, commit yourself to being the best husband or wife you can be! If you are a priest, commit yourself to be the best priest you can possibly be! Whatever you are, be good at it! If you strive to be the best at what you do, you will get better at it. If you choose the “good enough to get by” path, you will become known for your mediocrity. As the leadership guru, Tom Peters, put it “The idea of mediocrity scares the hell out of me!” Without a passionate commitment to vocational excellence, you will no doubt end up being a mediocre priest, a mediocre marriage partner, a mediocre parent or a mediocre professional! The world is already overcrowded with mediocrity – people with no passion for personal or vocational excellence! My mother used to call them “people who merely go through the motions,” “people whose hearts are not in it.” God says to us in Revelations 3:15-16, “Would that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” May God spare you from such mediocrity! May you become the very best version of yourself! May you become who you are! You are the light of the world! Let your light shine! Yes, let it shine! Let it shine!

Brothers and sisters! One of my biggest fears as a priest is not natural death, but spiritual and emotional death, being here and being not here at the same time – “dead on my feet,” if you will! My biggest fear is gradually turning into a priest whose heart is no longer in it! Chaucer’s Parson described such a priest as “a man annoyed at his own life.”

The word used by fourth century monks for this state was acedia. Acedia is not a disease, it’s a temptation – the temptation to disconnect, the temptation to stop caring, the temptation to stop making an effort. It is a temptation that can grow and harden into a persistent attitude of apathy and cynicism which is deadly to any kind of personal or spiritual growth. I find it fascinating that acedia, in its root, means negligence - a negligence that leads to a state of listlessness, a lack of attention to daily tasks and an overall dissatisfaction with life, of not caring or not being concerned with one’s self-care or position or condition in the world. In other words, unlike clinical depression, it can be resisted. The sooner it is confronted the more success one has in turning it around. As the leadership guru, Tom Peters, put it: "Unless you walk into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low." 

We all know priests and married couples who woke up one day and found themselves in precisely that spot – with feelings of being stuck, with few options and little hope. Maybe we are, or have been, one of them! If we were to be honest with ourselves we would have to admit that we didn’t get there overnight. It happened because of extended neglect. We didn’t take the time to nourish our individual selves. Many marriages and religious vocations do not die of "natural causes." Too often, they simply die of "starvation!" Too many of us do not take the time to nurture our vocations. We just “let things go!”

Whether we are priests, marriage partners, parents, professionals, widows or widowers, we are all called to resist the temptation toward acedia, the neglect of our personal and spiritual growth. We are the light of the world and there is responsibility that goes with reflecting that light! As Mother Theresa put it. “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” Again, Bob Dylan put it this way. “If we are not busy being born, we are busy dying.”

CHURCH CHAT #14

 

THE PURE AND SIMPLE TRUTH

THE GOD I KNOW - THE GOD I BELIEVE IN - THE GOD I PREACH

God loves you! No "ands," "ifs" or "buts" about it! 

 

PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE

 

Mary, Joseph, Anna, Simeon and Jesus

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him.

Luke 2:22-40

In the gospel on Monday, February 2, Jesus is brought to the Temple, by Mary and Joseph, to be consecrated to the Lord. While they were there, they ran into two old people, Simeon and Anna, who made predictions about Jesus.

Predictions, those made about us, and those we make about ourselves, are very powerful. In Egypt, a new ruler was given five names, each of which described a virtue expected of him. In the Isaiah reading at Christmas, we see that the future king of God’s people would bear four names: Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-forever, Prince of Peace.  

We tend to believe what is said about us, and said to us! We tend to rise to meet the high expectations or sink to meet the low expectations voiced about us! If people say we are smart, we tend to act as if are smart! If people say we are losers, we tend to act like losers.

