BEWARE OF THOSE OVERLY ZEALOUS WEED PULLERS!

 

…if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest.

Matthew 13:24-30

Religious fanatics have probably done more damage to religion than all the atheists, agnostics and public sinners put together! As Blaise Paschal said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction!” Cock-sure and blind as bats, they claim to have perfect eye-sight when it comes to good and evil, setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner! 

We are painfully familiar with fanatic Muslims who would fly planes into high rise buildings as a way to rid the world of “degenerate western influences” or our own Puritans who would burn so-called “witches” at the stake to keep their church “pure.” In our own church, fanatics had a heyday during what we know as the “Inquisition” and "Crusades." The “Inquisition” and "Crusades" were invented by religious fanatics who wanted to do a good thing: rid the world of heresy, error and sin, but they chose some of the most vicious, cruel, inhumane and un-Christian, methods imaginable to accomplish their goals! Many good, holy and even saintly people were brutally killed by those misguided people with their "good" intentions - all in the name of God, of course! I am scared to death of the “Christian Nationalist” movement that is gaining strength in our country for these precise reasons. As Jesus reminds us in today's gospel: beware of overzealous, fanatic weed-pullers!

Today's parable is one of my favorites. In it, Jesus reminds us that in his kingdom here on earth, the good and the bad exist alongside each other and nobody but God can really tell the difference! To make his point, he again turns to farming for a parable. He tells the story of a farmer who planted good seeds in his field, only to find out that, as they sprouted, weeds also appeared growing right there with them! 

In this parable, God is that farmer and we are his hired hands.  One day, the farmer’s hired hands came in to report the presence of weeds growing among the wheat and to suggest that they could fire-up their big weed-eaters and go to work on them!  The wise farmer gives them a quick and firm “no, don’t you dare!” “Leave the weeds alone and let them grow together with the wheat till harvest time!” Wisely, the farmer tells his hired hands that if they uprooted the weeds now, they would end up pulling up the wheat along with them because, at this point, no one could tell one from the other! 

This is a wonderful parable because the specific weed Jesus is talking about is an especially noxious weed that looks exactly like wheat when it is young and tender. In fact, people back then had a nickname for this particular kind of weed Jesus was talking about. They called it “bastard wheat!” Not only did it look exactly like wheat when it was young and tender, its roots also entangled themselves around the roots of tender wheat shoots! Not only can they not be distinguished, one from the other, their roots had become so entwined that if you tried to pull the weeds up too early, you would end up destroying the precious wheat crop by pulling up the wheat along with them! 

When the time finally came for harvest, the weeds and wheat would cut together and threshed. Threshing was the process of separating the seeds from the chaff. The wheat seeds had a golden color and the weed seeds had a slate gray color which made it easier to separate them. The weed seeds were slightly poisonous, having a bitter taste and causing dizziness and sickness, so they had to be destroyed. The precious wheat could then be stored in the farmer’s barn.  

The point of the parable is that, unlike human beings who tend to judge quickly, God is lenient and patient and wise. 

This parable clearly reflects Jesus’ own experience of being condemned by religious people. They thought of themselves as the precious wheat while the social outcasts that Jesus associated with as the useless poisonous weeds.  Jesus could see that often it was the other way around! As Scripture says, “People see externals, but God can see into people's hearts.”

My friends, the message for us today is simple! Good and evil exist side by side in the church and in the world, but we need to be very weary of overzealous fanatics who want to "pull weeds" and “clean house” – whether they come from the church or the government! More often than not, those people do more harm than good because they really cannot see what they are doing, or even understand the purity of their own motives, all that well! As Jesus put it, when he warned people about false, people-abusing prophets whose uniform was a woolen sheep pelt, "Be aware of wolves dressed up to look like sheep!"  

What to do with "weeds," has always been, and will always will be, a problem for the church! However, as the parable teaches us today, we also need to know that overly enthusiastic weed-pullers have sometimes created bigger problems than the "weeds" they so eagerly want to pull up! As Jesus said, "...if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest." As the great preacher, Billy Graham, so wisely put it, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #37

 

Ordained June 11, 1927, Father Reavy became pastor of my home parish of St. Theresa of Avila in Rhodelia in March of 1932.  He is pictured above, in his cassock, on his only mode of transportation in those early days. Thank God for horses! I guess it beats walking! However, I prefer my gasoline-powered car - without a cassock! 

