DON'T JOIN THE STAMPEDE OVER THE CLIFF! MAKE A TURN NOW!

Put away the old self of your former way of life and put

on the new self of righteousness and holiness of truth.

Ephesians 4:17, 2—24 

I have been an optimist most of my adult life, but I would not call myself naïve. No matter how bad things may have been seen by others, I have always tried to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. Lately, however, I am beginning to lose confidence in my own optimism. It seems that the world I have known seems to be sinking into a morass of confusion, chaos and anger in the last ten years. Worst of all, there doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it no matter how much preaching I do, no matter how much writing I do, no matter how many social change organizations I join or how much positivity I try to project!

I have been praying about what I can do personally to survive without giving into that pull of negativity or being corrupted by it! That’s why my eyes landed on our second reading today and its message about the importance of personal change, rather than organizational change.

Put away the old self of your former way of life and put

on the new self of righteousness and holiness of truth.

Ephesians 4:17, 2—24

Wow! As I reflected on those words, I kept coming back to an old expression that I came across several years back. It goes like this! “It is easier to put on slippers than it is to carpet the world!”  The more I thought about these words, the more I understood that it might not only be easier to put on slippers than it would be to carpet the world, but it might even be a more effective way to survive what I cannot control.

For the first time, I finally understand clearly my path forward in the years I have left. I understand that I need to change myself and resist the pull into the mess developing around me. You might say, I finally realized clearly that “if I can’t beat them, at least I don’t have to join them!” Yes, I have come to the conclusion that it is not only “easier to put on slippers than it is to carpet the world,” it is a more effective way to survive in a world that I am powerless to change!” I will, no doubt, continue to teach and preach and do what I can to inspire others, but I have learned at 80 years of age that I can be more effective in helping others if my main focus is on changing myself and teaching others by modeling good behaviors rather than trying to become a rabid crusader in yet another “cause!”

In a world that had strayed from the way of Jesus, Paul identifies three things that a Christian needed to turn way from: perosis (the normalization of wrong doing), aselgia (a lust for pleasure) and pleonexia (insatiable greed). Paul saw three patterns of his day that Christians needed to assiduously avoid: (a) the normalization of wrong doing, (b) a lust for pleasure and (c) being driven by a desire to accumulate more and more to the point that they no longer cared who they hurt to get it.  

These behaviors are exactly the sins of our world today as more people lose their close connection to “the way of Christ” and take on “the way of the world!” These are the old behaviors that Paul tells the people of Ephesus to “put away” so as to “put on” new behaviors as followers of Jesus! These behaviors are exactly the sins of our world today! Let me point out some pertinent examples of the old behaviors we need to “put away” and why they can only be corrected by personal individual change rather than institutional changes – by “putting on slippers, rather than trying to carpet the world!”

Perosis: The Normalization of Doing Wrong.  “Following the herd” and “doing what everybody else is doing” is the most obvious way I can think of to “normalize wrong doing!” The normalization of wrong doing is insidiously subtle since once you start down that path, it gets easier and easier to “up your game” and “feel better about” more and more wrong doing! It can be as small as acquiring and misusing handicapped parking stickers to something as dangerous as regularly speeding, running redlights and cutting corners on everything one sets out to do; from something as small as “taking a little something from work” and petty theft to something as serious as engaging in marital infidelity; something as small as gossiping on Facebook to something as serious as accusing someone falsely of sexual abuse as personal revenge. Since it is so subtle at its beginning, normalizing wrong doing is on an insidious down-hill slide with no end in sight!  God knows that fewer and fewer people are stopped simply because Scripture says that it is a sin!

Aselgeia: The Lust for More and More Pleasure. This drive to experience more and more pleasure and avoid as much ordinary pain as possible is obvious in the ever-expanding use of recreational drugs, a national overeating problem and a constant obsession with recreation. Without self- discipline, and the ability to stand up to these trends, all decency and shame evaporates and people end up not caring what they do or who sees them doing it.

Pleonexia: An Insatiable Greediness.  I have noticed a steady decline in service professions and a growth in a cut-throat love of possessing in particular and hoarding in general. If you don’t believe me. Count the TV shows that glorify extravagant homes and antique collections among the rich, as well as shows about hoarding among the poor. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There are now 735 billionaires in the United States, there are beggars in more and more intersections while credit card debt and scamming are out of control. There is even a whole TV show called “American Greed.”

St. Paul wrote about these temptations facing new Christians in the first century in Ephesus. These are the behaviors that Paul addresses when he tells the people of Ephesus to “put way their old self” and “put on the new self” as followers of Jesus! These behaviors are exactly the same behaviors in our world today that he wants us to “put away!”

The solution, I believe, begins with an intense resistance to giving into “what everybody else is doing.” Let me repeat that for emphasis. The solution begins with an intense resistance to giving into “what everybody else is doing.” These behaviors can only be eradicated one person at a time! They cannot be eradicated by legislation from church or state. So, I challenge you today to join the minority! Do not be guided by “what everybody else is doing” Choose righteousness and truth no matter who around you may think you are stupid, crazy and out-of-touch with reality for doing so! These behaviors that are infecting the world can only be eradicated one person at a time! Be that next person to resist! Be that next person to choose differently! No matter what everybody else is doing, put away your “old self” and choose to become a “new self.” If you do, you will be helping change the world for the better – one person at a time! 

 

DON'T BE CAUGHT UNPREPARED TO SHARE!

 

Jesus saw that a large crowd was coming to him. One of his disciples

said, "There is a boy here with five barley loaves and two fish, but what 

good is that for so many?" There was about five thousand people. Jesus took 

the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them and as much fish as the wanted. 

They had more than they could eat, with plenty left over. 

