"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #22

                            

LIKE BATS OUT OF HELL

You would think that a Priest Convocation would be one of the safest places on earth to be picked up and taken to the place where the event was to be held. Well, maybe so in most countries except in Ireland and Canada. At least, from personal experience, I think so!

Back in 2015, I had the pleasure and honor of leading the priest convocation in the Diocese of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Bishop David Monroe drove me to the retreat house in his Diocese several miles away. The view was stunning all the way there, but by the time we arrived my knuckles were more than white from gripping the door handle. He was driving fast to say the least. On the passenger side of the car, there was much of the way a ravine without any guardrail, and it seemed that Bishop Monroe would hit the gravel every mile or so which caused me to suck in air dramatically as if the car was headed straight over the cliff into the ravine hundreds of feet below!

It did not help to know that five years earlier, my driver had experienced severe injuries following an attack in a church, perpetrated by an individual reportedly grappling with mental illness. As a result of the assault, Monroe required hospitalization for nearly two months. For the whole trip, I kept wondering about his possible past head injuries and maybe my future head injuries. We made in just fine, but I was more than relieved that one of his priests had been assigned to take me back to the airport.

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In 2010, I was invited to lead the priest convocation in the Archdiocese of Tuam in Tuam, Ireland, by Archbishop Michael Neary. The Archbishop, his priests and myself met at the Shrine of Knock all week. After the convocation, one of the youngest priests drove me around to see some of the sights. My favorite was Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, Ireland. The Abbey was founded for Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in World War I. It is a large castle, so large, that the handful of Sisters finally moved to a farmhouse nearby. I even had Mass for them one morning.

The young priest who drove me around had a heavy foot on the gas peddle. Since the driver sits on the right side of the car, that means I was sitting on the left side. With no air conditioning being needed, I had my window rolled down. The roads were narrow in that part of Ireland so thorny shrubs were raking my side of the car as they whizzed by almost taking out my left eye and bloodying my left arm more than once! More than once, I let out an "ahhhhhh" as the shrubs and small trees raked the car!

If that was not bad enough, all of a sudden a flock of sheep or a herd of cows would appear on the road as we rounded a corner. This meant that we both felt propelled toward the windshield as he slammed on the brakes. The only thing that saved us, not to mention the poor sheep and cows on the road, was our seat belts! It was a lot like a wild roller coaster ride on the world's largest "Beast."

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I don't think I would ever try to drive on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Again, the driver sits on the right side of the car and drives on the left side of the road. As a passenger, I was always mistakenly opening the driver's door to get in.

If that was not confusing enough, the roads are narrow and winding because St. Vincent is an island with a volcano in the center and slopes right down to the water in most places. Buses, vans and speeding cars vie for control of the roads. Speeding cars tend to pass you in blind curves, barely making it back into their lane before crashing into a line of cars. Adding to the stress was the fact that there are few guardrails, shoulders or places to pull off. There are not as many animals on the roads there as in Ireland, but there are lots of children walking a thin line between the traffic and the edge of the cliffs.

I would not even think about renting a car and driving it down there! It was hard enough just riding in a car with young men speeding around blind curves, even in mini-vans packed to the gills with old people and children, like "bats out of hell!"

GUARANTEED: FREEDOM of RELIGION & FREEDOM from RELIGION

WHAT OUR CONSTITUION ACTUALLY SAYS ABOUT RELIGION

First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

Establishment Clause

The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.

THE APPLE DOESN'T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

 

JESUS ENTERING JERUSALEM 

POPE LEO AS A MISSIONARY IN PERU

FATHER JIM FLYNN AS A MISSIONARY IN NICARAGUA 

 

DON'T BE TROUBLED! DON'T BE AFRAID! GOD IS IN CHARGE!

 

Peace I leave you; my peace I give you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or be afraid.

John 14:23-29

I would describe myself, in my early years, as an “anxious” person. To be “anxious” is to be “uneasy and apprehensive about something uncertain” or to be “worried.”  It’s all about that awful thing that might happen next.  This was especially true when I left Meade County, at age 14, and entered St. Thomas Seminary High School here in Louisville. I experienced being “a lost ball in tall weeds” as I entered my first-round of “culture shock!”