In 1933, a new highway was constructed to Rhodelia (2-1/2 away) to replace the impassible dirt road during the rainy season. He was pastor of my home parish during most of my father's teenage years. He was promoted to pastor of St. James in Elizabethtown in January 1937 - seven years before I was born.   

WHEN ONE WAY IS BLOCKED, DON'T GIVE UP! BE CREATIVE!

 

Some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. Not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the one who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

Luke 5:17-26

The guys in today’s gospel have always inspired me during my 56 years of ministry. Their buddy needed healing. He was paralyzed. When the door of the house where Jesus was staying was blocked by a crowd of people, they could have given up and carried him back home. Instead, they carried him up on the roof, tore a hole big enough to lower their buddy down, right in front of Jesus! Jesus commended those guys for their determination and healed the crippled man right then and there.    

My friends! Declaring a situation as "impossible" is very convenient. It lets us off the hook and relieves us of the hard work of looking for "alternatives."  Nobody expects us to do the "impossible," do they?  Nobody will blame us for doing nothing if we can convince them that "nothing can be done," would they? Like the guys in today’s gospel, we need to use our imaginations, look for alternatives and be resourceful. Friends, I learned a long time ago that the biggest shortage in the Catholic Church is not money or priests. It's imagination!

I learned this truth about imagination back in the seminary. There is so much I can't remember, but there is one thing that remains vivid in my mind. It was toward the very end.  I forgot who it was, but one of our teachers asked us to present some "pastoral situations" for class discussion - maybe a wedding, funeral or counseling situation. He asked us to write up the "ideal" way we might handle the situation once we were ordained.

After we had all written up our "ideal" approaches to the situations we described, he collected the papers and stood there in the front of class and ripped them up into small pieces and threw them in the garbage.  After that he said to us, "You will hardly ever get to do the "ideal," so let's talk about some alternative approaches."  Man, has that insight ever come in handy over the last 56 years!

Here is an old story that I have told many times about the power of imagination. It's about watching TV one day and seeing a young man who had been in a motorcycle wreck and had one of his legs amputated, being interviewed. He had been a great athlete and was eaten up with bitterness about the loss of his leg. It was depressing so I turned the channel. On the other channel was a young man, about the same age, coming dawn the mountains on skis. It wasn't till he got to the end of his run that I noticed that he was a one-legged skier in the Handicapped Olympics!

One young man gave up and the other one got up! The second young man, with one leg, got up and looked for alternatives. This young man found an "alternative" rather than simply "giving up." 

We have all heard the saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!" Since I have a reputation for my imagination and determination, that old saying came to mind in a serious way recently when I discovered that my own father was the Valedictorian at his high school graduation on May 14, 1935. I learned that he gave a speech based on an old Latin saying attributed to Hannibal, when his generals told him that it was impossible to cross the Alps by elephant. "I shall either find a way or make one." My father's address was entitled "Find a Way or Make It."  

What does today's gospel tell us? Never give up! Never quit! Find another way! Find an alternative! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DON'T SEE HOW LITTLE YOU CAN GET BY WITH - GIVE YOUR BEST!

  

Jesus said: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye 

and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance

 to one who is evil.”

Matthew 5:38-42

Few passages of the New Testament have more of the essential teaching of Jesus on how we ought to behave in the world than chapter 5 of Matthew’s gospel.  In short, Jesus raised the bar on how people ought to treat each other to a much higher level than what was generally accepted during his time. 

In essence, to be Christian is to be different, to stand out, to swim against the stream, to hold oneself to a higher standard, to be "the light of the world and salt of the earth" - otherwise we are no better than "pagans," we are no better than unbelievers. Sadly, many who call themselves "Christian" don't even know that Jesus raised the bar on human behavior and therefore they do not even attempt to measure up!  Some even think the Church ought to lower these high standards to better match the level of our behaviors or be ignored altogether!

Jesus begins his teaching today by citing the world's oldest law---an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That law is known as the Lex Talionis, which can best be described as the law of “tit for tat.” This law is found in the Code of Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon from 2285 BC to 2242 BC. The principle is clear and apparently simple----if anyone inflicts an injury on anyone else, an equivalent injury shall be inflicted on him. Even though it is not universal, that law was absorbed into the teaching we find in the Old Testament.

As savage as it may sound, this law was, in fact the beginning of mercy. It, at least, limited vengeance. Before that law, unlimited vengeance could be taken not only on the perpetrator, but anyone in his family, including death for a minor slight. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth deliberately limited vengeance.  The law lays it down that only the man who committed the injury must be punished, and his punishment must be no more than the equivalent of the injury inflicted and the damage done.