John 6:1-15

What really happened that afternoon a long time ago when five loaves and two fish were shared with more than five thousand people and all went home fed, with plenty left over? Something so wonderful happened that day that the story of it has come down to us in all four gospels. It is one of our most regular readings throughout the year, but what really happened? 

It is highly doubtful that a crowd of Jews that big would have left on a nine-mile hike without making preparation – a few maybe, but certainly not five thousand people! There are two reasons I can think of that would have prevented them from not being prepared. (1) There were no big stores and restaurants lining the roads back then like we have today. (2) Jews were very particular about their food. It had to be kosher. No Jew would think of leaving home for such a long hike without his bottle-shaped basket with its kosher food for eating. 

Probably what happened was that people were hiding what they had brought from such a hungry crowd, lest there not be enough for themselves. It was only when Jesus took the five barley loaves and two smoked fish from the boy, blessed them, broke them and began passing them around that a willingness to share was triggered in the crowd. When this example of sharing spread through the crowd, people pulled out what they had and began to share it. Remember, the word multiplication is not mentioned in this story. As a result of this sharing, everybody had their fill and there was a lot left over. You can believe it was a literal "multiplication" if you like, but I personally favor this explanation for several reasons. 

First, we need to remember that one of the things that Jesus rejected when it was offered to him by the devil, when he was in the desert discerning the direction of his ministry, was magically turning rocks into bread to feed hungry people. Jesus could, not doubt, have done that but he rejected that solution to hunger. Rather, he knew that if people would just change their minds about shortages and share the resources of the world, there would be no need for such “rocks into bread” magic.

Second, if it were just about Jesus’ power to miraculously produce bread and fish from thin air, then we might be amazed at the power that Jesus had, but we could not pull off such an event ourselves. No, this is a miracle alright, but I personally believe that it is a miracle of sharing, not some miraculous "multiplication." I believe that what happened is something that we, working together, can do even today. It's a miracle we, working together, can perform! 

I believe strongly in being generous. I learned it growing up from my mother. She was always giving visitors to our house "something to take home with them!" I guess that's why I am always up to my ears in some kind of service project, whether it is in the island missions of the Caribbean or whether it is down in Meade County in my home parish of St. Theresa. 

I have always liked being generous, but lately I have expanded that a bit. I am trying to prepare myself for being generous. Rather than being caught off guard and being unprepared for situations like those in today's gospel where I can be generous, I plan in advance so that when opportunities present themselves, I'll be ready. Obviously, the people in today's gospel had prepared enough food beyond their own needs, without realizing it! All they needed was the "inspiration" to "share" that came from Jesus!   

In December, I gave away three pick-up loads of surplus stuff from my condo and garage, thereby creating an empty cabinet dedicated to where I can put bargains, not extra things I might need for my own use, but so that I will have a stash of things other people need, ready to give away. I have created a special place to put whatever really good bargain items I can find that I feel others can use! I have decided that I not only want to be generous, but I also want to be prepared and ready to be generous when the time comes! 

I have come up with other ways to be generous as well! (1) A few weeks ago, I got another Kroger coupon for a dozen of free eggs. I don't eat a lot of eggs and I had just bought a whole dozen the week before, but I got I my "free dozen of eggs" and checked out! I waited by the door going out until I found just the right family to give them to - she was an obviously poor woman with three small children! I offered them to her and she was very happy to take them after I explained that I had gotten them with a free coupon! (2) I sometimes get a coupon for a "free package of Oreos." I try not to have sweets in the house because I am seriously addicted to sugar! I always check out with my free Oreos and stand outside the door and wait till I see a woman with a bunch of kids or a grandmother who might have grandkids so I can give them away! I always give things like Oreos to parents or grandparent, never to kids directly. These days I could be mistaken as a predator! During Lent, I often shop with coupons in hand, When I check out, Kroger has this nice feature that tells you how much you saved on each trip. I keep all of the receipts till Easter and add them all up and that is what I send to the parish Rice Bowl Collection.

I am not trying to claim to be saintly in my generosity, nor am I trying to say that you should do what I do, but I am saying that there are creative ways to be generous in sharing, often without you having to suffer! All you have to do is have the desire to be generous, pay attention, plan ahead and be creative beyond just handing dollar bills to those suspiciously holding "homeless" signs at so many intersections! We are all called to share what we have with those "without," but we are also called to be "smart sharers" so we don't keep making "dependents!" Often that requires that we "make plans" to be generous by thinking ahead and being prepared, rather than just hand out cash to relieve our guilt! Some families develop “charity funds,” encourage children to do odd jobs to donate to it and then decide together where to dispense it, teaching their children how to be smart “givers” in the process! Richer families have established “family trusts” from which they make donations to charity.  

I have learned two things for sure! (1) As I have learned from experience, being generous and sharing often does more for the giver than the one to whom something is given!  As Jesus promised, "Give and it will be given to you! A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lamp. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you!"  (2) As I have learned from today's gospel, we don't need magic and we don't need miracles! There is already enough to go around! All we need are enough good people really paying attention to others and being creative and smart in their sharing!  

My good people of St. Leonard Parish, let me end this homily by repeating something I said earlier. “I believe strongly in being generous. I learned it from my mother.” I believe in being generous because I feel so strongly that I have been blessed. I believe in being generous because Jesus said, “To whom much has been given, much is required!”  I believe deeply that being generous does more for the giver than the one to whom something is given! Even though I will see you, going forward, only once a month, I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to lead you in prayer several times a month over the last few years! You have been good to me and you have been good for me! I feel so blessed for what I have been given by people like you, over 54 years of priesthood, that I have had these four words engraved on my new tombstone – Simply Amazed – Forever Grateful!  That, my friends, is why I like to be generous and how I want to be remembered – amazed and grateful for how much, and how often, I have been blessed!   

