BALANCING WORK AND CONTEMPLATION

A Case of Both-And

As they continued their journey, he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me. ”The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

Because I didn’t really understand it, I never used to like this Martha and Mary story very much. In fact, I believed that Martha got a bum deal here. Here she is slaving away in a hot kitchen, trying to get a meal on the table, while her sister Mary has parked herself in the living room with the guests, listening in on the living room conversation. Even when poor Martha comes into the living room, mopping her brow with her apron, to ask for a little help, she not only doesn’t get it, but she also gets a quick reprimand for being such a workaholic! I have always felt sorry for her for that let down! She probably ran back into the kitchen sobbing!

These days, I understand the story a little better. Jesus is not condemning good deeds or hard work in order to praise contemplation. In the sequence of the gospel, Jesus has just finished telling the story of the Good Samaritan, in which doing good deeds was praised. In fact, Jesus ends that story by telling his disciples, and us, to go and do the same as the Good Samaritan. What he is doing here is simply reminding Martha of the primacy of listening to the Lord and also reminding her why, and for whom, she is doing all her work to begin with. He is reminding her that she is loved whether she gets dinner on the table on time or not! So, this story is meant to balance the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s not a matter of either/or but of both/and. It’s a matter of action and contemplation, a matter of work and rest!

Now I suppose this story can be read on many levels. In fact, in the fifty-five years that I have preached on this text, it has spoken to me on a variety of levels, depending on where I was in my own experience. At some point, when I had picked it up and read it over many, many times, all of a sudden it took on a new meaning that day. As I read it over and over, I kept saying to myself: “This story is about self-worth. This is truly about self-worth!”

I know these two women. They moved into my head years ago and they have been arm-wrestling ever since about who is going to be in charge of my thinking. For most of my life I’ve sided with the busy and anxious Martha. But recently, as I’ve gotten older, Martha is really getting on my nerves. Mary, after all, is the smart one. Both of these characters want to serve the Lord, but they do it for different reasons. Martha is that part of me that believes that I am not really worth much unless I do a lot of work to prove my worth. Martha is that part of me that is always anxious, always lecturing myself and always saying to myself that I ought to be ashamed of myself for not being perfect. Martha is that part of me that believes that if I accomplish a lot, if I can keep proving myself then maybe I can make up for my obvious deficiencies. Martha is that side of me that believes that my worth is directly tied into what I can get done. If you have a Martha in your head, I am sure, like me, you too are totally exhausted most of the time by your own busyness about many things.

I’ve just recently discovered Mary’s point of view. Mary has a message for those of you who feel you “aren’t worth much” because you “can’t do much anymore.” Mary knows that she is already loved, she has already done enough and so she doesn’t have to do a thing about it except enjoy the fact that she is loved. Mary is that side of me that wants to believe that God already loves me, no matter what, just as I am right now, whether I do anything this week or not. Mary is that part of me that wants to believe that God loves me and I am worth something just because I am, not because I am a priest, not because I’ve earned a few degrees or because I can pastor three or more parishes at once. Martha always leaves me anxious, but Mary leaves me encouraged and gives me mental rest and peace of mind. Martha is always trying to do something to get God to love her while Mary understands that she is already loved by God.

The monks at Gethsemani Abbey are the "Marys" of the church. Like Mary who sat in the living room listening to Jesus, they are contemplatives. They are known especially for the amount of time they pray and mediate. The "Marthas" of the church are the ones who are always obsessing about doing things. They are the ones driven to ask the monks what they do besides pray and meditate. They are always relieved to hear that they "produce fruitcakes and fudge." Underneath their prejudice is a belief that anything beyond work is a waste of time!

I read a story several years ago about how many widows there are in Florida! It seems their many of their husbands died of heart attacks trying to "get ahead" so they could kick back and live it up someday! Sadly, they worked themselves into an early grave!