Another thing is worth noting here. This law never gave a private individual the right to extract vengeance. It was always a law that was laid down to guide a judge in a court in of law in assessing punishments and penalties for violent and unjust deeds.

Still further, this law was never, at least in semi-civilized society, carried out literally. Very soon after the law was written and accepted, the injury done was assessed at a money value and the injury was assessed on five counts - for injury, for pain, for healing, for loss of time and for indignity suffered. Sounds remarkably modern, doesn't it?

As advanced as it was for its time, Jesus comes along and obliterates the very principle of that law, because retaliation, however controlled and restricted, has no place in the Christian life. Jesus abolishes the old law of limited and controlled vengeance and introduces the new spirit of non-resentment and non-retaliation.

To take these words of Jesus in a crude literalism is to miss the point, as in the case of "turning the other cheek and offering no resistance to injury." He is certainly not advocating physical and emotional abuse! If a car runs over you, don't just stand there and let it happen again and again! The first thing to do is to get the hell out of the road and don't let them do it again!  The next thing, after recovery, is to resist trying to "get even" or worse to "carry a grudge." The ability to do that will help you, not the perpetrator!   One cannot live a full life under the shadow of bitterness!

The opposite of crude literalism is to dismiss what Jesus is saying here.  Jesus is teaching his followers that they must live at a higher level than what is generally accepted. In the case of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," if we lived that way, we would all be blind and toothless in no time! What he is saying is to stop the revenge! Find out where the hurt that would drive them to do such things is coming from and try to heal it, if possible!   Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. showed us that nonviolent resistance can bring down oppressive governments and change the hearts of a nation, while violence only begets more violence.

And, you, what about you? Do you live a life of “tit for tat,” a life of always “getting even” when you are hurt or snubbed? How do you try to live the challenging words of Jesus in today's gospel?  It is not easy for any of us, but Jesus offers his own Body and Blood to strengthen us to do for each other what he always does for us - love us without condition!

Christianity is more than minimalism. Christianity is more than doing just enough to get by with! Christianity is about going beyond the call of duty, beyond measuring out love in small thimbles. It’s about giving one’s all - to both friends and enemies!

 

 

 

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CHALLENGE OF CATHOLIC PREACHING

SOME OF THE SEED FELL ON RICH SOIL

SOME OF THE SEED FELL ON HARD GROUND

Some seed fell on rich soil and produced abundant fruit.

Matthew 13:1-23

Inspired by this parable, I thought I would say a few words today about the state of Catholic preaching.

You might not know it, but preaching the gospel is the primary duty of priests! Catholics have been disappointed with Catholic Church preaching for so long, they are afraid to expect it any more. When Catholics do find a priest who can preach, as many of you already know, they tend to follow him from church to church seeking spiritual food to chew on! Others learn to live without it. Some give up and join some Protestant denomination.

This problem, I believe, can be traced back to the Reformation, over four hundred years ago. In that painful divorce, it was almost like there was a property settlement where Catholics took the altar and Protestants took the pulpit. That’s why most Protestant churches, at least until very recently, tended to have little altar tables and huge pulpits, while most Catholic churches tended to have little pulpits and huge altars.

Catholics who leave us for a Protestant pulpit sometimes don’t realize that when they do, they are also going off and leaving the Eucharist. What we Catholics need to do, what we have been working on over the last several years, is to have both: a powerful celebration of the Liturgy of the Word followed by a powerful celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We priests need to know how to effectively use both pulpits and altars.

Preaching is being taken more seriously than ever in our seminaries. I am no professional homiletics professor, but I taught homiletics (preaching) at St. Meinrad Seminary for a few semesters. The downfall of most preaching courses, in my estimation, is that they focus way too much on public speaking techniques and not enough on the faith of the preacher. My belief is similar to William Faulkner’s who said, “If a story is in you, it has to come out.”  I always reminded my students that if the love of God burned in their heart, they would find an effective way to communicate it, if not, they would end up just giving another speech about God. A homily is not a speech. The insight of a homily is meant to turn on a light bulb, to help the listener make a connection with God.  “Nemo dat quod non habet.” As we say in Kentucky, "If you ain’t got it, you cain’t give it." 

