HOW TO SURVIVE A SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP CRISIS

 

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

Luke 10:1-12,17-20

As many of you know, for fifteen years I wrote a weekly column in our archdiocesan newspaper, The Record. My column was called An Encouraging Word. My philosophy was, that if you looked for it, you could find all kinds of wonderful things happening that never make the news. I wanted to shine the light on affirming that goodness, rather than "mousing for vermin." By that, I mean I wanted to resist the temptation to constantly "look for sins to condemn."

I still believe that there is a lot of goodness out there, but when I saw today's reading, as one of the laborers who has been sent out into the harvest, I could not help but be moved by its powerful words and want to offer some encouraging words to all of you about how to handle what's happening to our culture.

There is a deadly disease of epidemic proportions infecting our country, our families, our communities and our churches. Many of us are already infected with it and most of us have already been affected by it. No, it's not COVID, AIDS or cancer.  It's an aggressive selfish individualism. This disease, this mindset, is infecting our families, our marriages, our political process, our neighborhoods, and even our churches. 

Today it’s all about me, my rights, my needs, my opinions, my future and my wants. It’s all about "every dog for himself" and a “I don't give a damn attitude” about how my behavior affects anybody else. It’s about running red lights, trashing public property, seeing what you can get by with, reneging on promises, running over whoever gets in your way, getting out front no matter who you have to walk on and engaging in crude, rude, and in-your-face public discourse and behavior. 

As a result of all this, we are investing in more police, more expensive lawyers, more guns, stronger locks, and more counseling just to protect ourselves from each other. Because of all this, people's anger, rage, and hate seem to be boiling over everywhere. This disease is being labeled, among other things, as the “decline of civility” and the “collapse of culture.” Basically, we have learned how to be a “me,” but we have forgotten how to be a “we” - as citizens, as family members, as marriage partners, as neighbors, and as church members. 

What did Jesus do, when he saw all the human bewilderment and dejection of his day? He compared it to seeing "sheep without a shepherd." When he saw it, he was "moved with compassion" for the sick, the poor, the blind and the mentally afflicted. He was "moved with compassion" by the world's sorrow - for those who have lost loved ones, for the tired and hungry and those who struggle to get by with so little. He was "moved with compassion" by the world's loneliness when he saw those who have been marginalized, abandoned and isolated by their sickness, their race or their age. He was "moved with compassion" by people's desperate longing for a connection to God while going without good spiritual leadership.

What he saw was a serious spiritual leadership crisis - a heart-breaking lack of people willing and able to do anything about all the suffering that "moved him with compassion."  What did he do about it? He sent his disciples out, in pairs, after instructing them, to do what they could to relieve people's suffering and to give them hope. 

When I hear about, or see first-hand, all the human bewilderment and dejection today, I see very clearly that we are truly in a serious spiritual leadership crisis. We have so few really good role models in government and the most pressing need facing Catholicism today is the quality of its spiritual leadership. Faced with all the social bewilderment and personal dejection, those called to positions of political authority seem more and more focused on their own personal power, and those called to spiritual leadership seem more and more focused on their own personal piety, than helping to relieve the pain and emptiness of others

Effective spiritual leaders need to have the ability to influence people to move from where they are to where God wants them to be – the ability to inspire them to become people willingly, and able, to serve others. Because of our spiritual leadership crisis, we are losing the ability to influence people to choose love, service and compassion over hate, competitiveness and greed. This is leaving people “like sheep without a shepherd" while our spiritual leaders are increasingly promoting personal piety!   

To me, the most pressing problem facing Catholicism today is, without doubt, the quality of its priestly leadership in face of seemingly deteriorating religious devotion and faith, community cooperation, generosity and concern for the poor. Organized religion has lost its power to impose unquestioned rules on the behavior of its members No amount of ranting and raving from the clergy about how it ought to be listened to and new editions of the rule books, will fix this. Instead of blaming ourselves for our lack of skills of persuasion, some clergy persist in their propensity to blame the laity for their lack of faith and the culture for its "secularism" and "moral relativism."

Instead of blaming others, the better approach might be for us clergy start owning the fact that the real problem may be our own style, mistakes and inability to influence others.  Instead of looking around for a solution, maybe we clergy should start looking within. We designated spiritual leaders need to become real spiritual leaders. A fancy title alone means absolutely nothing!  Maybe our real problem is not with you sheep, but with us shepherds! 

What can you do in a serious spiritual leadership crisis? This is what you do! You grab the bull by the horns! You do whatever you can personally to survive and grow spiritually! When you can't find a good spiritual director, you do what you can to become your own spiritual director! Some of us did what we could when one or more of our parents were not there for us when we were growing up! Some of us found a way to parent ourselves! We had to be like those four kids who managed to survive in the Amazon jungle for 40 days after the plane they were on crashed and killed three adults including their mother. Those four children, all siblings, were ages 13, 9, 4 and 11 months. The oldest was used to taking care of the younger ones. They survived jaguars, snakes and other predators. Their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills helped them stay alive until help arrived.

Here is one thing you can do to be your own spiritual director if necessary. You don't have to add something new to your already busy schedule. All you need to do is to focus more seriously on something you are already doing - going to Mass. It requires that you move away from the passive old idea of "attending Mass" to a new discipline of "celebrating the Eucharist." Instead of expecting others to offer you a moving spiritual experience every weekend, it requires that you personally become responsible for that "moving spiritual experience" that you crave. It is possible to have a "moving religious experience" even when the homily is not very inspiring and even when the music is not up to your liking. Here are some things you can personally do in a pinch to help yourself have a "moving spiritual experience!"

(1)Spend some time reading and re-reading the Scriptures of the day at home on the computer or from a missalette before you come to Mass. If that doesn't work, or time doesn't allow it, come to church early and do it right there in the pew. That way, even if the homily is disappointing, you can still be inspired by reflecting on the readings before they are read. (2) Pick a seat to minimize visual and audible distractions - maybe up front near the altar or pulpit. (3) Pick up a hymnal and sing along or minimally read the words as others are singing them. St. Augustine said, “He who sings prays twice.” The words of the hymns are prayers too! (4) Keep a "spiritual progress journal" even if you only have time for a few sentences on some days. I now have over 20 volumes of reflections that I can go back to, re-read and notice when I made progress or fell behind spiritually. (5) If you do better in a group, you can always join a spiritual reading book club, a prayer group or a support group. If none are available, start your own. (6) When alone in the car, use your commuting time to listen to a recorded spiritual reflection.

Whatever you do, remember this! If you are not being fed spiritually by others, feed yourself! Feed yourself! Take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being! In an emergency, become your own spiritual director! Be like those four kids who managed to stay alive on their own for forty days after a plane crash in a Columbian jungle! Until help arrives, starting today do whatever you can to prepare yourself to be "moved with compassion for the bewildered and dejected!" In the meantime, pray that the Lord will strengthen the spiritual leaders we have, make them more effective and send us more effective spiritual leaders because "the harvest is great, but the laborers are few!"