 

LOVING, PROTECTING AND UNIFYING

I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that

they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing.

Jeremiah 23:1-6

One of my earliest childhood memories was seeing Father Johnson, our pastor at St. Theresa in Rhodelia for many, many years, dressed in his overalls and rubber boots, with feed-buckets in each hand, surrounded by hungry sheep, walking through the cemetery as we drove by. The parish did not have a lot of money, especially back then, so he raised sheep both to keep the cemetery mowed and to provide mutton for the parish picnic each summer.

He was a good man – a holy man no doubt. He was especially good at building. He personally laid the bricks and blocks on the convent, rectory, school and parish hall. He was, however, not very good with people – especially with women in general and nuns in particular, and not very good at preaching.  You might say he was better at pasturing sheep than pasturing people, but we loved him anyway. Even though he told me, when I first told him I wanted to go to the seminary, that I would never make it, he did send me a message from his deathbed, after I finished my second year, that he had changed his mind and thought I might make it after all. I, too, loved him anyway – loved him enough to still remember the date of his death – January 3, 1960.   He was such a big part of my childhood that I cannot read about Jesus, the Good Shepherd, without thinking about him and his sheep. It broke his heart to give up his sheep when he got too old to fend off the roaming dogs that slaughtered and destroyed them.

One day, I was watching a program from Australia about sheep and shepherds. I was shocked by what I saw. It did not remind me either of Father Johnson or the Good Shepherd we read about in the New Testament with the sheep eagerly following the gentle calls of their trusted shepherd leading them to food and water and making sure they were protected. In Australia, they have another way to heard sheep and it is done with barking and snapping dogs who force the sheep from behind to go where they would rather not go. Rather than inviting from the front to follow, they threaten them from behind if they dare try to run away!  

As I sat there watching this version of shepherding, I was reminded that we have had two kinds of "pastors" in our church in my life-time: those who the sheep trust, gladly following his convincing voice, and those who bark and snap at the flock, leaving them in fear and trembling and trying to escape from such shepherds! 

It is interesting to me that of the two words for “good” in the original Greek text are agathos and kalos. The first means “good” as in “a good person,” while the second means “good” as in “good at something.”  The word for “good” in the gospel "Good Shepherd" scripture is the word for “good at.” Of course Jesus is a “good person,” but what it wants to say there is that Jesus is “good at” shepherding. 

The Latin words for the “good shepherd” are “bonus pastor,” from which we get the word “pastor.” This passage is most often applied to priests and ministers who are called to be like the Good Shepherd, “pastoring” in his name.  We priests and ministers are also called, like Jesus to be “good” and “good a what we do.”  When we fail, we are often compared to the “hireling” shepherds who are only interested in “threatening, using and abusing” the sheep for their own benefit! 

But, today, I want to apply this story to you, the spouses and parents and future spouses and parents, sitting here in front of me. You, too, are called, or will be called, to be “good shepherds” of your families. You, too, will need to be “good” and “good at” what you do. You will need to be a “good person” and “good at” being a spouse and parent.

The late Pope John Paul II’s new Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Two sacraments are directed toward the salvation of others and, if they contribute to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so.” In other words, those of you called to marriage and those of us called to ordained ministry, become “good” through “being good at” what we do, you as spouses and parents, and me as an ordained minister.

We live in a world of slick temptation and bad examples. It is easy to get off track and be seduced into adopting atrociously bad behaviors simply  “because everybody else is doing it.”  If we are going to be “good” and good at” what we do, we must draw strength from something else than the culture around us. I have also liked the image of the “tree planted near running waters, whose leaves never fade” from Psalm 1 and the prophet Jeremiah.

“A tree planted near running water” never has to worry about hot weather and drought: its leaves stay green. No matter what is happening above ground, because its roots go down deep and taps into the water. Another psalm says “He who practices virtue and speaks honestly, he who brushes his hands free of bribes, stopping his ears and closing his eyes to evil, shall dwell on the heights and have a steady supply of food and drink.”

Jesus is that life-giving water which we should be tapped into. If our roots go down deep and tap into Him, we can stand tall and healthy. Tapping into his life-giving water is what will make us “good” and “good at what we do.”  A connection to Jesus only on Sunday is like trying to fight off drought by carrying water. If you are planted near that stream and your roots tap into him, you never have to worry, you will always have a “steady supply of food and drink,” it will be possible to be a “good person,” a “good spouse,” a “good parent,” or a “good priest/minister” no matter who else crashed and burns in today’s culture.  

 

 

 

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

Where did this man get all this? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?

Are his relatives not here with us? And they took offense at him!

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place."\

Mark 6:1-6

Let me get right to the point! I resonated right away when I read this gospel in preparation for this homily because I am very familiar with how Jesus felt in this story. It is a story about how "familiarity breeds contempt." I have been there and experienced that! Before telling you about my experience, and referring to some of your experiences, let me tell you about how this scene unfolded and then I will end with suggesting to you what we could all learn from it!

By coming home to Nazareth, Jesus surely knew that he was about to face his severest critics since everyone knew him and his family all too well! He wasn't just there to see his old hometown and visit some family members. By coming home, surrounded by his disciples, he came as a rabbi! He came, not as a carpenter, but as a teacher! His teaching was met with a kind of contempt - sort of "we know you" and "who do you think you are?" They were scandalized that a man who had come from such a humble background would speak the way he spoke and do the things he was doing! It says their response to him was this not "welcome home," but "they took offense at him!"

They would not give him a warm welcome and listen to him for two reasons. He was just a humble carpenter. He was a just simple man of the people. He was just a layman and there here he was, up in the synagogue pulpit, preaching to the very people who had known him from childhood! They were too familiar with Jesus to realize his greatness! It just went "over their heads!" 