Growing up, I was not aware of what the therapeutic community knows today - how damaging or helpful comments from others can be to our self-worth. Children tend to believe negative and positive assessments of themselves from teachers and parents, developing a compromised self-concept when criticized on a regular basis or an enhanced self-concept when praised on a regular basis. I was barraged, growing up, with powerful negative messages and predictions – things like “You will never amount to a hill of beans!” Even when I left for the seminary, most of the adults around me told me I would never make it!

It wasn't till I got older that I understood that I had joined them in criticizing myself.  I can remember making the decision to stop my own self-defeating self-talk and start replacing it with positive and encouraging self-talk. It has been a long hard road because they say positive-to-negative comments need to be at least five to one for success in overcoming the damage. 

I still have a long way to go. I still say things to myself like "I am not good at figuring out electronics," but if I stop, take my time and tell myself that "I can," I usually can!  Negative self-talk increases my stress and it stops me from searching for solutions.        

I have fought negative talk throughout my priesthood - both in myself and others. In almost every assignment I have had, some priest has told me how impossible the situation was going to be! I found that the parishioners in almost every one of those assignments believed it themselves. My job. from the pulpit, was to get them to change the way they thought about themselves and magic happened in every situation. I have spent years practicing and teaching the power of positive self-talk!

My friends! What others say to you and about you is powerful, but you need not be a victim if it is negative. You can choose what to believe about yourself and you can override negative messages by positive self-talk!    As W. C. Fields said, “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHOICE BETWEEN "GOOD ENOUGH TO GET BY" OR "EXCELLENCE"

 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Matthew 5:6

One of the things Bellarmine University is famous for is its Merton Library - the official papers of Kentucky's most famous Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, whose religious name was Father Louis.  There is a statue of him in front of Bellarmine's science building. I ought to know! I was the longest serving campus minister in its history at 16 years. The Merton statue was installed during my early years there and moved to its present location right before I left. 

One of my favorite stories about Thomas Merton involves an exchange between him and his friend Robert Lax. Lax asked Merton what he wanted to be. Merton answered, "I don't know; I guess what I want to be is a good Catholic." Robert Lax shot back, "What do you mean you want to be a good Catholic? What you should say is that you want to be a saint!" In defense, Thomas Merton responded, "How do you expect me to become a saint?"  "By wanting to," was Lax's response.

With that, Thomas Merton realized how often people say they cannot do the things they must do, cannot reach the level that they must reach, the cowardice that says: "I am satisfied to do enough to get by, but I do not want to give up my sins and my attachments." 

How many of us really want to be saints, "to be in that number when the saints go marching in?"  Most of us are like St. Augustine when he prayed, "Lord make me pure, but not yet!" Most of us wouldn't mind being a saint, if we didn't have to change anything, especially if we didn't have to let go of our sins and destructive attachments

A "saint" is not a "perfect person." A "saint" is a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, a person with a drive for improvement - both in who they are and what they do - a fierce commitment to their own lifelong formation, an unflinching quest for personal excellence. This does not mean we earn our way to sainthood through personal growth and good deeds. It means that we realize to the depths of our being that we are so loved by God that we want to respond to that love by trying to become all that we can be.

In his book, The Pursuit of Excellence, Tom Peters says about himself, "The idea of mediocrity scares the hell out of me!" "The fear of mediocrity" may be the secret ingredient in becoming a saint. Thomas Merton famously said that the "biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."  

We are in truth "saved by grace."  We are called to sainthood and we are given the help we need to respond. We do not come to that help, that help comes to us. We cannot make that help come to us, but we can open ourselves to its miraculous arrival. We can certainly cooperate with God in the process of becoming saints "by wanting to," by "hungering and thirsting for righteousness.”

I started this homily by quoting from one of the most beautiful passages in the Gospels. We call these words “the beatitudes.” What they are, really, are descriptions of a truly “holy person,” a person who truly loves God. In reality, they are a set of talking points on Christian holiness, a checklist of the qualities a person possesses who seriously loves God.

