CHURCH CHAT #5

 

"THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE"

 GIVEN AT THE LITTLE SISTERS F THE POOR 11-17-202

The people walking in front rebuked the blind man, telling him to be quiet, but he kept calling out all the more.

Luke 18:35

Today, we have one of my very favorite stories in all of Scripture. Both Mark and Luke tell this story about the healing of a blind beggar outside Jerico. Mark gives him a name - Bartimeus! He is a man who knows what he wants and is willing to jump any hurdles in his way to get at it! No wimpish sitting back wishing, waiting and whining for what he needs, he is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he needs! No hoping to be noticed! He makes sure he is noticed! Nobody’s “sit down and shut up” is going to stop him! For him it’s “jump up, shout and be sure you’re heard.” He is tired of being blind. He desperately wants to see! He has a burning faith in Jesus and he will not be held back either by his own reluctance or the obstacles others throw in front of him!

It is important to notice the words of Jesus here! These same words are often used in the miracle stories of the gospels. Jesus does not say, “Go I have healed you!” Rather he says to Bartimeus, “Go your faith has saved you!” In fact, there are failed healing stories in the gospel where Jesus could not work any miracles because of a person’s lack of faith.  It takes two for a miracle healing – the power of God and the faith of the one who asks for healing.

The one necessary ingredient, then, in all healing miracles is the strong belief that healing is possible. This strong faith triggers an abnormal acceleration of natural healing processes. This is true of all the healing shrines in all religions – it is the firm faith of the believer that unleashes God’s healing power.

Bartimeus can teach us something. Psalm 119 says, “God hates half-heartedness!” Very often we are ambivalent about what we say we want. Often, we hang onto our infirmities and losses because they give us convenient excuses for not getting on in life and doing the hard things involved in making it work. We say we want things to be different, but in reality, we are not so sure! Often, we actually do not want things to change all that much.

I am sure Bartimeus thought twice about whether he really wanted to see because he knew that when he was able to see he had to quit feeling sorry for himself, he had to give up depending on alms as a beggar and had to get a job for the first time in his life!

Miracles are possible in our lives, but miracles are different from magic! Magic is about sitting around wishing somebody else would make things happen to make us all better. Magic is waiting for a fairy godmother to come and wave her magic wand over us so we don’t have to do anything. For a miracle to happen, like Bartimeus, we have to get up, throw away the security blankets that we have wrapped ourselves in and be clear about what we want and be willing to go get it! We have to override the naysayer in our own heads and the naysayers who line to roads of our life. Wishing and magic waits for others to fix us. Really wanting something make us take action. God is willing to help those who are willing to help themselves.  Yes, we need to help the helpless, but we also need to encourage those who can help themselves to help themselves!

Friends! We can begin to work miracles in own lives by really wanting something different and really believing that what we want is possible, like Bartimeus. As Dale Carnegie once wrote, “Believe that you will succeed…believe it firmly and you will do what is necessary to bring it to success.” Jesus put it this way to Bartimeus, “Your faith has saved you!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVICE ON HOW TO KEEP FROM AGING - COLLECTED WISDOM

EIGHT BITS OF WISDOM AND A SUMMARY 

 

1. “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”

Theodore Roosevelt

I believe in this so much that I actually taught a class to future priests about saving for retirement with their first check. I even gave them a $100.00 each to open an IRA, an Individual Retirement Account.  

2. “One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” 

                                                                                       Morgan Harper Nichols

Back when I was working on my end-of-life plans and designing my tombstone, I took a lot of time to reflect on my life. When I was finished reflecting back, I decided on four simple words "simply amazed  - forever grateful." "Amazed" and "grateful" - that pretty much sums it up and, besides, it looks pretty good on a tombstone! 

3. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest.” 

                                                                   John Glenn

I think I was born for service. My first inkling of maybe becoming a priest was when I was six years old. I publicly announced it at seven years old. I entered seminary at age fourteen, was ordained at twenty-six and have served in ministry for fifty-five years so far. Even in retirement, I cannot stop serving. In my mid-seventies, I made twelve mission trips to the Caribbean. At eighty-one, I have helped build a church in Kenya and a house in Tanzania. At eighty-two, I plan to help a Tanzanian Bishop finish building a new grade school in 2026. I have already started working on it! 