What was Jesus's response to the response he was getting? He quoted an old saying they would have all been familiar with! "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house." Their response was so crippling for Jesus that we are told that "he was not able to perform any mighty deed there," as he had done in other places. This episode ends with Jesus being "amazed at their lack of faith" and ultimately moving on to teach in the other villages of the vicinity.

I, too, came from a humble background. Rhodelia had about 27 residents when I was growing up. I was told by one of my teachers, as an altar boy, that I would "probably never be any good around the altar." As a high school seminarian, I was called a "hopeless case" by the minor seminary rector who threatened to send me home.  As an ordained priest, one of my fellow priests here in Louisville said about my list of published books, "Oh! That Knott! He has never had a thought that he didn't publish!" As a priest, I have had several amazing experiences: from a home missionary to a country pastor, from a Cathedral rector to a weekly columnist, from a vocation director to a campus minister, from a seminary staff member to a parish mission preacher, from an international priest convocation speaker to a volunteer foreign missionary in the Caribbean. I have had amazing support from lay people, from the community at large and from a variety of parishioners, but a strange silence from most of my fellow priests here at home. I have noticed it, but I never let it bother me all that much! Lay people and priests from other dioceses have given me the support I have needed! I have always understood the truism that "a prophet is not without honor except in his native place." As the world-famous Chicago priest writer, Father Andrew Greeley, once wrote about his own experience as a diocesan priest from Chicago, “To be a member of good standing, a priest must try not to be too good at anything or to express unusual views or criticize accepted practices or even to read too much. Some ideas are all right, but too many ideas are dangerous.” When he won a prestigious national award for his published writing, I wrote to congratulate him. He wrote back, believe it or not, telling me that from the 900 or so priests of Chicago, he had heard from only two priests – the Archbishop of Chicago and me!  Indeed, “a prophet is not without honor except in his native place." 

Now, what can we all learn from this gospel with its message that "familiarity breeds contempt?"

First, I am reminded of that quote from Mark Twain that every parent of a teenager can resonate with! At that age, they begin to have contempt for what has grown so familiar and begin to separate from what they know into a self-actualized person. Surely, this sounds familiar to many of the parents here today? Mark Twain wrote, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Second, during my project of turning my old parish grade school the last couple of years, I was amazed at how many people who grew up in that little community and could not wait to get out, all of a sudden got very interested in preserving their history. As they walked down its old hallways and saw their old photos displayed on new canvasses, the contempt they had for their humble backgrounds, all of a sudden, became prized nostalgic memories they wanted so badly to preserve! I learned, too, that so many of them have also made plans to be buried "back home" in the community they so long ago wanted to escape, just as I have done! I am reminded of the old country song, "The Green Grass of Home." Here are a few of the lyrics from the Tom Jones version. "The old home town looks the same as I step down from the train. It's good to touch the green, green grass of home. The old house is still standing tho' the paint is cracked and dry. And there's that old oak tree that I used to play on. Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."

Third, how many times have we priests been called to the hospital to anoint a non-practicing Catholic who is desperate to reconnect to the faith they had rejected and for which they had shown so much contempt! It is always a "sacred moment" to be able to assure them that they may have turned away from the church, but God had never turned away from them! I like to read them the story we call "The Prodigal Son," which should be called the story of "the Loving Father." The wayward son in that parable, who had shown such contempt for his father and his own home, is not the hero of the story simply because he came home! The hero is God who had been watching the road all along for his little boy to come home so that he could again shower him with hugs and kisses!

My friends, just as the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus because they thought they knew everything about him, and their perceptions were so low, many of us become so familiar with what we think we know about other people, what we think about familiar situations and what we think about the things of the past, that we miss the miracles and wonders right under our noses! As the famous British-Indian scientist, J.B.S. Haldane, once said, "The world shall perish, not for a lack of wonders, but from our lack of wonder!" This is why Jesus began his ministry, not with changing things, but with calling people to change the way they see things and other people– the wonders right in front of us! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO STORM CAN SHAKE MY INMOST CALM

 

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus asked them,

“Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

Mark 4:35-41

This year, we are reading from the Gospel of Mark. Mark was known for writing to encourage a discouraged community of believers going through a hard time. We should not be surprised to read this story of Jesus and his disciples caught out on a lake during a violent storm. The panicked disciples are scared to death with Jesus asleep on a cushion as if he didn’t care! What better way to describe a community of believers, losing hope, with God seemingly not caring, than a story about being caught out on a lake in a storm with Jesus asleep? The Sea of Galilee was notorious for its storms. They came literally out of the blue, even when the sky was perfectly clear, with shattering and terrifying suddenness.

To get Mark’s point, we need to read this story, not literally, but symbolically. If it describes no more than a physical miracle in which an actual storm was calmed, it is wonderful to marvel at, but it would just be something that happened once, but does not affect us! What we need to learn from the story is that fearless peace entered them once his disciples knew Jesus was with them and paying attention to them! With a close connection to Jesus, we too can have peace even in the wildest storms of life!

Last week, I spoke to the people of St. Frances of Rome about the storms in my life and the storms that many of you have faced in yours – when God seemed to be asleep – and how we managed to survive once we realized that God had been with us all along!

