One of the main differences between the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the Scribes and Pharisee, is that when Jesus looked at people he looked for goodness to affirm while the Scribes and Pharisees, when they looked at people, looked for sins to condemn.
That insight has always informed my practice of ministry. That's why my column in The Record for 15 years, as well as this blog for the past 5 years, have been called An Encouraging Word. I have always rejoiced in the accusation that the "Pharisees" of today's church have hurled at me, like the Pharisees of old hurled at Jesus, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!" There is some goodness in every "bad" person and some bad in every "good" person. Only God can see good enough to sort that out!
Recently, I left our Cathedral again where I had once welcomed hundreds of marginal Catholics to come and bask in the love of God. I used to tell them that "God loves you, no matter what you have done or failed to do! There are no ands, ifs or buts about that!" They came in droves, from 67 zip codes, not to see and hear me, but to hear the basic "good news" of God's unconditional love that Jesus taught and practiced. We became "known" as a place that "specialized in ministry to the marginalized." Since the present leadership of our Cathedral is moving in a different direction, I realized that it is time for me to "shake off the dust and move on to another town."
My second departure from our Cathedral was a painful experience, not because I had no good alternatives, but because I was worried about those few who had been transformed by the unconditional love message of Jesus and who were once again barely hanging on by their fingernails. I did what I could for them for as long as I could, but I finally had to conclude that it was time for me to go.
As God always does at times like these, he caught my attention one day. This time it was a video that I stumbled onto. It featured the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and renowned spiritual teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. In that video, he was being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. When she asked him about his expulsion from Vietnam because of his views on peace-making, he said "For a while, I felt like a bee without its hive! I had this great fear of "drying up" because I had lost my normal place to teach compassion."
Stumbling onto that video, I thank God today for that latest bit of "amazing grace." In the four or five weeks after I decided to leave our Cathedral, that is exactly how I was feeling! I was feeling "like a bee without its hive." I had an accompanying fear that I might "dry up" without a regular place to practice compassion for those on the margins of the church. I wasn't worried about leaving that place, I was worried about leaving the remaining marginal people who had once found spiritual comfort there.
While I was there, I certainly did not teach people to break the rules and laws of the Church. I simply told them that I could not "fix" many of their situations, but I could promise to offer them a safe place to work on their issues, a place where they would not be shamed and shunned, a place where they could empty their hearts and let their pain out, a place where they would not be made to suffer more! That was good enough for most of them - much more than they had gotten in many other places!
Thich Nhat Hanh died on January 21, 2022, the week after I watched that video. Watching it felt like a farewell present from him to me personally. From watching it, I learned that, in my own ministry, I had been practicing his Four Buddhist Mantras without realizing it because they parallel the basic teachings of Jesus who was always looking for goodness to affirm.
This is how the four mantras work. Give the other person your full reverenced attention and then repeat each mantra with your mind and body focused as you look directly at them. You can only imagine how powerful the effect would be, if every pastor did this with every hurting parishioner.
MANTRA ONE
"Dear one, I am here for you!"
MANTRA TWO
"Dear one, I know you are here and that makes me happy."
MANTRA THREE
"Dear one, I know you are suffering. I am here for you."
MANTRA FOUR
"Dear one, I am suffering too. Please help me."
Like Thick Nhat Hanh, "that bee without his hive" who eventually found a new "hive" in France where he could practice compassion, "this bee without his hive," has found three new hives where I can practice compassion - one in the twined parishes of St. Frances of Rome/St. Leonard here in Louisville, another one at the Little Sisters of the Poor Home and still another one in developing the new St. Theresa Family Life Center in Rhodelia where I grew up.
I couldn't be happier. As I asked myself when I left the Cathedral the first time, "Who said you only get one "golden age?" As I have learned a long time ago, when you "let go and let God," you can have as many "golden ages" as you can handle! I am actually in my fourth or fifth "golden age" since I left the Cathedral the first time in 1997. As my tombstone says, "Simply Amazed - Forever Grateful"
SAINT FRANCES OF ROME / SAINT LEONARD PARISH
Here I Come!
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