4. “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” 

                                                                  Sophia Loren

As I asked the people of the Cathedral when I arrived there to lead its parish revitalization and restoration, "Who says you only get one "golden age?" I am here to lead you to a second "golden age!" When I left there, I asked myself the same question. As a result, I have had a few more "golden ages" since then, even in retirement, because I believed in their possibility and did the work to help create them. 

5. “Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.” 

                                                                                          Maggie Kuhn

One of the best things about old age is that you can say or write about anything and get away with it! I wrote a column every week for fifteen years in the local archdiocesan weekly, The Record. After that I started this blog, especially in retirement, I feel much freer to say what I feel than used to! What can they do to me now, fire me?

6. “If I had known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”                                                                                  Anonymous

Actually, I have discovered in my old age that you can turn your weight and health around if you don't wait too long. My "New Year's Resolution" when I turned 80 was to get back to my ideal weight again through the daily use of my treadmill and watching what I ate. This time I summoned the discipline. At 81, I have reached my ideal weight and now I can fit well into a favorite jacket that I bought in Amsterdam when I was twenty seven years old and backpacking through Europe! This year, I lost over thirty pounds, six inches in my waist and I am holding!  

7. “The wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.”                                                                         William Wordsworth

I am not one who yearns for the days of my youth. I don't want to go back. That was much too hard! I am more centered and peace-filled now than at any other time of my life. I only wish I had the body of youth and the mind of an experienced old man. If I had to choose, I would certainly choose the mind of an experienced old man. 

8. “Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.”                                                                             Anonymous

One of the things about old age, for me at least, is how fast time flies by in such a short time. It seems to me that every other day is a Thursday - time to get the weekend homily polished and ready to post on my blog. Even when someone mentions something from the recent past, I imagine it happened two, maybe three, years ago only to find out it was ten years ago! This odd awareness started back when I was a staff member at Saint Meinrad Seminary before my "retirement." I would ask them about something that happened "a few years ago" and they would respond, "Father, we don't know! We weren't even born yet!" 

SUMMARY 

How can you develop a positive mindset about aging?

First, you can start by shifting your focus from what you’re losing to what you’re gaining—wisdom, experience, and confidence. Second, you can surround yourself with inspiring people, keep learning new things, and embracing the opportunities that come with each stage of life.

Oprah Winfrey wisely said this, "We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter. I refuse to let a system or a culture or a distorted view of reality tell me that I don’t matter. I know that only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us all something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you.”

Maybe this is why some people have called me "an old lady magnet" - their sense of adventure! Maybe not all of them, but certainly the ones I enjoy the most!  

 

 

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE!

 

You do not know on which day your Lord will come. Stay awake! You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Matthew 24:37-44

Today, we have two two-word phrases about how to live! "Stay awake!" and “Be prepared!” I am very aware that I am bombarded every day with messages about how I ought to live, how I ought to think, what I ought to buy and what I ought to do. I try my best not to listen to most of those messages. So that I can freely and deliberately "take the road less traveled," I collect insightful quotations, wise sayings and other tidbits of wisdom and paste them everywhere in my house to remind myself that I am in charge of my own thinking, that I need not be a victim of what “everybody else is doing" or "what everybody else is thinking." I want to consciously control my own thinking and make my own decisions so that I do not end up unconsciously being a gullible "copycat" of what other people are doing and thinking. 

 

In my house, where I can see it often, is this George Bernard Shaw quote. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” This might not mean much to some of you, but for me it symbolizes the greatest breakthrough in thinking that I have ever had in my life. Until I was a junior in college, I used to believe that “life was something that happens to you and all you can do is make the most of it.” As a result, I ended up always being a “victim” - being what the same George Bernard Shaw called, “a selfish, feverish little clod of grievances and ailment complaining that the world would not get together to make me happy.” One day, in a flash of grace, it occurred to me quite clearly that "there was no rescue party out looking for me!" That day I made a clear, conscious decision to quit whining from the back seat of my own life and to get behind the wheel! I have told my story hundreds of times, but I also know that that every time I tell it, it always inspires someone to make a similar shift in their thinking. I am hoping that it will help someone here today who needs to make a shift in his or her thinking away from victimhood toward self-empowerment - to get a grip on themselves and quite waiting for a rescue party to come and magically “save” them!  