I told them how I had spent twelve long years in the seminary preparing for ordination to the priesthood, only to see the bottom appear to drop out about the time I got there. When I was ordained in 1970, priests and nuns were leaving in a steady stream. I told them about being sent to the home missions of southern Kentucky to live in a church basement with no windows to start Catholic churches in two counties with not enough people to even pay my $200.00 a month salary. I told them about being threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in one of those counties for welcoming some young African Americans attending the local Job Corps, being thrown out of the ministerial association in the other county just for being a Catholic. I told them about having a knife being pulled on me by a schizophrenic at the Cathedral because I welcomed fallen-away, divorced and gay Catholics back to church. I told them about how I took three months off to try to pull myself together during the sexual abuse scandal when I felt like quitting. I told them about how angry I am today at those in the church who want to “go back” to some imagined “good old days” and who are engaging in all sorts of meanness, character assassination and anonymous personal attacks in the name of “orthodoxy,” deciding for themselves who God loves and who God doesn’t love!

I reminded them about how many of you are facing your own storms. Many of you have invested tons of money to give your kids a Catholic education only to see them drop out of church as soon as they graduate. Many of you have been through painful divorces, bankruptcy and marital infidelities. Others of you have lost your life partners or children to cancer, car wrecks, heart disease or drug addiction. Some of you have been through serious painful surgeries. Some of you are still battling serious illnesses, financial problems or facing going into nursing homes.

In spite of all those painful experiences, we are both still here! One of the most important things I have learned in my 80 years of life is that “It isn’t over till it’s over!” I have learned over and over again that a “Breakdown is a sure sign of a breakthrough.” Looking back, I can say that often what I thought was an unrecoverable disaster was only the beginning of a new and better period of my life. I can often look back and be glad that I had to go through some of those painful trials. By going through them, I have learned much about myself, about how much you go through and how to talk to you about it!

When I was ordained in 1970, I was worried about my future. Discouraged, but not discouraged enough to quit even though so many priests and Sisters were leaving. That’s why I chose the hymn with the refrain, “No Storm Can Shake My Inmost Calm,” for my First Mass and have had it sung at every one of my 54 anniversaries since! With my eyes wide open, I made the deliberate decision to stand my ground and stay put, realizing that I would be serving the Church in one of the most tumultuous periods in recent Church history. I knew in my heart of hearts that my years as a priest would be more like shooting the rapids of the Colorado River than lounging peacefully in a canoe on a serene mountain lake. I had a pretty good hunch as to what I was getting myself into! At least I knew enough that it was not going to be a rough ride! I chose to do it anyway, even though I might not have realized just how chaotic it would become.

As I look out at you today, you who have been so welcoming and so affirming to me, I realize that we are both entering yet another storm together. For me, this could very well be one of the very few Sundays celebrating Mass with you the rest of this year and probably the community of St. Frances of Rome as well. After this Sunday, I will have one Mass at St. Leonard in July, one in August, one in September and one in October so far. Beyond that, I don’t know yet because the two new pastors serving these two communities don’t know yet. As the Archbishop struggles with a shrinking number of priests, he is being forced to re-arrange things, but it looks pretty certain that you will have to get used to new priests while I will probably have to look for new places to do ministry!

Like many of you, I do not look forward to another period of uncertainty about where our place will be in the days ahead. I do know one thing, Jesus may appear to be asleep in this boat, but he isn’t! In the midst of all the chaos we are experiencing, we need to remember that God is at work even now and the kingdom is coming into reality ever so quietly like tiny seeds sprouting and growing of their own accord.

Friends, No matter what! Let’s not lose hope or get distracted! We need to keep our eyes on the prize! In the meantime, let’s try not to forget this! “Breakdown is very often a sure sign of a breakthrough!” I want to believe in my heart that we are both going to be OK and God has good things in store for both of us! Thank you and God bless you for your amazing support and encouragement just as I have tried to do the same for you!

NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER LOSE HEART! THE KINGDOM IS COMING!

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground is the smallest of all seeds. It springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so big that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”

Mark 4:26-34

We are reading Mark’s Gospel this year. To better understand the message of his Gospel, it is important to recall that his original audience was a community of persecuted Christians who were losing hope. If you ever get the feeling that the whole blooming world, including our church and our country, isn't working all that well anymore and nobody seems to have the foggiest notion of how to really fix it, you can understand some of what the writer of the Gospel of Mark is trying to say to the discouraged community of his day! By using the two parables today, about tiny seeds slowly sprouting and quietly growing, he reminds his audience that God too is quietly working and his kingdom will finally come to fullness – not matter what!  

It seems to me that we too are communities that need a message of encouragement at a time when many are losing hope. I have heard this from you and I have felt it myself for a long time now! The Rudyard Kipling poem “If” puts words to my feelings.

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken,

twisted, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

to serve you long after they are gone,

and so hold on when there is nothing in you

except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”

I spent twelve long years in the seminary preparing for ordination to the priesthood, only to see the bottom appear to drop out about the time I got there. When I was ordained in 1970, priests and nuns were leaving in a steady stream, many life-long Catholics were no longer going to church and young people, even the graduates of our expensive Catholic School system, were not even bothering to receive the Sacraments. It has steadily gotten worse year after year!

In 1970, I was worried about my future, but not discouraged enough to quit. That’s why I chose the hymn with the refrain, “No Storm Can Shake My Inmost Calm,” for my First Mass and have had it sung at every one of my 54 anniversaries since!  With my eyes wide open, I made the deliberate decision to stand my ground and stay put, realizing that I would be serving the Church in one of the most tumultuous periods in recent Church history. I knew in my heart of hearts that my years as a priest would be more like shooting the rapids of the Colorado River than lounging peacefully in a canoe on a serene mountain lake. I had a pretty good hunch as to what I was getting myself into! At least I knew enough that it was not going to be easy! I knew it was going to be a rough ride! I chose to do it anyway, even though I might not have realized just how chaotic it would become.

