USEFUL WISDOM FOR 2024 #36

 

 

 

 

GO BIG OR GO HOME

GIVEN AT THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR HOME

September 23, 2024

To the one who has, more will be given; and one who has not, will lose even the little he thinks he has.

Luke 8:16-18

This odd little gospel may sound awful, especially in a place like this, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” That’s exactly what it is says, but it means that there is a profound truth, a universal law, behind its shocking words. “The one who has will get more and the one who has not will lose what he has.” Let’s look at some very ordinary examples.

The person who is physically fit and keeps himself so will be able to lift more weight, run farther and feel better all around, while the one who lets himself go flabby, will be able to lift less weight, not be able to run as far or as fast and will probably have more physical problems like diabetes or high blood pressure. 

The person who saves some of his money and invests it wisely will become richer, while the one who is a spendthrift and wastes his money on gambling and unwise purchases will probably end up losing whatever he has.

The person who has faith and feeds that faith with regular prayer and spiritual reading will end up with an even stronger faith, while the one with little faith, who skips church, skips prayer and skips any spiritual reading will, no doubt, lose what little faith he had!  

Maybe we could summarize the great truth behind the passage today, “The one who has will get more and the one who has not will lose what he has,” with these two popular phrases - “Choose it or lose it.” or “If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying.”

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.”

I have concluded that there are two secret ingredients to becoming all that we can be. (1) The first ingredient 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.

(2) After a passionate commitment to who one is, to being the best version of ourselves, the second ingredient in really loving oneself is a passionate commitment to vocational excellence.  If you strive to be the best at what you have been called to do in life, you will get better at it. If you choose the “good enough to get by” path, you will become known for your mediocrity. 

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. 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. It is true” You are either busy being born or you are busy dying so don’t give up! Be like Sisters Bernard and Irene! “Rage, rage against the dying of the light!” 

 

 

 

 

 

A STORY OF A TRULY "catholic" HEART

 

I tell you, not even in Israel, have I found such faith!

Luke 7:1-10

The centurion mentioned in this gospel is one of the most attractive characters in all of the gospels. He is also a bundle of contradictions.  He was powerful and humble. He was strong and tender. He was a Gentile, but he was not afraid to ask a Jew for help. He was a military man with great faith. This is a story about stepping out of bounds.

First of all, this centurion’s extraordinary concern for a common slave stands out. A slave, back then, was considered a “thing” to be used or destroyed on a whim.  This centurion’s totally unusual and unexpected gentleness and love was steeping out of bounds so much that it moved Jesus.

Second, for a powerful Gentile army officer to come on his knees to ask a simple Jewish rabbi for help would have been extraordinary to say the least. Jews hated Romans and Romans hated Jews.  This stepping out of bounds opened him up to the scorn of both his Gentile friends and Jewish enemies.

Third, the centurion showed concern for Jesus by acknowledging that it would not be kosher because of Jewish law for him to actually come to his house to do the healing, but he obviously believed in the power of Jesus to work his cure from a distance.

Fourth, Jesus was so impressed with his faith, a faith that he had not experienced even among God’s “Chosen People” that he was moved to challenge popular notions of who is in and who is out in God’s eyes.

Brothers and Sisters, this story challenges us to have a “catholic” heart. The very word “catholic” means “universal” and “inclusive,” so the question for us today is this: How can we open our hearts wide enough to hold all the variety and difference we bump into each day? How do we open our minds enough to appreciate and enjoy the incredible range of perspectives and all the legitimate diversities around us? How do we even begin building a Jesus-like heart?

We begin by loving ourselves, our whole selves, every part of ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves, with all our own faults, contradictions and limitations, there is not hope at all that we can accept those things in others. In fact, if we don’t embrace our own faults, contradictions and limitations, we will probably project that self-loathing onto others without even realizing it!

Second, to have a heart that can hold a place open for others, especially those whom the world rejects, means that we must be people of great courage, guts and principle.  Rejection is the price we often have to pay for compassion. Jesus was condemned to death for making room in his heart, for making room in God’s kingdom, for embracing all people no matter what shape or condition they were in – even his enemies. It takes great courage to live in this world with a heart that big, that generous, and that compassionate! It takes great courage to maintain a “catholic” heart, especially in the meanness of today’s world! Sadly, the word “catholic” is more and more associated with people who readily join those who are more than willing to exclude, judge and condemn the very people they are called to embrace, protect and help! 