 

My fellow Catholics! The readings today are about the importance of building your life on a solid foundation, but before you can even consider what foundation you want to build on, you must understand and accept the fact that you are the builder of your own life! You are responsible for how your life turns out! If you build your life on the rock-solid foundation of sound thinking that leads to good choices, if you “get it” that life is about you creating yourself, you will most probably thrive! If, however, you build your life on the sand of weak thinking and lazy choices, you will surely doom yourself to the “swamps of regret” and the world of “might have beens!” 

 

Most of you are familiar with the monk, Thomas Merton. We have his library at Bellarmine University where I use to work as its longest serving campus minister. People come from far and wide to use that library and absorb his wisdom. Many of you may not be as familiar with the founder of his religious community, the Cistercians. Locally we call them “Trappists.” Their founder was a Benedictine monk named Bernard of Clairvaux. St. Bernard was a great reformer in the Church of the 12^th century. He might have died over 860 years ago, but his wisdom lives on and it is valuable even today – even for those of us in here today! He offers us four foundation pillars on which to build a good life based on the words of Jesus who said, “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit." If your life is to produce good fruit, St. Bernard says you must (a) consider yourself (b) consider those below you (c) consider those around you and (d) consider Him who are above you.  

 

(a) In considering yourself, St Bernard said, “Behold what you are! It is a monstrous thing to see such dignity trivialized and squandered!”  The first foundation stone on which to build a successful life is a passionate commitment to your own personal excellence – becoming the best version of yourself that you can become! I learned a little maxim in Latin many years ago which I have found to be so true.  “Nemo dat quad non habet” “One cannot give what one does not have.” Jesus said, “A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” St. Francis de Sales said, “Be who you are and be that well!” In practical terms, if you are going to marry, be good at it, be a fabulous partner or don’t get married! If you are going to have kids, be good at it, be an effective parent or don’t have them! If you are going to go into public service, be good at it, be transparent, be honest and be self-giving or don’t get into it at all! If you are going to a priest, get serious about it or don’t get ordained! Be who you say you are! Be a person of integrity. Do the right thing even when no one is looking!  

 

(b) In considering those below you, you must never forget that the gifts you have been given have been given to you, not just for your own good and personal benefit, but for the good of the community! The second foundation stone on which to build a successful life is a passionate commitment to vocational excellence, to be the very best you can be at what you do!  This means a lifelong commitment to honing your skills, to deepening your respect and reverence for those under your charge and to always trying to lift the vision of others to higher sights, their performance to a higher standard and their personalities beyond their normal limitations.   Yes, become an example of who people want to follow! 

 

(c) In considering those around you, take stock of those with whom you surround yourself! The third foundation stone on which to build a successful life is to choose your friends and associates wisely. Many people do not realize the impact the type of people they surround themselves with has on their well-being. Our friends in AA know that part of becoming sober is not hanging out with drunks at bars! The people you surround yourself with will either lift you up or bring you down, support you or criticize you, motivate you or drain you. By developing relationships with those committed to constant improvement and the pursuit of the best that life has to offer, you will have plenty of company on your path to the top of whatever mountain you seek to climb. Remember, people who tell you what you want to hear are not necessarily your friends, just as those who tell you what you don’t want to hear are not necessarily your enemies. Surround yourself with people of integrity and quality. Do not hang out with lazy thinkers and undisciplined people! Instead of building you up, they will bring you down!    

 

(d) Last of all, in considering Him who is above you, never forget where you came from and where you are going. You have not always been here and you will not always be here! In the whole scheme of things, your lifespan is relatively short. The fourth and final foundation stone on which to build a successful life, therefore, is to develop an interior spiritual life to match your external material life, so that you can walk on two legs, not one! Statistically, marriages with God in them, for example, last longer and are happier. The same can probably be said of other vocations and professions. Awareness of God reminds us every day that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that an amazing amount of invisible support is just a prayer away and that our lives have a point and a purpose beyond financial success! Don’t let organized religion’s many failures cause you to miss out on religion’s many positive contributions! Stay connected to your religion and be serious about that connection!   