Preachers, and lectors too, must be the first to ‘humbly welcome the Word” and “be doers of the Word" as the Letter of James puts it.  Preaching, especially, is an awesome responsibility and the well, from which it comes, must be constantly fed!  The preacher must know himself, know those to whom he preaches and know God - and be able to talk about all three in a convincing way. Lectors don’t just “read to people,” they “proclaim the good news” too.

Some seed fell of the path, some on rocky ground, some among the thorns, but some fell on rich soil and produced abundant fruit.

The Letter of James is famous for its insistence that faith be lived, not just claimed and talked about. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” “What good is it to profess faith without practicing it? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, “Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed,” but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless.”

My fellow Catholics, we cannot be ignorant of scripture and at the same time do as God has asked of us. As the Letter to the Romans puts it, “Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe unless they have heard of him? And how can they hear unless there is someone to preach? Faith, then, comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ.” 

It would be wonderful if every one of us took the opportunity to study scripture in a formal way. Scripture classes are offered in almost every parish these days. The diocese has many continuing education classes available on scripture, but one of the simplest ways to study scripture is to take advantage of our Liturgy of the Word each week. To get the most of the Liturgy of the Word each week, if the seed is to fall on the rich soil of our hearts and produce abundant fruit in our lives, three things must happen. (1) Lectors must read well. (2) Preachers must preach well. (3) People must listen well.  You have good lectors here, some parishes are known for good preaching and I know from experience that you are an attentive congregation, so I am not criticizing anybody,  but just challenging all of us in general.

(1) One of the hardest things to get across to lectors is that they are not just “reading to people,” but they are “proclaiming the Word of God.”   That means they must, not just be able to read the words on the page, but to be the medium through which people hear God speaking to the congregation. That means the lector must be familiar enough with the text to convey its meaning. If the lector doesn’t know what the words mean, how can he or she read it with meaning? Lectors are not just readers. They proclaim the Word of God behind the words of the text. The role of the lector, standing in the pulpit, should be taken as seriously as the priest standing behind the altar. Incompetence, sloppiness or carelessness in the pulpit or at the altar should never be acceptable in our churches. Good liturgy strengthens the faith of the people. Bad liturgy weakens the faith of the people.     

(2) As a priest, my primary role is to preach. I have a long way to go, but of all the things I do, I take preaching most seriously.  I typically work a minimum of 10-12 hours a week preparing these homilies.  I print copies and publish them on my blog for those who cannot hear or those who would like to re-read them and to reflect more on them later. As you know, not all priests and deacons do that. When I was the Vocation Director, for instance, I remember reading an evaluation one of our pastors wrote about one of our soon-to-be-ordained seminarians. He criticized the seminarian for “working too much on his homilies.” He went on to say that he “knew of no other priest, except for maybe the Vocation Director, who spends that much time on writing homilies.” I was that Vocation Director! That time the seminarian was right and the pastor was wrong! Preaching is not just one of many things a priest does, it is the single most important thing a priest does!  That is why I plan to be buried clutching a Lectionary!

(3) People must learn to listen well. The word “liturgy” means “the work of the people.” In reality, many Catholics still don’t get it. They come to liturgy and put the whole burden of a meaningful liturgy on the backs of the priest, the musicians and the liturgical ministers. Many Catholics sit with their arms folded, never singing or answering the responses or even mouthing the creed, with an attitude of “OK, now entertain me, impress me and inspire me, and if you fail, I’ll blame you and leave here and tell the world that “I don’t get anything out of Mass because of that boring priest and that lousy music.” The word, “liturgy” means “the work of the people.” We preachers, presiders, lectors and musicians are here to “help you pray,” not to “do your praying for you.” It is your job to pray over the readings before you get here or at least sit up and pay close attention when God’s word is proclaimed.

St. Paul says, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you.” Like the parable of the Sower and the Seed, it is not enough just to have good seed to sow (that’s the Word of God), not enough for the sowers to sow well (that’s the lector and the preacher), but the ground on which the word is sown must be fertile and receptive (that’s all of you)!

To "get something out of this weekend experience," we all have to "put something into it!" 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #36

         

SEE YOURSELF IN THIS PICTURE

"Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep!"

Luke 15:6

WHEN PRIESTS ARE HAVING A BAD DAY

 

 

 

ENCOUNTERING PEOPLE: IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

 

I have used the 1927 poem DESIDERATA by Max Ehrmann several times, even recently, in my blog posts. I am attaching it again, but focusing on two parts of it in this particular blog post. Those parts are in red below. 

