Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.
Mark 9:38-43
Some weeks, our Sunday readings offer us a chance to reflect on problems outside the church, in the broader community. Other weeks, our readings offer us a chance to reflect on problems inside the church, even inside our own diocesan offices, religious communities and parish committees. Today the focus is on what happens inside our faith communities. Basically, what we have here is a message about pettiness and jealousy in church ministry that has been around since the beginning and can still cripple the church's ministry, making it less effective. I call that pettiness and jealousy "turf wars."
Competitiveness and jealousy have been the dark side of church culture for a very long time and it is certainly alive and well today. When the competitive apostles, James and John, were caught making a power grab for the best seats in Jesus’ new kingdom, they had to face the jealous indignation of the other ten apostles, not to mention a stern reprimand from Jesus. Today, we have the story about John trying to put a stop to someone who was driving out demons in the name of Jesus because he was "not a member of the inner circle.” Then there is the story about Joshua doing pretty much the same when he complained to Moses that Medad and Eldad were prophesying even though they had not been “in the tent with the others" when the spirit came to rest on them. Then there is the story about the apostles being snubbed by some Samaritans while on their way to Jerusalem. In response, James and John asked Jesus if it would be OK just to call down fire from heaven and burn them up! In tomorrow's readings, we will even hear about the apostles' jealousy of all the attention Jesus was giving to a bunch of kids and how they tried to get shoo them away!
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests dedicates quite a bit of space to the subject of clerical envy and competition. Whether you like his work or not, the late Father Andrew Greeley was quite insightful on this subject. He wrote about the leveling that goes among the priests of a diocese, whereby some priests are reluctant to applaud the work of other priests for fear that it will take away something from themselves. Deacons, parish staff members, members of religious communities and lay ministers all have a similar problem. As I said earlier, I call this pettiness and competition “turf wars,” where people end up in ministry positions or on parish committees and then try to hug that power to themselves. Rather than making room for new people and giving others a place to use their gifts and talents, they fight to protect and preserve their own positions of power and hug their little domains to themselves.
What Father Greeley says about priests, can usually be applied to deacons, parish staff members, parish council members and lay ministers. He says that, in the clerical culture, “to be a member of good standing, a priest must try not to be too good at anything or to express unusual views or criticize accepted practices or even to read too much. Some ideas are all right, but too many ideas are dangerous.” In clerical culture mediocrity is rewarded and excellence is punished. I have both seen it and felt it. Father Greeley wrote, “When a layman mentions that Father X is a good preacher, the leveler priest’s response might likely be, ‘Yes, he preaches well, but he doesn’t get along with kids.’” Or, “He’s really good, but all he does during the week is prepare his sermon.” Or, “everyone says that, and it’s probably true, but he’s not an easy man to live with.” But! But! But! One famous Protestant minister once said, “The meanest, most contemptible form of praise is to first speak well of a man and then end it with a “but.”
I have presented over 160 workshops and retreats in 9 countries addressing the jealousy and competitiveness among priests, offering ideas for building the unity of presbyterates and calling all priests to work together as a ministry team with the bishop, rather than competing as "Lone Rangers." A presbyterate, by the way, is all the priests of a diocese as a whole, as a unified body, as a team. My work in this area started back in 2003, eighteen years ago, when I published a little book entitled Intentional Presbyterates: Claiming Our Common Sense of Purpose as Diocesan Priests. It was the first book on the subject ever published. To my surprise, it took off. The first printing was 7,000 copies. Back then, before one-at-a-time print on demand, you had to order that many and store them until you could sell them. I had no idea how I was going to get rid of them when they came from the printer. However, the Bishop of Dallas, Texas, when he was a priest working for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote me and told me that the title itself, Intentional Presbyterates, had captured the imagination and attention of several bishops and my title named a problem they were all experiencing. I sent every bishop in the country a free copy. As a result, Bishops started ordering my book by the case to give to their priests as Christmas presents. Within a few years, I was even invited to address the American Bishops as a body at their spring meeting in Florida. My little book went through several printings in English and was translated into Spanish, Vietnamese and Swahili. Before long, I was invited to give workshops all over the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and even a workshop for the eastern rite Slovakian presbyterate of the Eparchy of Parma, Ohio. I was invited to several dioceses more than once to do follo-up workshops. I completed over 160 workshops and retreats on presbyteral unity, but turned down invitations to India, Singapore, Nigeria and Tonga in the south Pacific. I even turned down Hawaii just a month ago because of the uncertainty of air travel during the COVID epidemic.
When I was teaching in the seminary, in my August transition class with the deacons about to be ordained priests and entering presbyterates, I always ended with a class on the spiritual practice of blessing their fellow priests. Blessing them is not about waving crosses over them. It’s about looking for goodness in them to affirm. For some reason, the ability to affirm goodness in each other does not seem to come naturally to ordained priests. It is a spiritual discipline that must be taught and intentionally cultivated.
A couple of years ago, I came across my notes for former student, Jorge Gomez, of the class of 2011. Tragically, Fr. Jorge (from Mexico) and his diocesan brother, Stanley (from Kenya), were killed in a car wreck two weeks after Fr. Jorge's ordination. Here are the last words I said to Deacon Jorge to bless him on his way out of the seminary. “You have not forgotten that you do not have a vocation to the seminary, but to serve the People of God. You have a deep love and respect for your country, your family, your people and your community. You are very dedicated to “the people.” You seem to know instinctively that, as priests, we are “called from the people, to live among the people, to serve the people.” I also told them which saint they reminded me of. For him I selected St. Luke, whose heroes are always the underdog, the foreigner, the disaffected and the left out. I am very happy that I had taken the time to bless him with these words while he was still alive!
Brothers and sisters, especially those of you who are active in church ministry, our sin may not be so much about “what we have done,” those mean and nasty things we say about each other, but “what we have failed to do,” our withholding of clear and unconditional compliments that encourage each other. Sadly, we are often better at competing with each other than affirming each other.
St. Cyprian, in the Office of Readings for the feast of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian, put it this way. His words could be applied to deacons, religious Sisters/Brothers and lay ministers as well. “Why should a priest not take pride in the praise given to a fellow priest as though it were given to him? What brotherhood fails to rejoice in the happenings of its brothers wherever they are?” Again, that famous American Protestant preacher described our sin best when he said, “The meanest, most contemptible form of praise is to first speak well of a man and then end it with a “but!” Jesus was right in his response to John in today’s gospel. "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”
Brothers and sisters, let's learn to affirm each other, encourage each other, include each other and welcome each other in ministry. Just not saying any thing hurtful to each other is not good enough! We need to teach ourselves to "bless" each other, to look for ways to offer clear and unconditional compliments to each other and to look for opportunities to bring others into our ministry rather than protect and defend our turf as if it belonged to us! What I have said today can be applied to families and marriages as well because today "teamwork," not "competition," is needed there more than ever! In families, marriages, parishes and presbyterates, we need more team work and cooperation, not more "turf wars."
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