USEFUL WISDOM FOR 2024 #42

 THIS SONG HAS HELPED ME DURING TIMES OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND FEAR FOR 54 YEARS

 

 

 

THE 50TH JUBILEES OF SISTER MICHAEL AND SISTER GRACE

GIVEN AT ST. JOSEPH HOME FOR THE ELDERLY IN LOUISVILLE

October 30, 202

Sister Michael Anthony of Mary l.s.p. 

Sister Grace Mary of St. Paul l.s.p. 

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,

which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Matthew 13:44-52

Today, Jesus compares discovering the kingdom of God to stumbling onto a buried treasure. When I was 33 years old, six years ordained a priest, I had an experience of stumbling onto such a buried treasure - not money, gold nuggets or jewels, but a new understanding of what God is really like! I had an experience that opened my mind to a new way of understanding the Scriptures. Until then, I had listened to Scripture readings in school and every Sunday at church throughout my childhood. In seminary, I had heard Scripture being read many times a day, had listened to hundreds of homilies and had taken several Scripture classes. After seminary, I had been preaching for seven years as a deacon and priest at the time I had my mind-blowing spiritual experience. Until then, I thought I was beginning to understand the scriptures pretty well. I knew I had learned some things about Jesus, but the day of the experience that I want to share with you, I came to realize that I had learned a lot of facts about Jesus, but I really did not know Jesus all that well!

My mind was opened to understanding the scriptures in a new way during a vivid life-changing dream forty-seven years ago – a dream that I have mentioned several times in my preaching. In that dream I was on top of a small mountain. It had no trees or bushes or rocks. It had only very short green grass - very much like a golf green. I was sitting in a folding lawn chair and God was sitting in another one next to me. We were sitting side-by-side, in silence, facing the setting sun. Oddly enough. we were both smoking cheap King Edward cigars! I knew it was God, but I was afraid to look over. We just silently puffed on our cigars and watched the sun go down on the horizon. Finally, God leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Ron, isn’t this wonderful!”

I woke from the dream at that point with my world looking forever different to me. After that dream, the spiritual and psychological chains that had been holding me back melted away. I began to feel a lightness in my heart that I had never felt before. I realized the truth of that old saying, “you always find what you look for!” In Scripture, you can find justification for both compassion and cruelty, judgement and mercy! It depends on what you look for! After that dream, for the first time, I began to feel that it was OK to be me - just as I was! I began to fully understand what it meant to be “created in the image and likeness of God.” After that dream, instead of always obsessing about all those “sin" messages in the Bible, I started noticing all the “unconditional love" messages. I started to feel that I was that lost sheep that Jesus embraced and carried on his shoulders and that I was that prodigal son who made it home to an unexpected warm welcome. For the first time in my life, I started feeling that I was good enough for God just the way I was! From that day forward, I quit beating myself up spiritually for not being better than I am!

That experience was also the beginning of a new way of preaching. I began to preach about the “unconditional love” that God has for every one of us! Instead of always looking for sins to condemn in myself and others, I started looking for goodness to affirm in myself and others. I believe that the years following that dream prepared me to offer a clear message of “God’s unconditional love” that appealed to so many alienated Catholics which led to the rapid and consistent growth of the Cathedral parish when I was its pastor during the 1980s and 90s’s. That’s why my old column in The Record and my present blog have both been called “An Encouraging Word.”

Today we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Perpetual Vows of Sister Grace and Sister Michael. I don’t know their whole vocation stories, but I did find out that that each one of them had their own “moments of grace” that led them to answering God’s call to become a Little Sister of the Poor. Sister Michael told me that she felt called to religious life as a nurse, but knew she was not called to a community of school teachers! She discovered her “pearl of great price” simply by being introduced to the Little Sisters of the Poor. Sister Grace told me she was a volunteer at a Little Sisters of the Poor Home in grade school and continued into High School where she felt a call to religious life, but also did not feel called to the teaching orders of her grade school and high school teachers. She too felt a call to nursing, but instead entered the Little Sisters of the Poor where she has helped manage the food service in several LSP Homes in France and the US.

Sister Michael and Sister Grace both experienced their own “moments of grace” when “God broke through” by being exposed to other Little Sisters and their mission. All three of us found our “buried treasures” and “pearls of great price,” our vocations, when we were young. They found theirs by being exposed to other Little Sisters. I found mine by trying on a Roman Collar, while waiting to get a haircut, when I was six years old. God’s ways are certainly mysterious!

I am sure they both have had many other “moments of grace” over the last 50 years when they have found “buried treasures” and “pearls of great price” in religious life. 50 years ago, 4 years into priesthood, I found another major “buried treasure,” a new awareness of the gospels that started with a dream about me and God smoking cheap cigars, sitting in folding lawn chairs, on a mountaintop, watching the sun set!

Sister Grace and Sister Michael, congratulations on your fidelity to your calls. Thank you for your many years of loving service. Prayers for your good health and peaceful happiness going forward! I hope that both of you will stay in Louisville for a while. I am just getting to know you!