 

My fellow Catholics! These four foundation stones, if built upon with care, focus and determination, make up the cornerstones of a good life, in whatever direction you go! Those who came before you have given you an excellent foundation on which to build! Now heed the words of Saint Paul, “Each one of you must be careful how he builds!” Remember the words of George Bernard Shaw, “Life is about creating yourself!” Regardless of your age, you still have the freedom and tools to make something of yourself! Rise to the challenge! What you do with the freedom and tools given to you is up to you! I pray that each of you will develop a passionate commitment both to “who you are” and “what you do!” I pray that you will seek to be good and good at it! For God's sake, decide today not to be guided by "what everyone else is doing and what everyone else is thinking!" Be better, reach higher, control yourself and remember these words from today’s gospel, “Stay awake! Be prepared! For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come!" 

 HAPPY 53rd BIRTHDAY, MISSION-FRIEND!

Bishop Filbert Mhasi

Bishop of Tunduru-Masasi, Tanzania

We are in contact at least once a week, especially lately. He keeps praying and fasting that we will find at least some of the final $82,000 needed for his "just a little over half-finished Catholic grade school." I told him that I would let him know on Christmas Day where my fund-raising effort for this project stands. We both believe in miracles, but regardless, I will personally give as much as I can because I am fully convinced of how important this school is going to be to these kids' future lives! As I have learned, "I can't help everybody, but I can help somebody!"

                                                                            

 

 

 

 

       

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #4

 

 

A THANKSGIVING REFLECTION

MAKE EVERY DAY A DAY OF THANKSGIVING

All powerful and ever-living God, we do well always

and everywhere to give you thanks.

Mass Preface

If I am not mistaken, Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday has gained in popularity since I was a child. It is now a "big deal" with many more families, these days!  That, I believe, in the words of Martha Stewart, is a "good thing!" Sadly, though, Catholics have celebrated a "day of thanksgiving" every Sunday over that same period of time,  but it on the other hand is losing in popularity.  We call our weekly "day of thanksgiving" by its Greek name Eucharist, meaning thanksgiving. Just as our national holiday "brings our blood family together" in gratitude, our Eucharist brings our faith family together in gratitude.

Whether it is once a year or once a week, I don't believe that either is enough. I believe that our lives could be enriched deeply if gratitude would be practiced as a spiritual discipline every hour of every day. - "always and everywhere" as the prefaces at Mass put it.

Henry Ward Beecher, an old favorite, put it this way. "Let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds iron, so it will find in every hour, some heavenly blessings." This is the idea behind this whole reflection - running my spiritual metal detector over the world in front of me every day in search of someone to encourage and something for which to be thankful!

This idea of going through the day "panning for blessings" pays off. Ezra Taft Benson said it this way. "The more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings, the more he will bring to our minds other blessings. The more we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become. "

Not only do we become more happy when we cultivate gratitude within our own hearts, it also make us holy. William Law made this point. "Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world: it is not he who prays most or fasts most. It is not he who gives the most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it."

The ability to be grateful and express thanks is something that must be taught to us, and practiced, as children. When it isn't, we run the possibility of growing up believing that we are entitled to all that we have and more.  Sir John Templeton captured this insight better than I can when he wrote: "How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens doors. It changes a child's personality. A child is either resentful and negative or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people."       

AN AWESOME IDEA FOR YOUR THANKSGIVING/CHRISTMAS GIFT LIST

IF YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP, LET'S DO THIS

IT'S SO GOOD TO DO ON SO MANY LEVELS

This Christmas, instead of giving multiple gifts to people who already have too much, here is an invitation to share some of those gifts by helping give a life-changing education to some deserving kids who have much too little. 

You have the option of naming your gift in honor of one child, a group of children, a favorite teacher or any special person. You can share this story and the pictures on this blog post by printing it off and telling them what you are doing in their honor. For children, it can be a teaching opportunity! If you like what you see, you can recommend this project to others by forwarding this blog post to anyone who might be interested in adding it to their gift list.    

HELP BISHOP FILBERT MHASI FINISH HIS NEW SCHOOL

Why help people on the other side of the world? 

We help them, not just because some of them are Catholic, but because we are Catholic! 

 A CREATIVE APPROACH ADDRESSING THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS

(1) - lowering ongoing generational poverty through education

(2) - reducing Moslem-Christian conflicts through shared early education experiences

(3) - helping immigrants stay home and thrive in their own country through education

Below are some beautiful Tanzanian children, with Bishop Mhasi, eagerly waiting for a new school to be built.

Below is a recent Confirmation Class eagerly awaiting the opening of the new school.

A New "Cardinal Polycarp Grade School" Begins

It Is Over Half-Way Done - So Far, So Good!