For instance, I could not foresee that I would be sent, right after ordination, to the home missions to live by myself for five years in a church basement with no windows, to pastor two tiny parishes of less than 25 members total, and without enough income to even pay my monthly salary – which was about $200 a month back then! I did not foresee being thrown own of my first ministerial meeting down there simply because I was a Catholic. I did not foresee being terrorized by the thought of the Ku Klux Klan blocking the road while driving a dark mountain road at night because we had started the first Catholic Church in one of those counties and because we welcomed some African Americans young men from the local Job Corps Center!

I could not foresee that I would be stalked by a schizophrenic and have a knife pulled on me when I was pastor of our Cathedral for welcoming marginal Catholics back to church. I could not foresee an anonymously written “white paper” being circulated throughout Louisville condemning me and Archbishop Kelly, calling us about every name in the book for our efforts to bring the Cathedral back to life.

I could not foresee a damnable sexual abuse scandal coming to light that would drive me, for the first time, nearly to the point of quitting. I may have gone through with leaving the priesthood if I had not taken a three month “leave” to pull myself back together. I spent one of those months by myself, walking almost all day every day on a cold deserted Florida beach, praying and thinking about what to do next. I left there resolved yet again to tough it out.

I am still angry at the sick priests who have hurt children, hurt my church and brought shame on the 95% of our priests who have done good work and given themselves to the service of others for many, many years.

I am amazed that we priests let you lay people, in your goodness, put us on pedestals and treat us with respect without us ever having to earn it. We have sometimes taken your goodness for granted and created a climate of clericalism. Pope Francis said recently, “Clericalism leads us to believe that we belong to a group that has all the answers and no longer needs to listen or learn anything.” 

I am even angrier than ever at those within the Church who engage in all sorts of meanness, character assassination and anonymous personal attacks in the name of “orthodoxy,” deciding who God loves and who God doesn’t! Blaise Paschal was right. “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” William Penn was right when he said, “Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.”

Regardless of all that, I have made this decision: nobody is going to take my church away from me no matter what they do or don’t do! I am so determined, like the French Scientist priest Teilhard de Chardin, to “stay to the end, with a smile, if possible,” that a couple of years ago I had my tombstone installed down in Saint Theresa Cemetery with my name carved in stone - FATHER James Ronald Knott! I’ll be damned if I go back at this point in my life and have “Father” chisel off that tombstone! 

From here on, I will not bury my head in the sand, but I have decided that I am going to place most of my focus on positive things - the things I have the power to change, instead of wallowing in sadness and giving into discouragement. I will do what I can to effect such positive changes, but I am going to ignore what I cannot change – and if I can’t ignore it at least I will try not to allow it to drag me down.

Like me, all of you have heard the hundreds of “good” reasons to give up on the church, to blame others for its problems, to withhold financial support, to punish those who are not guilty and to drop out in self-righteous disgust. Like you, I have been tempted to respond that way to the problems in today’s church, but just as I refuse to give up my United States citizenship because of the stupidity and moral weaknesses of our politicians and many of our citizens, I will not leave my church because of its cowardly leadership, because of a few perverted clergy or because of its often sinful members. It may not be easy to stay and fight evil, but I know I can be a whole lot more effective from the inside than standing outside the church and barking at it from a distance.

Whether your kids have quit going to church after all your investment in religious education, whether your spouse has been unfaithful to you after years of marriage, whether the bank foreclosed on your business after slaving for years to keep it going, whether you have lost your job or been diagnosed with a terminal illness after trying your best to stay healthy, I want to help you discover your solid center from where you can weather this storm or any storm life throws at you! I want to inspire you to become one of those trees growing along a river bank that the Prophet Jeremiah talked about when he said: “Those who trust and hope in the Lord, are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”

What is the solution? Rebel? Reform? Resign? Give up? Give in? Drop out? Is it time for another American Revolution? Another Reformation? Should we start another country? Start another church? Move to another planet? The only problem with those” solutions” is that we will end up taking our problems with us. We can run, but we cannot hide. We must build ourselves up – from the inside out – so that “no storm can shake our inmost calm It’s easier to put on slippers than it is to carpet the world. It’s easier for us to change ourselves than change everybody else! We must give up our juvenile search for magic programs, savior politicians and charismatic clergymen to make it all better for us. We must change!

Friends! No matter what! Don’t lose hope and don’t get distracted! Keep your eyes on the prize! In the midst of all the chaos we are experiencing, we need to remember that God is at work and the kingdom is coming into reality ever so quietly like tiny seeds sprouting and growing of their own accord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOOKING FOR GOODNESS TO AFFIRM, NOT JUST EVIL TO CONDEMN

 

His relatives set out to seize him, for they

said, “He is out of his mind!”

Mark 3:20-35

 

Today, Jesus seems to be getting criticism from two directions - from his family and from organized religion! One of the things about Mark's Gospel, the first to be written down, is that it is so blunt and straightforward. He tells it like it is! Those who write later, when the apostles were rising in admiration by the Church, clean up a bunch of stories so that his family and disciples don't look so rude and crude.  

 

First, we read about the family of Jesus showing up to take Jesus away because they felt that he had lost his mind!  Here is what it said: 

Jesus came home with his disciples.

Again, the crowd gathered,

making it impossible for them even to eat.

When his relatives heard of this, they set out to seize him, 

                                                       for they said, "He is out of his mind."

 

It sort of shakes our usual ideas about Jesus and his family. To have them show up to "seize" him, thinking that "he is out of his mind" is really something else indeed!

 

Second the religious authorities show up and they were so "out of their minds" with jealousy, they accused him of being "possessed."  Here it what it says about them.

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,

"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"

and, "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."