Those who have lived with spouse abuse or lived with a raging alcoholic or drug addicted person also know what I mean. Living in anxiety is a lot like living with a ticking time-bomb strapped to your leg – only day and night every day. It is living in dread, living on “pins and needles,” “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” waiting to “hit bottom” after falling. It is no way to live and only those who have been there understand what I am talking about.  

As a small child, anxiety was a simple passing experience – the terror of hiding under covers, wide-awake, after my older sister, Brenda, had told convincing ghost stories or during the height of a crashing, booming rainstorm.

As a fifteen-year-old from “the country” in a high school seminary in “the city,” my anxiety was about the fear of failure, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of rejection, the fear of being laughed at for being a “hillbilly,” the fear of being bullied because I was “skinny” and the fear of not having enough money to live on during the school year.

As a young priest, anxiety was about being threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, being scorned in public by some Protestant ministers for being a Catholic and for being a liberal Catholic by fundamentalist Catholics, being stalked by a knife wielding schizophrenic for welcoming fallen-away marginal Catholics back to church, watching years of work and dreams crack and almost fall to the ground in front of me during the Cathedral renovation, sleeping with one eye open for years after having my home burglarized three times, being ashamed of being a priest and of maybe being falsely accused during wave after wave of bad news during the sexual abuse scandal and waiting for the results of a biopsy that might have been cancer. 

As an older priest, anxiety had to do with three major disappointments when one great assignment ended and my plans for what I expected to do next burned and crash on the launch pad. It was only then that I found out that the Plan B that God had in store actually turned out better than the Plan A that I wanted to happen. It was then that I realized that all my anxiety had been one big waste of time.  

At 81, this may be the most anxiety free time of my life. Today, I know “peace,” the opposite of “anxiety.”  I have a safe place to live. I have enough saved to live comfortably and a little saved for the future. I have a few successes behind me and I have a variety of wonderful small jobs to wake up to every day. I feel accepted by myself and loved by most of those who know me. 

Most of all, I discovered the cure for “anxiety.” I am more at peace now. than I have ever been, because I have discovered the “good news” that Jesus came to bring. I have come to understand and know that I am loved by God, without condition, and in the end that everything is going to turn out OK, even if I may still have to face the challenges of old age, bad health and, God forbid, a painful death.  Yes, I have to admit that heading into 82, I have that feeling I used to get when I was walking across thin ice wondering when it would crack and I would suddenly find myself in a real crisis. However, because of the peace that God gives those who believe in his “good news,” I am confident that he will help me handle the rest of the way whatever comes my way because his way is always the better way!     

"Peace!" These words of Jesus were not only addressed to the terrified disciples, huddled together and cringing in fear, in that upper room after his crucifixion, as well as Paul addressed to the anxious Philippians, these words are addressed to all of us Catholics today; whether you are a student worried about grades, finances or the fall-out of a bad choice made in the heat of passion; whether you are living in abusive relationship or an unsafe environment or with constant discrimination for being different; whether you are unemployed and in debt up to your ears or barely handling a chronic health problem; whether you are a single parent trying to make it on your own; whether you are religiously scrupulous and live in constant fear of a punishing God and can’t let go of it or whether you are facing a major health crisis, Jesus addresses his words to you today. ‘Peace be with you! Calm down! It’s going to be OK! When all is said and done, things are going to turn out just fine. I am with you! Trust me with Plan B!’

Anxiety is worry about what might happen. Peace is the awareness that everything will be OK no matter what happens.  Trust in God is the only way to peace. Peace is God’s gift to us and it is based on the “good news” that we are loved and that great things await us – because God said so!

Let me end with one of my favorite prayers by Saint Francis de Sales.  

Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;

rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,

God, whose very own you are,

will lead you safely through all things;

and when you cannot stand it,

God will carry you in His arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;

the same understanding Father who cares for

you today will take care of you then and every day.

He will either shield you from suffering

or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.