ARE YOU GUILTY OF THE SIN OF WITHHOLDING?

               

Sure, he might be able to drive out demons, but he does it with the help of the prince of demons!

Luke 11:15

 

What we have here is a message about pettiness and jealousy in ministry that has been around since the beginning.   There was one thing the religious enemies of Jesus could not stand and that was his success in ministry. Since it was obvious that he was doing good things, the only tactics they had left to fall back on was to discredit his success by attributing that success to the fact that he was in cahoots with the devil. Since it was obvious to all that he had power to cast out demons, they attributed his power, not to God, but to the devil. Jealous of his power to do good, they slander him by telling people that his power to do good came from evil itself.  

 

Jealousy and competitiveness have been the dark side of clerical culture for a very long time and is alive and well today. When the apostles, James and John, were caught making a move to grab the best seats in Jesus’ new kingdom, they had to face the jealous indignation of the other ten apostles as well as a stern reprimand from Jesus. We may remember 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 the other prophets.   Snubbed by some Samaritans while on their way to Jerusalem, James and John asked Jesus if it would be OK to call down fire from heaven and burn them up!   

 

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 made a similar point in one of his books. He talks about the leveling that goes on in presbyterates, whereby priests are reluctant to applaud the work of other priests for fear that it will take away something from themselves. 

 

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.” “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.” God help the individual priest who "shines" too much! 

  

In my transition class with the deacons at St. Meinrad, I always ended with a class on "the spiritual practice of blessing people." Blessing people is not about waving crosses over them, but looking for goodness in them to affirm. For some reason, this does not seem to come naturally to ordained ministers. It is a spiritual discipline that must be intentionally cultivated.  

 

A couple of years ago, I came across my notes for former student, Jorge Gomez’s class, the class of 2011. You may not know that Fr. Jorge, from Mexico, as well as a fellow seminarian, Stanley from Kenya, were killed in a car wreck a few weeks after his 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 I took the time to bless him with these words while he was still alive! Fr. Jorge would have loved Pope Francis’ homily where he said, “A priest who is not in service of his community does no good. He is wrong!”   

 

Brothers and sisters, our sin may not be so much about “what we have done,” the mean and nasty things we say about each other, but “what we have failed to do,” our withholding of clear and unconditional compliments.

 

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 religious women, lay ministers and fellow believers 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?”  

 

One 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!”