Many of us go through life with that same work-work-work prejudice. Many of us grew up believing that God’s love is conditional - it's based on how much we do for God! We grew up believing that God loves us when we are good, quits loving us when we are bad and starts loving us again when we shape up. Like Martha, we grew up believing we needed to prove our worth to God by doing good deeds! That is actually very poor theology. Mary teaches us today that God’s love for humankind does not have to be earned. True, as we learned in the Good Samaritan story, God calls us all to serious action and thoughtful behaviors as signs of our gratitude for all God has done for us, but God never withholds love from us, no matter what we do or fail to do. That, my sisters and brothers, is why the Scriptures are called “good news.”

Let me end this homily with a humorous story about a time I was talking about this reading. I was having Mass at the old Sacred Heart Home on Payne Street. The Carmelite Sisters had closed their convent on Newburg Road and moved into Sacred Heart Home. All through the homily that day, I could hear one of the nuns snickering on my right side. After Mass, she came up to me and said, “Finally, someone understands me! My name is Sister Martha and I spent most of my life as a cook for the Carmelite Sisters! I so appreciated your sympathy for Martha in today’s gospel!” I laughed all the way home!

Sitting At the Feet of Jesus

Sitting at the feet of Jesus,

Oh, what words I hear Him say!

Happy place! so near, so precious!

May it find me there each day;

Sitting at the feet of Jesus,

I would look upon the past;

For His love has been so gracious,

It has won my heart at last.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus,

Where can mortal be more blest?

There I lay my sins and sorrows,

And, when weary, find sweet rest;

Sitting at the feet of Jesus,

There I love to weep and pray;

While I from His fullness gather

Grace and comfort every day.

Bless me, O my Savior, bless me,

As I’m waiting at Thy feet,

Oh, look down in love upon me,

Let me see Thy face so sweet;

Give me, Lord, the mind of Jesus,

Keep me holy as He is;

May I prove I’ve been with Jesus,

Who is all my righteousness.

A GOOD FRIEND'S FUNERAL HOMILY

 

     My good friend, Richard Douglas “Dubby” or “Dick” Thurman, born on April 8th, 1937, passed away peacefully at 87 on July 4,  2024, surrounded by his loving family.

While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Over the Christmas holidays, a couple of years ago, I got Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It is about the opportunity to watch the 2007 movie, The Bucket List, starring two terminally ill men on a road trip with a “wish list” of things to do before they “kicked the bucket.” Since I had just officially retired, it struck a chord with me.

In one of my very favorite scenes, they are both sitting on one of the pyramids in Egypt. Morgan Freeman’s character says to Jack Nicholson’s character, “You know the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven…the gods asked them two questions. Their answer determined whether they were admitted or not. “Have you found joy in your life?” “Has your life brought joy to others?”

When Faye Thurman asked me to preside and preach at Dick’s funeral Mass today, I thought these two questions would be two great questions I imagine Dick being asked when he arrived at the gates of heaven.  “Did you find joy in your life?” “Did your life bring joy to others?” Jesus, of course, put it this way! Has God’s love for you brought you happiness? Has God’s love for you inspired you to share that happiness with others? I am confident that he is able to answer both questions with a resounding “yes.” I know from talking to him in depth that his life, especially after he “discovered his new religion,” has certainly brought joy to his life and, from what I heard around the bed right after he died, his life has certainly brought joy to the lives of his family and friends!  I heard Faye says more than once, “I am going to miss him so much!” I am sure his children feel the same way! I heard his grandchildren say, and all verbally agreed, “He was the best grandfather any grandchild ever had!” How good is that? I got an e-mail from a friend of Faye’s to whom Faye said about me, “Dick loved Father Ron!” After so many breakfasts, health crises, prayers shared, support for my projects and laughs together, talking about our humble beginnings and our Honorary Doctorates from Bellarmine, I can truly say he brought joy into my life as well. It was great to hear that my life had enriched his!  