$102,000.00     

Has Already Been Raised

Four classrooms, the administration block, clearing the property and a kitchen have been funded. 

WORK HAS STOPPED BECAUSE THE MONEY HAS RUN OUT

$82,000.00 

Is Still Needed To Finish 

Three classrooms, toilets, water tank, septic system and burning chamber still need funding.

This Christmas, You Are Invited To Help Close That Gap! 

Let's Finish This School As Soon As Possible! 

The Kids Are Eager To Get Started!

"I believe deeply in this project! I am certainly planning to do my part!"

Father Knott

The Catholic DIOCESE OF TUNDURU-MASASI, in a majority Muslim area of Tanzania, faces a critical shortage of accessible and quality education facilities. Many children of school-going age travel long distances to attend government schools leading to high absenteeism and dropout rates. Existing schools are overcrowded, with limited classrooms, inadequate teaching resources, and strained teacher-to-pupil ratios. As a result, children are deprived of a strong educational foundation and formation, which negatively affects literacy and numeracy. 

Establishing a Catholic school in Tunduru is therefore essential to provide equitable access to education, reduce dropouts, foster long-term social and economic growth, and build a strong bond between Christians and Muslims from a very early age. Moreover, access to primary education is a foundational human right and critical for long-term community development. Tunduru's largely rural, low income, population is disproportionately affected by educational gaps and perpetuating cycles of poverty.  Establishing a new primary school would help promote equitable access, improve learning conditions, and support onward transitions to secondary education. 

Bishop Filbert Mhasi has a lot on his plate. He has 22 parishes and 140 outstations (mission churches) and lots of distance between each one. I remember clearly how much energy, focus and fund-raising it took for me as a young priest assigned to just 2 mission churches down along the Tennessee border as a young priest.  Since I have "been there and done that" on a much smaller scale, I am honored to help him in whatever way I can!

 

Father Ronald Knott and Bishop Filbert Mhasi

on a visit to Louisville last summer

"We both believe in miracles!"

FOR AN OFFICIAL TAX-DEDUCTION "THANK YOU" LETTER, MAKE YOUR  CHECK OUT TO:

Father John Judie Ministries, Inc

Mention "School Project in Tanzania" in memo line. 

THEN SEND YOUR CHECK TO ME FOR DEPOSIT INTO HIS ACCOUNT

If it is more helpful for your tax purposes, you can date your check January 1, 2026 and we will hold it for deposit until then. 

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, KY 40217

CHRIST THE KING: FOR SOME, IT WAS ONE BIG JOKE

 

Above him was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.” The rulers

sneered at him. The soldiers jeered at him. One of the criminals reviled him.

Luke 23:35-43

 

Surely, you have heard the expression “God’s ways are not our ways!” It means that God thinks differently from the way we human beings think and God does things differently from the way human beings do them.  We see the most dramatic example of just how differently God thinks in today’s feast of Christ the King.  Christ our King is presented to us, stripped and naked on a cross, dying in agony between two common criminals, spit running down his face, a sarcastic note nailed above his head, a “crown” of thorns mockingly hammered into the blood-matted hair of his head for all passers-by to laugh at!  Now that’s not exactly how we picture royalty! We are used to seeing kings powerful, pampered and pompous!  Our King is different, very different! “He bore our infirmities. He endured our sufferings.  He was pierced for our offenses. He was crushed for our sins. His chastisement made us whole. His stripes healed us.” Without doubt “God’s ways are not our ways!” God does not think the way we think!

 

However, this unusual “king” thing is only one example. God has always done this kind of stuff!  Centuries ago, when God began to prepare a people from whom he would send a savior, he chose Abraham and Sara, two childless senior citizens with one foot in the grave!  After choosing this people as "his" people, they end up enslaved in a foreign country.  Even when they are led out of slavery, God picks a man with a speech impediment to lead them. Even his messengers, the prophets, were, more often than not, hesitant, even whiny, sometimes. One had a dirty mouth. One tried to beg off as being too young and inexperienced. Another tried to run and had to be swallowed and spit out on the beach near Nineveh. Their most famous and beloved king, David, was a murderous bigamist!  Even when the birth of the Savior of the world came, he was born not from among the rich and educated, not at a state-of-the-arts birthing center with the best of doctors, but in a barn, to a teen-ager, pregnant before marriage, away from home, after riding for miles on donkey back! It just keeps going and going!  Even before his birth, Mary predicted that God’s ways would not be our ways. “The rich are pulled from their thrones and the poor are lifted up from their manure heaps.” 