                                                                      DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

These are the parts I want to focus on - the parts that invite us to keep our eyes open to the trickery of the world, but not to lose our focus on those virtuous people who strive for high ideals and are full of heroism. Yes, there is a lot of sham, drudgery and broken dreams, but it is still a beautiful world if we have the eyes to see it! 

One of things I try to balance in my life is to be realistic about sin and evil, while also not losing my focus on the fact that there is so much goodness, virtue and heroism as well. Back when I was writing my weekly column in The Record for fifteen years called An Encouraging Word (also the name of this blog), I decided from the very beginning that I would focus on goodness to affirm, rather than on sins to condemn. I was influenced by the quote that says, "We find whatever it is we're looking for!" 

Why is it that it is easier to see the bad and ignore the good all around us? I have spent some time reflecting on this conundrum, both before I decided that I would focus on goodness to affirm rather than sin to condemn when I started my weekly column in The Record back in 2002 and ever since I started this blog afterwards as well. I must admit that it is not getting easier, but harder, to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty.  These days, I find myself asking myself "why is it getting harder to focus on those virtuous people who strive for high ideals and are full of heroism" than it used to be? They are still there, surely, so why is it becoming harder to focus on them? I do know that it is still "up to me" to choose where I place my focus no matter how hard it gets! 

Here are some of the reasons I have come up with in my personal questioning around this issue of why it is becoming harder to focus on the goodness, virtue and heroism all around us and what I am doing to curb a lot of its negativity from invading my consciousness! 

(1) We live in a culture saturated with 24 hour a day news cycle and social technology. I have cut way back on how much news I take in on any given day.  

(2) That news tends to bombard us with negativity because bad news sells and good news bores. Many people are being pumped full of the emphasis on scandal, tragedies and corruption. I hear the bad news to be informed, but I deliberately look for sources that specialize in positive, educational and uplifting programming whenever and wherever possible. 

(3) We have been given permission by the examples of some of our top leaders to express anger, resentment, hatred and revenge without holding back. They are setting the example and we are following their lead. With our hand-held i-phones, i-pads and laptop computers we have multiple ways to spew all the anger we feel, justified or not, true or not, all day and night if we choose. I do not use FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK, SNAPCHAT and other social media platforms for that very reason. To me they seems to be laced with gossip, anger and grievances that I don't need, or want, to see, read or hear about! This blog is called "An Encouraging Word." Hopefully, it helps and heals, rather than condemns and castigates.   

I joke with my brother when he asks how things are going. I usually joke with him and say, "I am like a doctor that nobody calls to say how much they have been helped. They only call when they are sick or need advice on their tragedies.  No one has called me today to ask me how I am doing, or about what a great day they are having, but I have had at least five calls about how bad other people are having it today!" Instead of complaining, I usually end up by saying to him, "I only have aggravations. Most of those people have real problems. So I am not about to complain. I know in my heart of hearts that I get more affirmation than I deserve!" 

 

FOLLOWING JESUS LIGHTENS OUR LOAD

 

Come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.

Matthew 11:25-30

Seven kids in a small house! I don’t know how my mother did it! She was one of the most generous persons in the whole world, not only to us kids, but to her neighbors as well. She was what I would call “totally selfless.” She was an old-fashioned country mother. Besides giving birth to seven kids, she cleaned, cooked, helped clean the church, did laundry, ironed our clothes and even altar lenins, raised a huge garden, sewed, canned food, raised and slaughtered chickens, helped us with homework, taught us our prayers, took care of us when we were sick and even played with us! I don’t know how she did it, day in and day out, her whole life long, until she finally died of cancer at 58! But every once in a while, the burdens of motherhood weighed her down, sometimes to the breaking point! Even though she loved us and never complained outright, every once in a while she let us know that she would love to have a break from the burdens of motherhood. “All I want is a little peace and quiet, a small white house with a picket fence and a few flowers in the yard!” It never occurred to us that she wanted it without us! She loved us very much. She did not regret the disciplines of motherhood. She only wanted a little relief once in a while. Poor woman! She had to die to get the “peace and quiet” she longed for!

I used to think about my mother a lot, especially when I was a pastor. As much as I love the priesthood, whenever I was over whelmed by its disciplines, I found myself fantasizing about selling all I have, packing my bags and moving to another city where no on knew me, no one expected anything from me, where I could do any damn thing I wanted, whenever I want to do it!  I know it was an illusion. I knew I would miss my life as a priest very much. In retirement, the discipline of being a priest are not so wearisome and burdensome these days. In fact, I enjoy what I am doing because I don’t have to worry about administration, personnel issues and parish finances.