What we are talking about here, with those two questions, is the living out of the Great Commandment. The "great commandment" of Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "Love your neighbor rather than yourself!" In other words, if you have no love for yourself, you will have no love to share with your neighbor!  You cannot give anybody else anything, if you don't have anything to give! As I learned in High School Latin class, "Nemo dat quod not habet." "If you ain't got it, you can't give it!" Only those who have joy in their own lives are able to bring joy into the lives of others. Only those who love themselves can love others. Only those who know how God’s loves, are inspired to love another, as they are loved!

Only those who know how God’s loves can love another as they are loved! How does God love? From 54 years of preaching, I have learned sadly that many so-called “religious” people don’t know squat about how God loves! That’s why I picked the story I read from the gospel today. Religious people who don’t know how God loves, usually mis-name this story. They call it the story of the Prodigal Son! The better name for it is the story of the Loving Father! The wayward son is not the hero of this story simply because he shaped up and came crawling back home. Neither is the uptight and pouting “perfect” son the hero simply because he stayed home, kept the rules and did what he was obligated to do! The real hero of this story is that love-crazy father who loved both of his sons – the one who got down with the pigs and the one who stayed home and did what was expected of him! You and I are one or the other of those two sons – either the wayward son who wasted his money on prostitutes and had to get a job feeding pigs or the self-righteous, uptight, religious conformist who stayed home but probably wanted, in his heart of hearts, to do some of the wild things his little brother did while he was gone!

The father in this parable stands for God! In other words, Jesus tells the people who heard this parable that God is just like the father in this story. That is why the rejects and marginalized of society flocked to Jesus! He preached the “good news” of God’s unconditional love! That is why the religious conformists hated Jesus and had him killed for this kind of talk! They preached the “bad news” of God’s conditional love, which caused people to run away from them!

So, who does God love and how does God love? God loves everybody and he loves everybody, no ands, if or buts about it! No, God does not love the evil we do, but like a good parent, he doesn’t quit loving us and abandons us when we do bad things! If the whole Bible was lost except this one story, we would still have the essence of all that Jesus came to this earth to tell us! The good and the bad alike are loved by God and we too are called to love each other, our friends as well as our enemies, as God loves us! Remember that, because there will be a test at the end of the homily to see if you heard what this story is teaching us! I believe Dick knew this truth and he would want you to know it as well!  

Dick came into my life toward the end of his life. He admitted that was not a “religious” man early on, he might have even compared himself to the prodigal son, but he “discovered” religion when he was faced with kidney disease. He told me he was inspired by his sister’s faith. He and Faye started coming to the Cathedral with Jim and Dot Patterson. I remember praying with him for a “miracle” kidney donor and looking for printed prayers to give him to encourage him. Friends, our prayers were answered and a ‘miracle” was granted! I received him into the church and I have been privileged to give him 4 of our 7 sacraments: confirmation, holy eucharist, penance and anointing of the sick! He was already baptized and married or he would have received all of them except ordination! We met regularly, talked about spiritual things, shared prayers and throughout, he took his new catholic faith very seriously! It brought him joy! Yes, it brought him joy! He brought me joy, as well, watching his spiritual life take root and grow!

Finally, friends, the parable today, applied to Dick, is this! Just like the father in that gospel story who loved both his sons, the good one and the bad one, God love the old Dick and the new Dick. Dick may have discovered religion at the end of his life, but God had been there all along - loving him all the time – both while he was away and when he came home! Today, I can imagine Jesus saying to him these familiar words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master!” ‘Enter into my joy because you welcomed that joy into your own life and you passed that joy on into the life of your family, your friends, your neighbors and your fellow men and women!’

Congratulations, Dick! You made it across the finish line! Like Faye kept saying at the hospital, we are really going to miss you, but someday we hope to see you again! In the meantime, pray for us and we will pray for you! We say that because he used to say the Creed with us every Sunday when we all professed together that “we believe in the communion of saints,” which is to say that we believe in a holy and unbroken connection between the living and the dead! 