 

What we have here, with the religious authorities, is an example of pettiness and jealousy in ministry that has been around since the beginning. This gives me a chance to tell you about one of the things I addressed in the retreats for priests I gave around the world - over 150 of them in 10 countries!  Pettiness and jealousy in ministry, unfortunately, is not restricted to the clergy. Anyone of you who has ever been involved in lay ministry knows that it can happen there as well. So, what I have to say about priests can apply to lay ministers and even family members as well. 

 

There was one thing the religious enemies of Jesus, even some family members, could not understand and that was his popularity and success in ministry.  Since it was obvious that he was doing good things, the only tactics they had left to fall back on was to discredit his success by accusing him of losing his mind or attributing his success to the fact that he was in cahoots with the devil. Since it was obvious to all that he had power to cast out demons, the religious leaders attributed his power, not to God, but to the devil. Jealous of his power to do good, they slander him by telling people that his power to do good came from evil itself.

 

Jealousy and competitiveness have been the dark side of clerical culture for a very long time and is alive and well today - even in families! When the apostles, James and John, were caught making a move to grab the best seats in Jesus’ new kingdom, they had to face the jealous indignation of the other ten apostles as well as a stern reprimand from Jesus. We may remember the story about John trying to put a stop to someone who was driving out demons in the name of Jesus because he was not “a member of the inner circle.” Then there is the story about Joshua doing pretty much the same when he complained to Moses that Medad and Eldad were prophesying even though they had not been “in the tent” with the others when the spirit came to rest on the other prophets.   Snubbed by some Samaritans while on their way to Jerusalem, James and John asked Jesus if it would be OK to call down fire from heaven and burn them up! 

 

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests dedicates quite a bit of space to the subject of clerical envy and competition. Whether you liked his work or not, the late Father Andrew Greeley made a similar point in one of his books. He talks about the leveling that goes on among priests, whereby they are reluctant to applaud the work of other priests for fear that it will take away something from themselves.

 

Father Greeley wrote that, in the clerical culture, “to be a member of good standing, a priest must try not to be too good at anything or to express unusual views or criticize accepted practices or even to read too much. Some ideas are all right, but too many ideas are dangerous.” “When a layman mentions that Father X is a good preacher, the leveler priest’s response might likely be, ‘Yes, he preaches well, but he doesn’t get along with kids.’” Or, “He’s really good, but all he does during the week is prepare his sermon.” Or, “everyone says that, and it’s probably true, but he’s not an easy man to live with.”  One famous Protestant minister once said, “The meanest, most contemptible form of praise is to first speak well of a man and then end it with a “but.”   

 

In my August transition class with the deacons, when I was working at St. Meinrad, I always ended with a class on the spiritual practice of blessing people. Blessing people is not about waving crosses over them, but about looking for goodness in them to affirm. For some reason, this does not seem to come naturally to ordained ministers. It is a spiritual discipline that must be intentionally cultivated.

 

Not too long after I retired, when I was cleaning out my files, I came across my notes for former student, Jorge Gomez of the class of 2011. Fr. Jorge from Mexico and his diocesan seminarian brother, Stanley, from Kenya, were killed in a car wreck in Tulsa a week or two after Father Jorge's ordination. Here are the last words I said to Deacon Jorge to bless him on his way out of the seminary. “You have not forgotten that you do not have a vocation to the seminary, but to serve the People of God. You have a deep love and respect for your country, your family, your people and your community. You are very dedicated to “the people.” You seem to know instinctively that, as priests, we are “called from the people, to live among the people, to serve the people.” I also told each one of them which saint they reminded me of. For him I selected St. Luke, whose heroes are always the underdog, the foreigner, the disaffected and the left out.  I am very happy I took the time to bless him with these words while he was still alive! It makes me happy that I even made a donation for his ordination celebration because his whole town was invited and his family was poor! 

 

Brothers and sisters, our sins may not be so much about “what we have done,” even the mean and nasty things we say about each other, but “what we have failed to do,” our withholding of clear and unconditional compliments when we have the chance!

 

St. Cyprian, in the Office of Readings for the feast of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian, put it this way. His words could be applied to religious women, lay ministers and fellow family members as well.  “Why should a priest not take pride in the praise given to a fellow priest as though it were given to him?  What brotherhood fails to rejoice in the happenings of its brothers wherever they are?”

 

One famous American Protestant preacher, as I mentioned earlier, described our sin best when he said, “The meanest, most contemptible form of praise is to first speak well of a man and then end it with a “but!” "My sister may be a good cook, but her house is always a mess!" My brother may drive a nice car, but he is in in debt up to his ears!" "My neighbors have a nice house, but they don't mow their grass very often!" "My husband may be good at sports, but he is always late for work!" "My wife may hold down a full-time job, but she needs to lose some weight!" 

Brothers and sisters, we need to get off our "buts" and give each other clear compliments, focusing on what's right with them, not just what's wrong with them! 

           

 

 

 

 

 

THE EUCHARIST - ALWAYS THE SAME AND ALWAYS CHANGING

 

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, a melding of two former feasts. Until a few years ago the church celebrated the “body” on one day (Feast of Corpus Christi) and the “blood” (Feast of the Precious Blood) on another.

 

Even though the church encourages us at every Mass to spend a brief period of silence after communion, this Feast encourages us to spend some longer devotional time before the Blessed Sacrament so we can reflect more deeply on this great mystery. A quiet church before Mass offers introverts like myself to prepare themselves for this great celebration, while the extroverts meet and greet in the vestibule before Mass time.  The time spent reflecting on this great mystery reminds us that we become what we eat so that we can be the self-giving Christ for others.

 

The evolution of the Last Supper into the Mass we know today is quite interesting. 

 

Did you know that the first record of the Eucharist was not the story of the Last Supper in the various gospel accounts. They came later. The very first record comes from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians written in about 54 AD. 