Like my mother’s yearning for relief from the burdens of motherhood! I know I am here to stay! I know that I was just tired back then when I fantasized about leaving whenever I thought the grass might be greener o the other side of the fence. I know that fundamentally the disciplines of priesthood are life-giving for me and they have always been!   

Just like motherhood, marriage and priesthood, which have the ability to give life to people and to drain the life out of them sometimes, Jesus knew that religion has the ability to give life to people, as well as the ability to drain the life out of them. Religion at the time of Jesus was draining the life out of people. But before you rush out and condemn organized religion, know this: Jesus was not against organized religion, but an organized religion that had lost its faith! He wanted, not to condemn organized religion, but to renew it! Jesus did not abandon organized religion because it lost its way, any more than my mother would abandon her kids or most of you your marriages or me the priesthood, just because we are tempted to run for the hills every once in a while! 

Jesus uses the image of a yoke to talk about his discipline versus a religion that had lost its focus. He called the discipline of religion a “yoke,” something that every good Jew recognized as “the Law” or us "the Bible,” if you will.  Jesus was a carpenter. He knew about yokes. He made many of them.  When it came to making yokes for oxen, the carpenter did not make one-size-fits-all. He took a “roughed out” yoke and then trimmed and whittled until it was “custom made” so that it would not gall the neck of the ox who wore it.  Jesus says his yoke is “crestos,” which means “custom made” or “made to order.” Some translations of “crestos” say it means “easy,” but that is not quite the sense that Jesus means. “Crestos” means more like “well fitted or well suited.” Using this image, Jesus says that his spiritual discipline has high expectations and demands a lot, but it is a joy to carry! It’s sort of like that old Boys Town story when the young man who was carrying his brother said, “He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother!”  Healthy religion expects a lot, but a healthy religion gives back even more! That’s what the “yoke of Jesus”  is all about!

I can not imagine life without faith in Jesus and his life-giving discipline. Yes, my own weakness and the weakness of others, weigh me down at times, but  that is nothing compared to the life-giving power that comes with walking with Jesus.  Yes, I have been worn down a few times along the way, but what keeps me going is the certain knowledge that God is at work even now, in spite of any former setbacks or future scandal! As my favorite old hymn goes, “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing. It sounds and echoes in my soul. How can I keep from singing?” Knowing how things will turn out when all of this is said and done, how can we keep from singing?

Keep the faith! Keep the faith!  Our faith has just been fed on God’s Word, now let us go to the table and let God feed our faith with nothing less than Christ’s own body and blood!  Remember that faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed, can move mountains, so keep the faith all the way to the end!  

CHURCH CHAT #35

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ALL YOU WHO HAD 4TH OF JULY WEDDINGS

Especially If All Your Plans Were Approved

 

WHEN MY BIGGEST IRRATIONAL THOUGHT IS TRIGGERED

During his first years of practicing REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy), the famous American psychologist and psychotherapist, Dr. Albert Ellis saw that practically all of his clients held variations of a dozen or so irrational beliefs. He later reduced them to three. 

September 27, 1913 - July 24, 2007

His Irrational Idea No. 1 is the one that triggers my most serious and regular response. I am getting better at managing it, but a recent e-mailed criticism of one of my homilies from a total stranger triggered an irrational response as soon as I read the criticism. I work hard on my homilies, get a high degree of affirmation and "put them out there" on my blog so I am always vulnerable to being "triggered" by a critical response. I know it is irrational. I have worked hard to lower my being "triggered" because I realize such a response is irrational. I also know that others are "triggered" much more often than me so I have decided to share this one personal experience in the hopes that it will help someone else who gets "triggered" into an irrational response when they, or their work, is rejected or criticized.

Irrational Idea No. 1 

The idea that it is a dire necessity for an adult human being to be loved or approved of by virtually every significant other person in his community. 

- It’s impossible to be liked or loved by everybody. No matter how popular you are, there will always be someone who doesn’t like you.

- Even if you could get everybody to like or love you, you would never know if they liked you enough, or if they still liked you.

- Different people have different tastes. Some people might like (for example) your new hairstyle; other people might hate it. Therefore, no matter what you do, some people will admire you, and some people won’t.