 

Again, in his ministry, we see that God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus was a layman, not a clergyman. He was kicked out of the synagogue, rejected and hounded by the religious establishment. His closest companions were a personnel department’s nightmare: a hated tax collector, a liar, two mama’s babies, an agnostic, a former terrorist, and a petty thief, to name a few!  His closest friends were a motley collection of the marginal type: prostitutes, lepers, the un-churched, women and children, and the dirt poor of every kind.  The gossip about him was that he “welcomed sinners and ate with them,” helping him earn the reputation of being a “glutton and drunkard.”  That’s certainly not what most people expect of God! But, “God’s ways are not our ways.”  Even his final “big entry” into Jerusalem was not in a gleaming chariot with white horses or on a golden throne carried by slaves. No, he enters on the back of a jackass as people chanted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”  

 

No wonder most people missed this king. They were looking in the wrong direction. They thought they knew how God would act. They thought he would act as they would act.  As one preacher put it years ago, “In the beginning, God created us in his own image and likeness and ever since we have been trying to create God in our image and likeness!” Instead of thinking as God thinks, we try to make God think the way we think. No wonder we experience God as absent, more than present, in our lives! We keep trying to make God reasonable, we keep looking for God among the rich, the beautiful, the self-righteous and the powerful!  No wonder Christianity is dead in countries where power, prestige and money are prized, but alive and well and growing in countries where the poor, the powerless and the suffering live. The latter understand how God thinks!  The former is still trying to get God to think as they think! The rich and powerful and beautiful and so-called smart people think they can do without God. The poor and powerless know that they need God!

 

One the most common ways we do not think as God thinks is when we think that God is absent when things go wrong and present only when things go right.  Looking back over my own life, I can say with confidence that it was during those times that God seemed most absent is when God was actually most active! I could not see it at the time, but it is crystal clear from hindsight! (1) As I look back over my life, especially over a very painful childhood lived out in an atmosphere of psychological abuse at home and in minor seminary, I remember the pain of it and I would not want to go through it again. However, I have come to realize that God was certainly using it to prepare me for helping hundreds of others as a priest. I can say with certainty that going through those experiences, and the triumph over them, has helped my effectiveness as a priest more than any other thing! (2) When I was sent to the home missions right after ordination, I certainly felt at the time that God seemed to have abandoned me. In reality, looking back, God was extremely active at that time in my life. God was preparing me for my life’s work as a preacher, as a "revitalizer" of parishes and as a person sensitive to religious prejudice. Looking back, I have realized over and over again, that that period of my life was preparing me for what I have been doing ever since!

 

On this Feast of Christ the King, a feast in honor of the king that is the reverse of how we think of kings, we are challenged to think differently about God. Its message is simple: God’s ways are not our ways, it is precisely when we feel God most absent, is when God is most present! So, I say to all of you who have things going on in your life that you don’t like, things that make you feel that God is absent, just wait! Trust God! I believe that you will someday realize that, even in times of loss and tragedy, God is very active.  Scriptures tell the story in a million ways: God’s ways are not our ways! Contrary to popular opinion, breakdown is a sure sign of a breakthrough, there is a crown on the other side of every cross, resurrection on the other side of death!   That heart attack may just wake you up to what’s really important! That relationship breakup may be the best thing that ever happened to you! That firing may just take you to the best job you ever had! That unexpected death may bring you closer to others!  Ugly ducklings today may just turn out to be swans tomorrow! Getting what you want may turn out to be your worst nightmare! That child that disappointed you most may just turn out to be the child that makes you most proud! That feeling of God being absent, may be the beginning of feeling closer to God than ever! Never underestimate the value of a so-called tragedy!  God’s ways are not our ways!     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #3

Every Saturday for the last 44 Saturdays, I published a real life story from my 55 years of priestly experience. I even put them in a book called YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP.  This year, I will simply feature one of my favorite religious cartoons every Saturday under the title CHURCH CHAT.  I hope you enjoy them too!  