 

Brothers and sisters:

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, 

that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 

took bread, and, after he had given thanks,

broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 

you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I Corinthians 11:23-26

 

 

The first Last Supper account, from the Gospel of Mark which we read today, was probably written 66-70 AD, about 12 to 16 years later than the Last Supper account from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. 

 

At the time of Paul, it was customary for Christians to hold an Agape meal (Love Feast) before the Eucharist. It was some sort of pot-luck dinner that the rich and the poor shared. However, in Corinth things had gotten a little out of control and the art of sharing was being lost. The rich would not share their food, but ate it in little exclusive groups by themselves, hurrying through it so they did not have to share, while the poor went with almost nothing. Some of them even got drunk at these meals. Did you know that Paul basically reams them out for this in this same letter we read from today?

 

Did you know that St. Clement of Alexandra had to write a letter to his people in the year 200 about the problem of lengthy mouth-to-mouth kissing during the sign of peace? 

 

Did you know that in the year 350, the Council of Nicea outlawed the practice of kneeling during Mass as “novel,” preferring the older custom of standing as the proper way of praying at the Eucharist?

 

Did you know that the Mass changed from Greek to Latin in 384 so that people could understand and participate. Even in the old Latin Mass, we had some hang-over Greek Words - Kyrie Eleison is Greek, not Latin! That wasn’t changed again till 1963, when we went to English, for the same reason – so that people could understand and participate? 

 

Did you know that lay people had their parts of the Mass taken away around the year 1000 and they were not restored to them till Vatican Council II? Growing up the priest and the altar boys, and maybe the choir, interacted while people said the rosary or read along from their missals in silence.  The Mass today is more like it was in the church’s early years than it was when most of our older members were growing up. 

 

Did you know that tabernacles in churches did not start till the 12th century and did not become standard until the 17th? Did you know that Protestants invented pews? Catholics had been using chairs, as we do here in our Cathedral, just as they do in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome today and in most European Cathedrals? There weren’t even chairs in the early church. People stood, even during long homilies. They did provide a bench along the wall for the sick and elderly. 

 

Did you know that so few people were going to communion in the 13th century, because they considered it too sacred to receive, that the Pope had to make a law saying people must receive communion at least once a year? It came to be called our “Easter duty.” Did you know that veneration of the Blessed Sacrament at Benediction and the custom of Corpus Christi processions became a substitute for receiving communion during this period? 

 

The feast we celebrate today didn’t come till the 13th century. This is how it came about. 

 

In 1263 a German priest, Fr. Peter of Prague, made a pilgrimage to Rome. He stopped in Bolsena, Italy, to celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Christina. At the time he was having doubts about Jesus being truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. He was affected by the growing debate among certain theologians who, for the first time in the history of the Church, began introducing doubts about the Body and Blood of Christ being actually present in the consecrated bread and wine. In response to his doubt, according to tradition, when he recited the prayer of consecration as he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, blood started seeping from the consecrated host and onto the altar and corporal.

 

Fr. Peter reported this miracle to Pope Urban IV, who at the time was nearby in Orvieto. The pope sent delegates to investigate and ordered that host and blood-stained corporal be brought to Orvieto. These were then placed in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they remain today.

 

This Eucharistic miracle confirmed the visions given to St. Juliana of Belgium just a few years before. St. Juliana was a nun and mystic who had a series of visions in which she said she was instructed   to work to establish a liturgical feast for the Holy Eucharist, to which she had a great devotion.

 

After many years of trying, she finally convinced the bishop, the future Pope Urban IV, to create this special feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, where none had existed before. Soon after her death, Pope Urban instituted Corpus Christi for the Universal Church and celebrated it for the first time in Orvieto in 1264, a year after the Eucharistic miracle in Bolsena.

 

Inspired by the miracle, Pope Urban IV commissioned a Dominican friar, St. Thomas Aquinas, to compose the Mass and Office for the feast of Corpus Christi. Saint Thomas Aquinas' hymns in honor of the Holy Eucharist, Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia are the beloved hymns the Church sings on the feast of Corpus Christi as well as throughout the year during Exposition, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and in Corpus Christi Processions when the Blessed Sacrament is carried through the streets. 

 

Some of you older folks, my age and older, might remember the Corpus Christi Processions of the past. The Holy Name Society of Holy Name Church, out Third Street near U of L, under the direction of Monsignor Timoney its pastor, sponsored the local Corpus Christi Procession. It was held originally where Bellarmine University is now, but he had it moved to Churchill Downs. An account from 1952, says that 50,000 Catholics from the area around Louisville attended on a Sunday afternoon. There were other processions out in the country in places like Flaherty. I can remember marching with my Dad, uncles, brothers and men from neighboring parishes in Flaherty. Of the 50,000 attendees here in Louisville, 15,000 men and boys marched around the track at Churchill Downs, while 35,000 women and girls sat in the grandstand and clubhouse. Devotional music was sung and the rosary was prayed. When all the men were on the track in position, the Blessed Sacrament was carried from altar to altar, until Benediction was celebrated with the newly ordained priests serving as assistants to the main celebrant, usually the bishop or archbishop. Those processions gradually died out in intensity after Vatican Council II and are only a memory except in a few places like Saint Martin of Tours here in Louisville.

 

The Eucharist has undergone many changes in its form, but its essence is still the same. Baptized believers have gathered around bread and wine, having become the body and blood of Christ, to be nourished, energized, transformed and strengthened for over 2,000 years. It’s a family reunion. It’s bread for the journey and strength for the trip. It’s an intimate meeting between a loving God and his adopted children. It’s at the heart of what being a Catholic is all about. That is why we are here today – to celebrate what has been handed on to us from the Lord Jesus himself!