SAD NEWS FROM A FELLOW VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY

 

Father John Judie, a retired priest from Louisville, has been volunteering in the east African country of Tanzania. Last week, he fell and wounded both knees. Since I have been trying to assist him in his ministry in Tanzania, while continuing in my own ministry in the Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I sent him an e-mail as soon as I heard about his fall and his wounds. Here is the response and update I got:

"Thanks, Ron. Both knees injured have been repaired. Three days of post surgery, then two weeks of lying still. Will discuss with the doctor today about the rehab program. Many thanks for the prayers."

John

If you know Father John, or would just like to send him an encouraging word, you can e-mail him at:

johnjudie48@gmail.com

If you would like to know more about his ministry in east Africa, you can access his organization's webpage at the web-address below. Who knows? Maybe you will be inspired to send a Thanksgiving or Christmas donation to his organization's Louisville address to help him out in his mission ministry in east Africa. It's conveniently tax-deductible!  

frjohnjudieministriesinc.org

 

A PASSION FOR PERSONAL AND VOCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor 

as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these.

Mark 12:28-34

I have grown to love the 2007 movie, “The Bucket List,” starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It’s about two terminally ill old men on a road trip with a list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.” 

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?” 

Because I was about to retire nine years ago, it was serendipitous that I should stumble onto it. It occurred to me that it raises a ton of questions for reflection on my retirement. These two questions may have been two of the most important questions facing me as I sought to create a second life with the experiences I had accumulated. “Have you found joy in your life?” “Has your life brought joy to others?”  

Many people nearing my age, especially those going into retirement, speak of retirement as a time to pamper oneself and finally being able to do whatever they want to do! Our culture teaches us that retirement is a time for self-indulgence. Move to Florida! Sleep in! Putter around the garden or workshop! Play golf every day! Hang out at McDonald’s and drink coffee till noon with other old men! God spare me! Thomas Merton was right when he said, “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”

My main goal going into retirement was first of all to challenge the temptation, from my own mind and from the mouths of others, to think too small. I knew didn’t want to quit being a priest, but I wanted to be a priest in a new way. I certainly knew that I wanted to do more than just keep doing what I have always done, but less of it. Neither did I want a permanent vacation. I have spent my whole life as a priest dreaming bigger than what was considered wise. Some of those dreams did not materialize, but more than I could have imagined, have materialized! I wanted to keep "dreaming big" in a way that was age appropriate, so I nixed taking up "inline skating," but I still wanted my retirement to be a springboard to adventure, not a hammock for my lazy side to lie in.

The ancient Egyptians may have asked people on their entry into heaven: “Have you found joy in your life?” “Has your life brought joy to others?” Jesus taught us today that we will be asked a similar question on our entry into heaven:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these. 

“Have I found joy in my life?” “Has my life brought joy to others?” I can't answer for you, but I can speak for myself. Maybe how I answer these two questions will help you answer them for yourselves. 

"Have I found joy in my life?" I can answer that question with a resounding "yes!" I am convinced that my life as a priest has brought me so much joy that I have even summarized it officially: "Simply Amazed - Forever Grateful" I have not only been "called" to the priesthood, but I have been blessed with meeting so many wonderful people who have made priesthood a real honor and has brought me great joy! As I look back over my life, coming from a rural town of 27 people, and think about the all people I have met, the places I have been and the things I have gotten to do, I am "simply amazed" and I will be "forever grateful." The joy that I have found in my life has come from preaching the love of God in word and deed as a home missionary, a country pastor, a cathedral pastor, a vocation director, a seminary staff member, a fifteen-year weekly columnist, a traveling parish mission preacher, a volunteer foreign missionary and a priest convocation presenter in 10 countries and author of several related books. Most of that time, I have specialized in preaching the love of God to the poor, the marginalized, the left-out and those who have not yet realized it!   

"Has my life brought joy to others?" I can answer that question with a resounding "yes" as well! It's either true are a whole lot of people have been lying to me for a very long time! I have not been perfect and not everyone has expressed appreciation for my work, but I can say with confidence that I have been very happy and I know I have brought happiness to a whole lot of others! 

In my retirement, I have not slowed down all that much, but I have have adjusted my focus. I no longer travel to far-off places, but I do a lot of ministry here at home and other places from a distance. I help-out in several parishes. I help-out weekly at the Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home and monthly at the Ursuline Sisters Retirement Community at the Twinbrook Nursing Home. I am finishing up a few more small projects in my home parish in Meade County. I am still helping with small projects in the Caribbean Missions and I have added a couple of small projects in the African Missions. I still publish a few books, maintain a blog and celebrate a few funerals. 

I no longer spend a whole lot of energy trying to fix the institutional structures of the church. I am leaving that to younger priests and bishops. My focus and passion now is on ministry to individuals - helping them with their happiness and helping them bring happiness to others!