 

 

A SPECIAL INVITATION COMING YOUR WAY VERY SOON

COME BACK TO THIS BLOG ON MONDAY FOR A VERY

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: FINISHED, FUNDED AND FILLED

 

A NEVER-EVER IMAGINED NEW HOUSE

"Like Manna From Heaven"

  

JESCA (single mother)

JACKLINE (daughter) 

FILBERT (seminarian son) 

FORMER RENTED ONE-ROOM HOME

NEW HOUSE FOUNDATION STARTED ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2025

NEW HOUSE BLESSING, KEY PRESENTATION AND MOVE-IN

 NOVEMBER 15, 2025

a few photos and a short video

Filbert, Jesca and Jackline Before Officially Entering Their New House

They still have a a few final small things to finish and some of the items to bring from their old home.  

a reflection of the house across the street in the new windows 

Father Pius, Pastor, Presenting the Key and Blessing the New House (above and below)

Filbert, Jacklin and Jesca in Their New Living Room

Jacklin in her new bedroom (every child's dream - her own room)

Filbert Checks Out the Wardrobe in His New Bedroom

LETTER OF THANKS FROM BISHOP MHASI

Fr. Ron,

I sent you the pictures yesterday of blessing the house. The mother and her children were always crying! The mother started explaining to Fr. Pius, the one who went to bless the house, from the first day we met in my office when she came to explain to me about her son, about the sponsor of her son in the seminary (Fr. Ron), until now the house! She doesn't believe it, and she was always asking why has it happened to her and her family!!!

Thank God that everything went well, and I really appreciate your love and your support. Please convey our sincere thanks to all the donors. Let them be assured that the family and I put them in our prayers for their health and missionary spirit.

Blessings,

+ Filbert

OFFICIAL OWNERSHIP LEGAL PAPERS

One of the things I insisted on was that Jesca, the mother, actually own the house and the property on which it was built. I wanted to give her the future security of home ownership and so that she would have an area to grow her own vegetable garden to help feed herself and her family.   

BE READY! DON'T WAIT TO GET READY!

   

See that you are not deceived, for many will come

in my name, saying, “I am he” and “the time has come.”

Do not follow them! Bad things will happen first, but

it will not immediately be the end.

Luke 21:5-19

The scripture messages this month are simple: we are all going to die! We may not want to think about it, but no doubt about it, someday somebody will be having a funeral for you and for me. Aware of this fact and almost being 82 years old, this stark reality is coming more and more into focus! It’s no longer “some people die,” but "I’m going to die!” I have already had my tombstone installed at my home parish down in the country. My beloved Saint Theresa Parish gave me a free gravesite. I have a free casket from Abbey Caskets at Saint Meinrad as a perk from when I worked there. (From their catalogue, I am choosing the simple monk's casket - see above photo). I have my will up to date, my end-of-life papers are signed and my updated funeral plans have been sent in to the Chancery. My bags are packed, now I want to lay it all aside, forget it for a while and keep on living and doing ministry, as well as I can, for as long as I can! 

Some of the great saints of the past are often pictured with a skull sitting on their writing desk – sometimes with a sign that says momento mori - remember death. It was placed there as a daily reminder of the fact that death is certain. I don't do that! Rather, I have a needle-point pillow that I pat every time I make my bed that encourages me to think about living! It says that “the best is yet to come!”

These days, we try not think about death. We are even trying to find ways around death. Some believe in reincarnation, believing that we never die, but just keep recycling, again and again, until we get it right! Others are trying cryonics, the practice or technique of deep-freezing the bodies of people who have just died, in the hope that scientific advances will someday allow them to be revived when science finally finds a cure for their death. Still others imagine that cloning will provide a way to recreate another one of us, just like the last one.

The funeral industry is getting better at disguising death, offering us beautifully dressed corpses that look like they are merely sleeping, placing them in air-tight caskets with “life-time guarantees” - whatever that means! Still others are engaging in death-denying practices like unprotected sex, drug addiction, regular overeating of unhealthy foods, reckless driving, constant smoking and forgoing vaccinations, as if somehow death could never happen to them!  The fact is that there is no cure for death nor escaping it!

Then there is the “religious crowd,” those who comb the scriptures looking for clues about the end of the world so that they can “get ready” right before the curtain falls. Behind their search is the assumption that they can live any way they choose, repent at the last minute and still get in under the wire - just in case there is an afterlife!  They did it in Jesus’ day and people are still trying to do it even today.