Finally, let me say this – something I try to say at every funeral. Friends, if there are any slights, hard feelings or neglect between you and Dick Thurman or between Dick Thurman and you, let it go! God has forgiven him! God has forgiven you! He did his best and so did you! He is at peace and so can you be at peace! Let it go!

Now for the test! So that you won’t flunk, I am going to give you a hint! It’s one word and it begins with an “e!” Here goes!

FATHER KNOTT: Who does God love?

CONGREGATION: Everybody!

FATHER KNOTT: Correct! You get an A+! Now, go love each other as God loves Dick Thurman and you!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOVING, PROTECTING AND UNIFYING

I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that

they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing.

Jeremiah 23:1-6

One of my earliest childhood memories was seeing Father Johnson, our pastor at St. Theresa in Rhodelia for many, many years, dressed in his overalls and rubber boots, with feed-buckets in each hand, surrounded by hungry sheep, walking through the cemetery as we drove by. The parish did not have a lot of money, especially back then, so he raised sheep both to keep the cemetery mowed and to provide mutton for the parish picnic each summer.

He was a good man – a holy man no doubt. He was especially good at building. He personally laid the bricks and blocks on the convent, rectory, school and parish hall. He was, however, not very good with people – especially with women in general and nuns in particular, and not very good at preaching.  You might say he was better at pasturing sheep than pasturing people, but we loved him anyway. Even though he told me, when I first told him I wanted to go to the seminary, that I would never make it, he did send me a message from his deathbed, after I finished my second year, that he had changed his mind and thought I might make it after all. I, too, loved him anyway – loved him enough to still remember the date of his death – January 3, 1960.   He was such a big part of my childhood that I cannot read about Jesus, the Good Shepherd, without thinking about him and his sheep. It broke his heart to give up his sheep when he got too old to fend off the roaming dogs that slaughtered and destroyed them.

One day, I was watching a program from Australia about sheep and shepherds. I was shocked by what I saw. It did not remind me either of Father Johnson or the Good Shepherd we read about in the New Testament with the sheep eagerly following the gentle calls of their trusted shepherd leading them to food and water and making sure they were protected. In Australia, they have another way to heard sheep and it is done with barking and snapping dogs who force the sheep from behind to go where they would rather not go. Rather than inviting from the front to follow, they threaten them from behind if they dare try to run away!  

As I sat there watching this version of shepherding, I was reminded that we have had two kinds of "pastors" in our church in my life-time: those who the sheep trust, gladly following his convincing voice, and those who bark and snap at the flock, leaving them in fear and trembling and trying to escape from such shepherds! 

It is interesting to me that of the two words for “good” in the original Greek text are agathos and kalos. The first means “good” as in “a good person,” while the second means “good” as in “good at something.”  The word for “good” in the gospel "Good Shepherd" scripture is the word for “good at.” Of course Jesus is a “good person,” but what it wants to say there is that Jesus is “good at” shepherding. 

The Latin words for the “good shepherd” are “bonus pastor,” from which we get the word “pastor.” This passage is most often applied to priests and ministers who are called to be like the Good Shepherd, “pastoring” in his name.  We priests and ministers are also called, like Jesus to be “good” and “good a what we do.”  When we fail, we are often compared to the “hireling” shepherds who are only interested in “threatening, using and abusing” the sheep for their own benefit! 

But, today, I want to apply this story to you, the spouses and parents and future spouses and parents, sitting here in front of me. You, too, are called, or will be called, to be “good shepherds” of your families. You, too, will need to be “good” and “good at” what you do. You will need to be a “good person” and “good at” being a spouse and parent.

The late Pope John Paul II’s new Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Two sacraments are directed toward the salvation of others and, if they contribute to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so.” In other words, those of you called to marriage and those of us called to ordained ministry, become “good” through “being good at” what we do, you as spouses and parents, and me as an ordained minister.

We live in a world of slick temptation and bad examples. It is easy to get off track and be seduced into adopting atrociously bad behaviors simply  “because everybody else is doing it.”  If we are going to be “good” and good at” what we do, we must draw strength from something else than the culture around us. I have also liked the image of the “tree planted near running waters, whose leaves never fade” from Psalm 1 and the prophet Jeremiah.

“A tree planted near running water” never has to worry about hot weather and drought: its leaves stay green. No matter what is happening above ground, because its roots go down deep and taps into the water. Another psalm says “He who practices virtue and speaks honestly, he who brushes his hands free of bribes, stopping his ears and closing his eyes to evil, shall dwell on the heights and have a steady supply of food and drink.”

Jesus is that life-giving water which we should be tapped into. If our roots go down deep and tap into Him, we can stand tall and healthy. Tapping into his life-giving water is what will make us “good” and “good at what we do.”  A connection to Jesus only on Sunday is like trying to fight off drought by carrying water. If you are planted near that stream and your roots tap into him, you never have to worry, you will always have a “steady supply of food and drink,” it will be possible to be a “good person,” a “good spouse,” a “good parent,” or a “good priest/minister” no matter who else crashed and burns in today’s culture.  

 

 

 

USEFUL WISDOM FOR 2024 #26

 

NOISE - THE WORST OF ALL POLLUTION?

WE ARE ALL CALLED, BUT OUR RESPONSES ARE DIFFERENT

 

A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go!”

Another disciple said, “Lord, I will follow you, but let me go first and bury my father.”

Matthew 8:18-22

My friends, each one of us is precious in God’s eyes. My one of us is special.  Each one of us is a unique expression of God’s love and creativity. In all the world there is no other person exactly like us. There never has been or never will be another person just like us!  Besides being special and unique, we are not here by accident. We were sent here for a purpose. We have a mission. We have something to do here that can be done by no one else. Our responsibility is to find out what our mission is and then carry it out with all our might.  Our purpose here is commonly called our “vocation” or “your call.”  Our most important task may have been in our younger years, but it may just be in the last days of our lives!

A few people enthusiastically “jump in head first” without counting the costs like the first would-be follower in today’s gospel and end up crashing and burning very quickly.  Some people hear God’s voice directly like Jeremiah, Peter and Andrew, James and John, seems to have done. More people hear their calls as “a hunch,” “a quiet knowing” or “a small still voice” that never seems to go away.  They just know in their guts. Other people hear God’s call through the invitation of others, those who say to them over and over again, “you’d make a good doctor,” “you’d be a great teacher,” “you’d make a good priest,” “you’ll make a great parent.” These voices just might be messengers from God himself!   

What if we listen for God’s call? What if we don’t?  God wants the best for us! If we do what he calls us to do, we will be ourselves, we will be what he created us to be. We will feel, and we will know, that we are in the right place. Our life’s work will fit who we are. When we follow our calls, we will be happy, not a “ha-ha” happy, but a deep-down satisfaction, in spite of challenges.

However, sometimes we know what we are supposed to do in life, but we don’t do it because we are scared of its demands, scared of what other people will think of us, scared of failure or scared of disappointing our parents, peers and friends and so we put it off “until our parents are dead” like the second of the would-be followers in today’s gospel.  We pay a price for not listening to God’s call.  We pay a price for pleasing others instead of becoming who we are. When people go against their call and do something else, their lives will seem to be out of sync, they will be frustrated, their hearts will not be in their jobs or professions. They will go through life with a low-grade depression, a restlessness that will follow them wherever they go and be filled with regret, anger and frustration that life somehow passed them by!

Everybody has a vocation, a call from God, to do something for him, to help him carry out some part of his work in the world. A call is not so much about what we want to do, but what God wants us to do! The famous Albert Schweitzer put it this way, “The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” The famous Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” 

Some of us are called to help God carry out his mission by being teachers, doctors, scientists and food producers. Others of us are called to be social workers, artists and scientists. Still others of us are called to help God carry out his mission by having children, by being a good husband or wife or by living the single life. Finally, some of us are called to be priests, sisters, brothers, deacons or full-time lay ministers.

Whatever our call, we are called to help God carry out his mission in the world in some way!  As St. Theresa put it, “Anyone who realizes that he or she is favored by God will have the courage necessary for doing great things!”  

 

 

TAKE NO BAGGAGE! DON'T GET DISTRACTED! STICK TO THE SCRIPT!

Jesus summoned the twelve and began to send them out, instructing them

to keep it simple and to land in one place without moving around.

He also told them that if they are not welcomed, shake it off, move on

and keep delivering the message! 

Mark 6:7-13

What we have here are the “marching orders” for the first apostles and those of us who carry on their work. That work includes each and every one of us!  We were all commissioned at our baptisms to be "ambassadors" for Christ! These “missionary” instructions are as valid today as they were then, and just as demanding, too. What I think Jesus is saying to us here, in plain English, is this: (1) keep it simple (2) bloom where you are planted (3) expect some rejection (4) stay focused on what's truly important.

These marching orders have serious implications for those who carry on the work of the apostles as priests, yes, but they have serious implications also for those of you who carry on their work as parents, those who work in the world and citizens of this country. We may not learn these four things in the sequence given, or all at once, but sooner or later they will have to be learned. After 54 years of priesthood, I can say I have experienced all of them, and some of them several times over.

The first thing I had to learn was to “bloom where you are planted.” Just as some of the missionaries that Jesus “sent out” shopped around for the bigger and better deals, priests today can be very rigid about what they will, or will not accept, in an assignment.  When I was first ordained, I had my heart set on being an associate in a comfortable suburban parish so that, after living mostly in the country, I could finally enjoy the benefits of the big city. What I got was an assignment to the “home missions” of our diocese, three and a half hours away from here.  This first crisis of my priesthood took place just two weeks into priesthood.  When I heard where I was being sent, I pleaded, begged and cried to no avail. I finally had to accept the fact that I had to go, one way or another, willingly or unwillingly. In the car, on the way down there, I made one of the most important decisions of my priesthood: since I didn’t get what I wanted, I consciously decided to want what I got. My heart and mind opened and I decided to do everything in my power to “bloom where I was being planted.”  In final analysis, it turned out to be an incredible 10 years. I used to teach what I had learned from this experience to priests-to-be when I worked at St. Meinrad Seminary. I used to tell them that when it comes to assignments from the bishop, if you don't get what you want, you can always turn and make up your mind to want what you got! I tried to tell them that it was possible to "bloom where you are planted!"

"Bloom where you are planted" can apply to the rest of you as well - whether your life is focused mostly in the professional world, mostly in the work world or mostly in the home world. There are opportunities everywhere to "preach the gospel" by your actions, "using words if you have to" as St. Francis supposedly said.  You don't have to stand on street corners and preach, all you need to do is to just focus on being the best marriage partner you can be, the best parent you can be and the best professional or laborer you can be!   Yes, if you just "bloom right where you are planted" that will be enough! 

The second thing I had to learn was to “keep it simple.” In 1975, I was assigned two rural counties where I was expected to start two mission parishes where the Catholic Church had never been before. In all of history, I became the first resident Catholic priest to live in Wayne County, Kentucky. When I moved into the basement apartment of St. Peter Mission Church, all I had was an old bed, a bedside table, a tacky old yard-sale lamp, a warped green kitchen table with two matching chairs, a total of 6 parishioners and $70.00 in the parish bank account.  I remember lying in bed that first night recalling the words of today's gospel: “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals” I kept asking myself that night: “What in the hell has just happened to me?” That night the challenge to “keep it simple” became a very stark reality for me! 

Since I could not do grand things in a situation like that, I was forced to look for simple ways to make an impression in the community. I remember deciding to pray for the other churches, one by one every week, until I had covered every church in Wayne County.  Each week, I would write a letter to the church pastors telling them we were praying for them and for the success of their ministry at the coming weekend Masses. One year, when I was able to get a semi-truck load of educational toys from PLAYSKOOL TOY COMPANY in Chicago through one of my seminary classmates, I divided them among the Sunday School classrooms in all the churches of Wayne County who would accept them. 

Because I had to "keep it simple," I came to believe that one of the most effective ways of making a difference in the world is to simply lead by example.  Practicing simple random acts of kindness is a simple and effective way to set a good example on how to behave in the world. People today are often surprised by simple acts of kindness. Benjamin Franklin once said, "The best sermon is a good example." Whether you are a priest or a parent, I believe that "setting an example" can be a much more effective way to "preach the gospel" than reading from a Bible on street corners, no matter how loud one gets! I like to think that my own personal "acts of kindness" have been just as effective as any of the words I might have used in a pulpit. 

As an "ambassador of Christ" in the world, the third thing I had to learn was to “expect rejection.”  One of the reasons I did not respond positively to the news of my first assignment to the "home missions" in the southern part of the state, where Catholics made up only one-tenth of one percent of the population, was the fact that anti-Catholicism was very much a reality down there at that time. I grew up very much fearing rejection.

The first day I went into a local “ministerial association” meeting, the host minister saw me, left the room abruptly and sent a note back to us by his secretary, which read, “I can no longer be part of this group, now that it has a Catholic in it. Please leave my church!” Thank God all the other ministers stood up with me and walked out. We went across the street to another church to finish our meeting! I was regularly preached about, by name, on the radio. One minister told his radio audience, “If you people had prayed harder, those Catholics would not have come!"  Even when I got my own radio program, I was thrown off the air while I was on vacation, because some local ministers showed up at the radio station to complain. I didn’t “shake off the dust” in the sense of leaving town, but I decided not to let those comments affect me. I simply refused to take them personally. I simply turned the other cheek and decided that I would "kill them with kindness" until I was accepted.  It worked! 

Many of you parents, who do the heroic work of raising children, have had to endure rejection from your own children, especially as they go through puberty! As Shakespeare said, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" During that transition to adulthood, there may be times when your children call you every name in the book and quite speaking to you for weeks, but you remain steadfast, parenting as best you can as they work their way through the trials of growing up!  

The last thing I had to learn as an "ambassador for Christ" was “not to forget what is truly important.” Some priests think their main mission in ministry is to be the “town scold,” always looking for evil to condemn - "mousing for vermin" as one writer called it! Well, I have always believed differently. I believe that we actually see what we look for, so one day I decided to start writing a weekly column in The Record called "An Encouraging Word." Rather than always looking for evil to condemn, I tried to look for goodness to affirm in the ordinary people moving around me. I wrote that column every week for fifteen years. I wrote a total of 750 weekly columns in all! I always found some goodness to affirm because I was training myself to look for it!

I believe that the last thing our people need from us, when we go into their parishes, is always telling them what’s wrong with them. What they need from us is encouragement. In many cases, it is obvious to me that they already have more faith than I do. What they need, I believe, is God's encouragement, the encouragement of the “good news,” the good news of God’s universal and unconditional love for all people. If announcing the “good news" is not our passion, but instead being one of those who is always wallowing in that small world of nit-picking liturgical issues, always delivering complicated tedious theological lectures from the pulpit that nobody is interested in, then we are guilty of overlooking the great treasure in favor of focusing on the humble crock that holds it. In the priesthood and in family life, there is always so much to do that it is very easy to forget what is truly important. People today still crave hearing the “good news” and still respond to it enthusiastically when they hear it. When we remember the "good news" ourselves, and help others remember it, we will always be remembering what is truly important. 

My friends, all of us are "evangelists." All of us are "preachers of the good news." All of us are "ambassadors for Christ." We just carry that "good news" out to the world in a variety of ways. Some of us do it mainly with our words. Some of us do it mainly with our actions. Either way, we are all called "to keep it simple, to bloom where we are planted, to expect rejection and to remember what is truly important!

USEFUL WISDOM FOR 2024 #25

 

EVEN THE THOUGHT OF THESE SCENES BREAKS MY HEART

 I am sure most of you know of Hurricane Beryl that ripped through the Caribbean Islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (where I made 12 trips as a volunteer Caribbean missionary) and caused damage as it made its way all the way up to Texas and beyond. 

While the damage in the islands of SVG goes far beyond this blog-post, completely destroying many homes and some churches, I want to focus mainly on two small churches on two islands where I had led an effort to provide several improvements. At least two churches were completely destroyed in the recent Hurricane Beyl and the other was destroyed in a volcano eruption on St. Vincent in 2021. Other destroyed or damaged churches, school roofs and homes we helped update are not included in this post.   

At least two churches, maybe three, were outfitted with red chairs that had come out of our Louisville Cathedral as part of a major renovation of  island churches: chairs, new ceiling fans, liturgical equipment and, in one case a new fence, gate and floor make-over.      

THE TRAGIC LOSS

of our

OLD CATHEDRAL CHAIRS, NEW FANS, NEW ROOFS AND MANY OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

#1

PRE-HURRICANE BERYL 

Immaculate Conception Church on Mayreau Island is part of a three-island parish cluster called Holy Family Parish. The other two churches are Our Lady of the Assumption on Canouan Island and St. Joseph Church on Union Island. 

Notice the large ceiling fans that we installed inside that church! 

 

Easter Vigil 2022 with visitors and Bishop Gerard County.

THE POST-HURRICANE BERYL DESTRUCTION

ACTUAL DESCRIPTION OF BEING CAUGHT IN HURRICANE BERYL

MORE IMPROVEMENTS LOST

New entrance, right before the new tall wrought-iron gates were installed. 

New fence to keep roaming goats out of the parish gardens. 

Thank God, none of these people, of the 50 who took refuge in the church during the hurricane, were killed! 

Parish kids with their Easter Baskets that we sent down. They are holding a sign that says "Thank You Father Ron" meant for all who donated and helped send things down to them. 

THE OTHER TWO CHURCHES OF THE THREE-ISLAND HOLY FAMILY PARISH

The Our Lady of the Assumption on Canouan Island with Cathedral chairs was not destroyed. Both sides of the altar have Cathedral chairs. 

The St. Joseph Church and Rectory on Union Island with some Cathedral chairs and our new ceiling fans with lights was totally destroyed. Photo of that destruction is not available at this time. The new roof and other improvements on the St. Joseph Retreat House, up the hill from the church, suffered severe damage.  

Our new roof on St. Joseph Retreat House being  installed a few years ago was totally ripped off by Hurricane Beryl. 

 

#2
PRE-VOLCANO

Our Lady Star of the Sea Church On Saint Vincent Island - Top Floor 

(Episcopal Church - Bottom Floor)

Tim Toms, part of a group from Louisville who made a trip down to the islands and who helped with this project and others, standing in front (above) and sitting in the newly renovated church (this photo) - pre-volcano. 

                 

Notice the new ceiling fans, Stations the the Cross and Statuary and refinished floor. 

POST-VOLCANO 

You can see the very bottom tip of the crucifix (above) in the yellow wall opening in the center of this picture. 

18 inches of volcanic ash on the roof crushed the new ceiling fans, the Cathedral's old red chairs and most of the liturgical furnishings as it fell in from the weight. It's all crushed under that volcanic ash!

MOTHER TERESA'S "ANYWAY" POEM

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

         Inscribed on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta.

 

I thought I had "retired" from work in the Caribbean Missions, but this hurricane breaks my heart. It destroyed much of our work. I feel I have to do something "anyway." If this moves you to help in "anyway," you can send a check made out to ST. BARTHOLOMEW CHURCH - SVG MISSION FUND and I will see that it is deposited in their account at a local TRUIST BANK. I still have some of their deposit slips.  Don't make checks out to me, just send them to me for deposit:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

Louisville, KY 40217