THE FATE OF TRUTH-TELLERS IN A CULTURE OF DECEIT

Our first reading from the Book of Wisdom contains pretty much a job description of what a prophet does and how people react to them.

“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure”

When I read these words, I thought of the prophet John the Baptizer. John has to be one of the hardest persons in the whole Bible to warm up to! He is the kind of man you would respond to by grabbing the kids and pulling them close if you ran into him on the streets. The smell coming from him alone would probably gag a horse! He made his home in caves out in the desert wilderness. He wore a disgusting camel hide and ate locusts, wild honey and probably anything else he could find crawling on the sand.

This hairy, bellowing preacher-man did not mince words. He tore into religious leaders, calling them “nests of poisonous snakes.” He did not stop there. John took on the political establishment as well. On one occasion, he got up in King Herod’s face and publicly confronted him with the fact that he was committing adultery with his brother’s wife. For that, Herod had John’s head cut off and served up on a platter.

John was a “prophet” and this kind of radical truth telling is what “prophets” do. Prophets are not so much people who predict the future, as they are people who rub the truth of the present in our faces and make us look at it.

We might call such people today “whistle blowers,” people who drag the truth out into the light of day and make us look at it, whether it is convenient to look or not! Like prophets of old, “whistle blowers” are often considered “nut cases” at first. Like prophets of old, “whistle blowers” often get themselves killed, either actually or figuratively because most establishments do not like to have their boats rocked or their truths to come out. Instead of heeding the message, they usually turn on the messenger.

“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training, to us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure”

If you have ever been involved in exposing one of these inconvenient truths, you know just how dangerous it can be. If you are not physically hurt, you can be labeled or blackballed for years and maybe for life.

We still kill our prophets in a host of creative ways. We shun friends who will not go along with us when we do wrong.  We ridicule the teaching of the Church when it won’t bless the wrongs we want to do or we disparage Popes we don’t agree with.  Prophets confront us when we do that and so they are hated.   

All of us have a built-in “prophet” as well. Our built-in “prophet” is called a “conscience.” Our consciences are constantly confronting us with truths that we would just as soon not look at. We can numb them temporarily with alcohol or and even kill them for good with regular and consistent violations. Maybe the message of a prophet, either inside or outside us, can be summarized best and most simply by Marcus Aurelius who said, “If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.”  Charles Marshall put it this way, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking!” Isaiah the Prophet put it this way, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." 

Let me remind you, fellow follows of Jesus, being a person of integrity, being a person who always does the right thing, being a person who always tells the truth will attract admiration from some, but you will be punished by people who take the path going in the other direction, by people who will be threatened by your solid integrity and unflinching principle!  As we say, “No good deed goes unpunished!” That goes for good people as well! “No truly good person will go unpunished.”

Persons of integrity and principal are like mirrors held up for those who aren’t – the slick, the slimy and the shady.  The very presence of persons of integrity and principal expose those who aren’t those things for what they are! As our first reading puts it,

“They set themselves against our doings, reproaches us for our transgressions and charges us with violations of our training. They are obnoxious to us. They censure our thoughts and merely to see them is a hardship for us. They judge us debased; they hold aloof from our paths as from things impure”

Those who won’t join you in your search for excellence and integrity will not admire you, encourage you or even respect you. They will attack you!  Because it will be easier for them to pull you down than pull themselves up, they will come after you and try to undermine you! Do it anyway! Take the high road! Be an example for others! Feel good about yourself! Live respected by most, even when you are attacked by a few! In a world infested with meanness, dishonesty and cruelty, choose to be different!

A little green and black book, by the name of Virtuous Leadership: An Agenda for Personal Excellence, has had a tremendous effect on my life. It is a spiritual book from the professional business world - believe it or not! The writer, Alexandre Havard, lists six virtues of a person of integrity and principle: prudence, courage, self-control, justice, magnanimity and humility. These are the things really worth pursuing! These are the things the world needs more of! These are the standards, by which we will be judged when we stand before God holding our very lives in our hands! The only question is, how proud or how embarrassed will we be, with what we did with ourselves! I believe it is ultimately a matter of choosing courage over cowardice over a lifetime!