- Getting people to like you takes time and effort. If you try to get everyone to like you, you won’t have any time or energy left over to do the things that you want to do.

- If you demand others’ approval, you’ll always be doing what they want you to do, instead of doing what you want to do with your time and your life. Your life will no longer be your own.

- If you try too hard to be loved or approved, people will soon tire of your constant sycophancy, and they will not respect you.

- Paying too much attention to how much love and approval you are receiving, means you won’t pay enough attention to how much love and approval you are giving.

- There’s no harm in trying to be popular, but it’s best not to try too hard. In other words, it’s self-helping to want to be popular, but it’s self-defeating to need to be popular.

- Having love and approval means you’ll find it easier to have friends, to find and keep a job, to find accommodation, etc. But just because other people approve of you doesn’t mean that you’ll like yourself. It’s better to strive for unconditional self-acceptance; i.e., you accept yourself, regardless of what others think of you.

- It’s not pleasant when other people don’t like you, but it’s not awful, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not fatal.

"HE WHO WATERS OTHERS WILL HIMSELF BE WATERED" Prv.11:25

BISHOP FILBERT MHASI

Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi in Tanzania, East Africa

Bishop Mhasi would like to thank all the donor-friends of Father Ronald Knott and Father John Judie, who have helped finish his new Cardinal Polycarp Pendo Primary School which had been sitting half-finished for the last few of years. This new Catholic school is scheduled to open this July (pictures of the school opening will follow in an upcoming blog post). The school will open with the first four of six classrooms this July - with the final two classrooms opened next year hopefully.  The school now consists of a classroom building, an administration building, a library/kitchen/lunchroom building, new large outhouse toilets, a newly drilled water well, along with some cows to provide milk and meat for the school kids.  

I have also gathered, and have ready to send, some desperately needed school supplies which many parents cannot afford.   To save money, Father John will start taking some of them with him on July 12 on his next trip and the rest on his following trip in late August. I collected over 1,500 misprinted and used pens and the same number of new pencils, along with a variety of other needed school supplies like erasers, small pencil sharpeners, plastic rulers and even a few hand-held solar-powered calculators (no batteries needed) and so on. We cannot send paper products because of the weight. It would be cheaper to send the funds to buy school paper locally. 

This school will address three major problems in his Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi: generational poverty, early Christian-Muslim relationships and the reduction of the need for migration into other countries. Interestingly enough, in a predominately Muslim diocese, some of the Muslim parents approached Bishop Mhasi about building a school for their children to attend along with the children of his diocese. Even some of the local Muslim leaders showed up at a Third Sunday of Advent Mass (notice the rose vestments of the day) celebrated at one of Bishop Mhasi's many mission stations. 

                                                        

On May 30th, I got another bit of good news about a funeral for one of his priests - Father Joel Tindawa. Among the 300 attendees were some Muslims, the Anglican Bishop and the Lutheran Bishop. His effort to build good interfaith relationships, starting in early childhood, will surely produce more great results in his predominately Muslim diocese in Tanzania with this new school.   

Our goal is to finish the last two classrooms by next school year. If you would like to help with the last two classrooms which will complete this school, please send your tax-deductible checks, made out to Father John Judie Ministries, to me for deposit in that account:

Rev. Ronald Knott 

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

#106

Louisville, KY 40217

 

 

GIVE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU

Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink will surely not lose his reward.

Matthew 10:37-42

I have tried to live that Old Testament Proverb (11:25) that says, “He who waters others will himself be watered.” I was reminded of it when I saw the first reading and the gospel reading for today. Both readings teach us about God rewarding people for their generosity. The first reading tells us about how a woman, who built a little guest room in her house for the Prophet Elisha to stay in, was blessed with the baby that she had longed for over the years. In the gospel, Jesus promises a reward for every good deed, from welcoming a prophet to giving a child a cup of water.

All my life, I have had experiences of having my generous gestures come back to me a hundred-fold. Let me tell you just one story from my days down in the home missions of the diocese back when I was a young priest.