Unlike the Ten Commandments, which stress the things that one who loves God should not do, this is a list of things that a person who loves God does do. It is important to remember here that Jesus is not saying “do these things and God will love you,” but rather “if you love God, these are the things you will do!” We do not do these things to earn God’s love, rather if we love God, we will do these things. So, what then does a serious lover of God look like? How many of them describe you as a “saint in the making?”

(1) He or she is first of all “poor in spirit.”  What Jesus is talking about here is not merely economic poverty. Even the dirt poor can be greedy in their hearts. What it means, really, is the deep-down knowledge that when it comes right down to it, we own nothing and everything can be taken away from us in an instant. Every material possession, every blessing we have ever had, is a gift from God that was given to us, not to hoard, but to share. The more we have been given, the greater the responsibility we have to share.” “Poverty of spirit” is a basic knowledge that we are all poor, when it comes right down to it. No matter how rich we are, we are a heartbeat away from total poverty. We can’t take anything with us, when this is all over! As they say, “There are no pockets in shrouds!” A person who loves God, a person who is poor in spirit, never forgets that fact!

(2) A serious lover of God is able to mourn. One who loves God seriously knows that we are interconnected human beings and therefore never loses his or her ability to feel the suffering of others. A cold-hearted, self-centered, disinterested person is not a friend of God. A friend of God shares the compassion of Christ who was moved deeply by the horrible suffering of simple human beings and is never far from “the gift of tears,” as the saints called it.

(3) A serious lover of God is meek. A “meek” person is not a person who lets people walk over him or her. A “meek” person lives with the knowledge that he is never “a god,” but nonetheless always a “child of God.” In other words, he neither inflates his own worth on one hand, nor does he allow others to deflate his value on the other hand.  Being meek means to know who we are in God’s eyes- nothing more, but nothing less!

(4) A serious lover of God hungers and thirsts for righteousness. A serious lover of God does not dabble in religion, placing religion somewhere outside the realm of his daily living and daily choices.  Rather, he or she is a serious spiritual seeker, always trying to align his everyday life with Christian principles.  He or she strives always to close the gap between being a Christian in name and being a Christian in fact, while being totally free of religious fanaticism and doing spiritual violence to others in the name of orthodoxy.

(5) A serious lover of God is merciful. Being merciful means letting God be the judge of other people. It means giving people the benefit of the doubt, giving them a break, wishing them well on their path, knowing that with God, it isn’t over till it’s over, and with God there is always another chance. Yes, it also means living the maxim, “There but for the grace of God, go I!” Thomas Merton said, "The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all livings things, which are part of one another, and all involved in one another."

(6) A serious lover of God is clean of heart. A serious lover of God doesn’t just do good things, he or she does them for the right reason and with the purest of motives.  I tried to remind the seminarians at Saint Meinrad that it is a good thing to want to be a priest, but one must go into it for good reasons – to serve people, not for what priesthood can do for them. It is a good thing to give to the poor, but one can give to the poor, not because they love the poor, but because they will get their name in the paper or will have a building named after them. A serious lover of God always does good things, but he also does them for the right reason.

(7) A serious lover of God is a peacemaker. War is getting more and more irrelevant. We need to become as good at peacemaking as we have been at building sophisticated weapons. There will always be misunderstanding between people. One who truly loves God has the ability and the credibility to prevent disagreements from becoming a reason for violence. We need not think globally only. Families, marriages, neighborhoods, siblings and churches desperately need these peacemakers. When enough of us really love God, we will have enough peacemakers to move us closer to universal peace.  If you love God, you love his people! If you love his people, you will do what you can to bring them together.

(8) A serious lover of God will be persecuted, insulted and lied about. The brighter the light the fiercer the attack! Evil does not like goodness. Evil cannot tolerate the presence of goodness and so it attacks. One who seriously loves God is more than willing to take persecution, insults and lies, knowing that personal integrity is more important than comfort or approval.

So, the bottom line is this – you will know that you are on the path to sainthood if these "beatitudes" describe you! If these eight characteristics don't describe you, make a u-turn while you can, because you're headed in the wrong direction!      

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #13