USEFUL WISDOM FOR 2024 #37

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ME OR YOU?

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I WAS LOST! NOW I AM FOUND!

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 burned in today’s culture.  

 

 

 

 

THE CHALLENGE OF BEING A DREAMER

 

When I was pastor of our Cathedral from 1983-1997, leading a staff of 10-13 trying to implement 

the dream of revitalizing that parish, one of my biggest challenges was to "keep the dream alive" for myself and those with whom I worked. To do that, I was always printing off quotes for myself and the staff to help us remember where we were going and to keep us from giving up in times of disappointment and setbacks. Recently, I was cleaning out some files and came across a few of those motivational quotes. 

One I could not find, but I can still remember its thrust, was called THE DREAM. I had composed it for myself, but ended up sharing it with the staff and congregation.  It went something like this:

THE DREAM

Having a dream takes great courage. There is always a great temptation to let go 

of part of the dream as a way to resolve inevitable tensions. The secret to bringing it to fruition is to remain focused and purposeful to the end.  

For all those quotes, I got a reputation among the staff for being "a dreamer." On my 25th anniversary of ordination, this song was sung by Elaine Winebrenner and the musicians as a tribute. I still remember it, and for this blog post, I found a version of that tribute on the internet. 

Beautiful the Dreamer

                                                          

                                                Beautiful the dreamer in His eyes

                                                Those who look beyond the darkened skies

                                                To the light that breaks above the stars

                                                To the place where vision wakes

                                                And shines in our hearts.

 

                                                Beautiful the dreamer in God’s eyes

                                                For without a vision we will die.

                                                So let the prophet speak, the vision soar

                                                And rise forevermore

                                                Beautiful the dreamer in God’s eyes.

 

                                                Father, give us dreams alive and new

                                                Come fill our hearts with what you want to do.

                                                Fix our eyes on heaven ‘til we see

                                                Just what your kingdom here on earth can be.

 

                                                Blessed are the ones who do not see

                                                And yet with perfect vision still believe.

                                                Blest are those who let their spirits dream

                                                Never stopping ‘til they see their King.

                                                They forever fly on eagle wings,

                                                Where stars and angels sing.

                                                Praise to the Redeemer

                                                Beautiful the dreamer in His eyes.

                                                

                                                Praise to the Redeemer

                                                Beautiful the dreamer in His eyes.

                                            

                                                            Mike Hudson/Paul Smith

Here are some of the other motivational quotes I can remember from those years. There were other "tidbits of wisdom" that I cannot recall now, but  they still remind me of the power of keeping a vision always in front of one's eyes and never losing sight of it. 

THE VISION

For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment,

and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it;

it will surely come, it will not be late.

The Prophet Habakkuk

2:3

SOME ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI ADVICE

Trust God!

Believe in yourself!

Dare to Dream! 

THE SECRET

Without a vision, the people perish!

Proverbs 29:18

THE BIGGEST SHORTAGE

"The biggest shortage in the Catholic Church is not money or priests. The biggest

shortage is imagination!"

Fr. Ronald Knott

IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

"Impossible things just take a little longer!"

Filo T. Farnsworth, Inventor of TV 

MY SECOND CATHEDRAL BOOK 

DEDICATION 

TO CHRISTY BROWN

who put a foundation under my dream 

Christy Brown helped us develop the Cathedral Heritage Foundation that still survives as the Center for Interfaith Relations. 

 

 

 

AN OLD SIN: COMPETITION IN MINISTERY

 

Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,

and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.

Mark 9:38-43,47-48

Today is “Priesthood Sunday!” I could not help, but laugh when I saw the readings for today! Oddly enough, what we have in our readings, especially two of them, is a message about pettiness and jealousy in ministry that has been around from the beginning. In my experience, you have tended to put us on pedestals, while we have tended to push each other off pedestals!  I believe our “competitiveness” just might basically be one of those famous “male” traits! So, if you are expecting a “canonization of the clergy” homily today, don’t blame me, blame the church for picking these readings about pettiness and jealousy in ministry. As you already know, we are famous for naming your sins from the pulpit! Maybe you can take some comfort in the fact that this year, I am happy to have the chance to name one of our sins from the pulpit on this “Priesthood Sunday” 2024. I say all this, not because I am an unhappy priest with an axe to grind, but because I am a happy priest who is among those who are trying hard to become even more effective at what we do! I say this because I lectured Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Auxiliary Bishops, priests, and even some deacons, on unity among the clergy with their bishops in over 150 dioceses in 10 countries before I retired. I taught classes on it to future priests in several seminaries while I was working at St. Meinrad Seminary. I even published three or four text books on the subject. 

Jealousy and competitiveness have been the dark side of clerical culture for a very long time. When the apostles, James and John, were caught making a move to grab the best seats in Jesus’ new kingdom as they understood it, they had to face the jealous indignation of the other ten apostles as well as 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 in our first readings 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! Is that any way for an apostles to act? 

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. They wouldn’t have addressed it, if it were not a problem! Whether you like his work or not, the late Father Andrew Greeley made a similar point in one of his books. He talks about his experience of 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. Deacons probably have a similar problem.

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.”  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.”   

When I was teaching in the seminary, in my August transition class with the deacons, I always ended with a class on the spiritual practice of blessing people. Blessing people is not about waving crosses over them. It’s about 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, of the class of 2011. As you may know Fr. Jorge (from Mexico) and his diocesan brother, 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 that I took the time to bless him with these words while he was still alive! Jorge would have loved Pope Francis’ homily a couple of years ago. “A priest who is not in service of his community does no good. He is wrong!”  

Brothers and sisters, our biggest 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 from one another! 

St. Cyprian, in the Office of Readings for the Feast of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian, which we celebrated on September 16, put it this way. His words could be applied to deacons, religious Sisters/Brothers and lay ministers as well.  Sometimes, we even hear the laity says, “Well, I don’t want to volunteer to do it, but I also don’t want to see her or him doing it!” What St. Cyprian said about priests could also be said about deacons 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?” 

In today’s gospel, the apostle John says to Jesus: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.” Jesus was right in his response to John. "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.”

Finally, on this “Priesthood Sunday,” I want to thank you for your generous encouragement and support for over 54 years! You continue to inspire me with your fidelity, generosity and basic goodness! I am privileged just to be here praying together with you on Sundays that we will all do better, and be better, next week!