As the first Catholic priest to live in Wayne County, Kentucky, I was stationed at a mission church down along the Tennessee border. We had a handful, less than a dozen, of parishioners and money was very tight. In fact, one of my first jobs was to raise my own salary. Often it was a strain to even pay the church’s electric bill. I lived in the basement of the church to save the parish money. One of the ministries we had was a used clothing store for poor people who needed access to cheap clothing. One day, we got a load of clothes from the family of a man from Louisville who had died. I was going through his stuff, trying to organize it, when I came across a box of old shoes. In the bottom of the box, under the shoes, was a stack of $20 bills that amounted to about $400.00. I knew in my heart of hearts that the old man had hidden it there before he died and that the family was not aware of it. I stood there holding the $400.00, knowing that we could really use it, but also knowing that the family did not know what they had given us. I finally decided to send it back to the family who thanked me for my honesty. A few months went by and then one day a letter came in the mail. The family sent us a $1,000.00 check from his estate because we had been so honest!

That kind of thing happened all the time down there. We would get down to almost nothing, be generous to someone even needier than we were, only to see an unplanned donation come in from some unexpected source, often on the same day! It happened when I was a volunteer missionary in the Caribbean Missions a couple of years back. It happened during the St. Theresa Family Life Center and Guest House project that I just recently finished down in my home parish in Meade County. It is happening in my mission projects in Africa. In fact, this past Christmas Eve, I was short a few hundred dollars of my goal to finish the school building I was working on by Christmas! I went to the mail box that Christmas Eve and opened a letter that had a check in it that miraculously met our goal. I stood there amazed because I thought we would be short! It was a very last-minute miracle for sure!   

I first learned this "give-and-receive" dynamic from my mother. She had very little money, but she was a serious “giver,” from things out of her vegetable garden to loving compliments and kindly gestures, which always seem to come back to her in abundance. I have seen that dynamic play out over and over again in my 56 years as a priest. It has happened so many times that I was moved to have these words engraved on my new tombstone: "Simply Amazed - Forever Grateful!"  That’s probably where I got the idea of writing a column every week for fifteen years called An Encouraging Word. In it, I doubled-down on the spiritual practice of blessing people, not necessarily with material things, but even more so with encouragement which cost me nothing to give.  

"He who waters will be watered!" I was paid nothing for my fifteen years of writing those weekly columns, but nothing brought more blessings into my life than the practice of looking for people to compliment and encourage and then expressing what I had seen in that column. The idea was simple. I looked around for goodness to affirm rather than evils to condemn. Indeed, “He who waters will himself be watered!” Jesus put it this way, “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” (Luke 6:38)

Ever since I have adopted this spiritual practice in a serious way, I have also noticed in an ever-sharper focused way how many people, consciously or unconsciously, engage in the mean and ultimately self-defeating practice of withholding compliments. There may be even more people who stick their heads out a bit and then pull them back in giving praise, which may actually be even more cowardly. Henry Ward Beecher nailed it when he said, “The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speak well of a man and then qualifies it with a “but.” Here is how that goes! “Your hair looks great, but you need to lose some of that weight!”  "That was a good homily, but it was much too long! 

Why is it so hard for some people to offer a direct, clear and unconditional compliment? Why does it seem like an “ascetical” practice that goes against our nature? I guess it goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. Cain became “resentful and crestfallen” because God looked with favor on his brother’s offering. This sin is alive and well even in clerical circles. Father Andrew Greeley once wrote (probably about the withholding he felt from his fellow priests in Chicago) that “the worst thing a diocesan priest can do is to get good at something.” I have felt what he was talking about. Several years into writing my column, I overheard one of my brother priests say loud enough for me to hear, "Oh, that Knott! He's never had a thought he hasn't published!" 

We have all heard the old saying, “What goes around, comes around.” Paul expands on that wisdom when he wrote to the Galatians. “A person will reap only what he sows. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.” (Galatians 6:7-10)

If we need to be loved, need to be appreciated, need to be noticed or need to be honored, the best way to get it is for us to extend love, to show appreciation, to pay attention to others and to honor them. Writing that column, looking for opportunities to bless others, brought me more blessings than I could ever have imagined. Hardly a day went by that I did not get a note, an email, a call or a greeting of appreciation in public places by people I had never met. I still receive encouraging words from people who remember it, even though I quit writing that column nine years ago!

For me, writing that column was a spiritual practice. I still try to carry on that practice of blessing people in various other ways. By watering others, I have certainly been watered! I have learned the truth that if you give to others what you need, it comes back to you multiplied! I know that those of you listening to me today know exactly what I mean. You have been generous and you know your generosity always comes back to you!   By watering others, you have been watered! My only prayer at this time is that God has abundantly rewarded all those people who have reached out to help us personally over the years --- and there have been many! They have our deepest gratitude and my prayer is that God has rewarded them a thousand times over for their generosity to us!