In his day, Jesus often spoke of his Second Coming. Early Christians actually did look for his Second Coming as happening in their lifetimes. The first book of the New Testament to be written down, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, talks about getting ready for that imminent Second Coming. They were so convinced that it was going to happen in their lifetimes that many Christians basically gave up on this life to sit down and wait for it to happen: they quit their jobs, they quit planting and they just focused on the so-called “signs” that were being passed around. It got so bad that Paul was prompted to write a second letter to the Thessalonians, telling them to get up and get back to work because “no one knew” when the end would come. The gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, written a little later, speak of the Second Coming, but warns people that “no one knows the day or the hour” and “if someone tells you that this or that will be the day, do not believe them.” 

Even today, especially at the turn of this century twenty-five years ago, some people got all excited about “signs” indicating the end of the world. Again, it did not happen! Every few years, some fanatical religious leader will come up with a new cult built on the assumption that that he or she has discovered “in the scriptures” signs that the world will soon end. So far, every one of them have been wrong.

There are three things worth pointing out here. (1) No one can predict the date through reading “signs” because no one knows. (2) When it does happen, it will not be a disaster but rather a glorious day for those who live faithful lives. “Eye has not seen. Ear has not heard. Nor has it even dawned on human beings the great things God has in store for those who love him.” Therefore, we wait, not in dread, but “in joyful hope.” Norman Cousins said this, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” (3) The only reason for trying to predict the end of the world, is to live anyway you want and then try to “get ready” before the very end. Foolish! If you live in readiness, you have nothing to be afraid of. Mark Twain said this, “The fear of death follows the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time!” The true message, then, is to “be ready,” not to try to “get ready.”

I think about my own death more these days than I ever have. The first reason is because of the Scripture readings the Church always offers us to reflect on at this time of the year. Second, it has a lot to to do with the fact that I am heading toward turning 82 years old. Third, is the fact that the diocese sends out a “funeral planning form” every couple of years, asking us to update our funeral plans so they will know what to do with us if we were to die unexpectedly. All this certainly shakes one out of the denial that Woody Allen joked about when he said, “I don’t mind dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens!”  However, no matter how you cut the cake, death it is certainly a fact of life so I followed the Chancery’s direction and filled out the funeral planning form they sent me again this year - for their good and for mine!

Here are a few things I have put into my latest “funeral planning form” that I have filed away until needed. (1) I have stated that, if I were to die tomorrow, it would be OK because I have had an incredible life as a priest, a life richer and fuller than I ever imagined when I was growing up. I am not pushing to go just yet, but I think I can leave this world anytime a very thankful man. (2) I don’t want to waste a lot of money on such foolishness as a golden casket, a bronze vault and a gaudy monument, nor do I want my ashes thrown frivolously out of some airplane or used as a mantle decoration. I plan to be buried in one of my old black suits and a Roman collar, in my simple wooden “monk’s casket" from St. Meinrad, which will be made out of poplar wood, with a lid that is put on with screw drivers. As a message to those I leave behind, I want to be buried clutching the Lectionary that the Archbishop of Winnipeg, Canada, gave me a few years ago as a parting gift after I told him and his priests that preaching has been the center and joy of my life as a priest. I want a funeral with joyful Easter music. I want the preacher to deliver a "homily," not a "eulogy." In other words, I want him to talk about what God has done for me, not what I did for God. I want to be buried in the cemetery of my home parish, in the country, where I grew up and very near the farm where I played as a child. My small tombstone, already in place, has my full name, the date I was delivered and baptized by my country midwife grandmother and the date I was ordained. There is a blank space where the date I died can be added later.  On top, I have these words engraved – “simply amazed – forever grateful.” In short, I want people to get the message that I was not clinging to what was behind me, but what is in front of me! I even designed a greeting card when I retired that says, "Trying to cling to what was is perhaps the surest way to sabotage any advanced growth in our elder years." 

Planning your funeral may not be fun, but it is the best way to take stock of what you believe about life and death. It can certainly be a statement of faith. In the meantime, let’s forget about predicting the end of the world! Let’s all live well and live as long as we can! Let us live like pregnant women about to give birth, with our bags packed but out of sight, ready to go whenever the time comes! In the meantime, let us live! Let us live in “joyful hope," but keep in mind always that we are truly “heaven bound!”