ONCE A MISSIONARY, ALWAYS A MISSIONARY

I started off my priesthood as "home missionary" down in southern Kentucky. As they say, "Once a missionary, always a missionary!" Right after retirement, I volunteered in the Caribbean missions of Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Knowing of my interest and experience as a volunteer missionary in the Caribbean, Father John Judie (a retired priest of our own Archdiocese of Louisville), who volunteers in a couple of African countries brought Bishop Filbert Mhasi of Tanzania over to my condo for coffee and tea on July 26. 

I was especially interested since a good friend of mine, (Father Steven Brown of the Diocese of San Jose, California), had been a Maryknoll Associate in Tanzania for several years. 

I was also interested in giving him a few copies of my book, Intentional Presbyterates: Claiming Our Common Sense of Purpose As Diocesan Priests, which had been translated into the Swahili language. 

We had a wonderful discussion and found that we shared similar experiences growing up and in our lives serving as priests. Father Judie helped moderate our lively discussion about seminary training, presbyteral unity and missionary needs. 

 Bishop Filbert Felician Mhasi - Diocese of Tunduru-Magasi - Tanzania

Bishop Filbert Mhasi's diocese has an area covering 22,730 square kilometers.

The diocese is in the extreme southern part of Tanzania close to the border with Mozambique.

There are now 24 local priests and 19 parishes.

________________________________________________

My last visitor from Africa (July 2019) was Abbott Romain of the Benedictine Monastery of the Incarnation in the French speaking country of Togo. He was a former student of mine at St. Meinrad Seminary over in Indiana. I helped a few of his monks who also studied there when I was a staff member.

Archbishop Jason Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, when he was the Bishop of Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was the one who first invited me to be a volunteer missionary in his two dioceses, with special emphasis on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, when I first retired.

When he was elevated to Archbishop of Port of Spain in Trinidad, I attended his installation. I even addressed the Antilles Bishops Conference in Trinidad after he was installed at the invitation of the Archbishop of the Bahamas who was President of the Conference at that time.

On July 7, Archbishop Gordon called me and asked if I would come to lunch the next day over in New Harmony, Indiana, where he was making a presentation at a religious convention he was attending. I gladly accepted and made the four hour driving trip. He used to stay at my condo overnight, when he would visit his seminarian from Barbados studying at St. Meinrad Seminary, so I could take him to the airport early the next morning. I also helped him get a few of his books published. We remain friends.

ONCE A MISSIONARY, ALWAYS A MISSIONARY

A GOOD FRIEND'S FUNERAL HOMILY

 

     My good friend, Richard Douglas “Dubby” or “Dick” Thurman, born on April 8th, 1937, passed away peacefully at 87 on July 4,  2024, surrounded by his loving family.

While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Over the Christmas holidays, a couple of years ago, I got Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It is about the opportunity to watch the 2007 movie, The Bucket List, starring two terminally ill men on a road trip with a “wish list” of things to do before they “kicked the bucket.” Since I had just officially retired, it struck a chord with me.

In one of my very favorite scenes, they are both sitting on one of the pyramids in Egypt. Morgan Freeman’s character says to Jack Nicholson’s character, “You know the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven…the gods asked them two questions. Their answer determined whether they were admitted or not. “Have you found joy in your life?” “Has your life brought joy to others?”

When Faye Thurman asked me to preside and preach at Dick’s funeral Mass today, I thought these two questions would be two great questions I imagine Dick being asked when he arrived at the gates of heaven.  “Did you find joy in your life?” “Did your life bring joy to others?” Jesus, of course, put it this way! Has God’s love for you brought you happiness? Has God’s love for you inspired you to share that happiness with others? I am confident that he is able to answer both questions with a resounding “yes.” I know from talking to him in depth that his life, especially after he “discovered his new religion,” has certainly brought joy to his life and, from what I heard around the bed right after he died, his life has certainly brought joy to the lives of his family and friends!  I heard Faye says more than once, “I am going to miss him so much!” I am sure his children feel the same way! I heard his grandchildren say, and all verbally agreed, “He was the best grandfather any grandchild ever had!” How good is that? I got an e-mail from a friend of Faye’s to whom Faye said about me, “Dick loved Father Ron!” After so many breakfasts, health crises, prayers shared, support for my projects and laughs together, talking about our humble beginnings and our Honorary Doctorates from Bellarmine, I can truly say he brought joy into my life as well. It was great to hear that my life had enriched his!  

What we are talking about here, with those two questions, is the living out of the Great Commandment. The "great commandment" of Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "Love your neighbor rather than yourself!" In other words, if you have no love for yourself, you will have no love to share with your neighbor!  You cannot give anybody else anything, if you don't have anything to give! As I learned in High School Latin class, "Nemo dat quod not habet." "If you ain't got it, you can't give it!" Only those who have joy in their own lives are able to bring joy into the lives of others. Only those who love themselves can love others. Only those who know how God’s loves, are inspired to love another, as they are loved!

Only those who know how God’s loves can love another as they are loved! How does God love? From 54 years of preaching, I have learned sadly that many so-called “religious” people don’t know squat about how God loves! That’s why I picked the story I read from the gospel today. Religious people who don’t know how God loves, usually mis-name this story. They call it the story of the Prodigal Son! The better name for it is the story of the Loving Father! The wayward son is not the hero of this story simply because he shaped up and came crawling back home. Neither is the uptight and pouting “perfect” son the hero simply because he stayed home, kept the rules and did what he was obligated to do! The real hero of this story is that love-crazy father who loved both of his sons – the one who got down with the pigs and the one who stayed home and did what was expected of him! You and I are one or the other of those two sons – either the wayward son who wasted his money on prostitutes and had to get a job feeding pigs or the self-righteous, uptight, religious conformist who stayed home but probably wanted, in his heart of hearts, to do some of the wild things his little brother did while he was gone!

The father in this parable stands for God! In other words, Jesus tells the people who heard this parable that God is just like the father in this story. That is why the rejects and marginalized of society flocked to Jesus! He preached the “good news” of God’s unconditional love! That is why the religious conformists hated Jesus and had him killed for this kind of talk! They preached the “bad news” of God’s conditional love, which caused people to run away from them!

So, who does God love and how does God love? God loves everybody and he loves everybody, no ands, if or buts about it! No, God does not love the evil we do, but like a good parent, he doesn’t quit loving us and abandons us when we do bad things! If the whole Bible was lost except this one story, we would still have the essence of all that Jesus came to this earth to tell us! The good and the bad alike are loved by God and we too are called to love each other, our friends as well as our enemies, as God loves us! Remember that, because there will be a test at the end of the homily to see if you heard what this story is teaching us! I believe Dick knew this truth and he would want you to know it as well!  

Dick came into my life toward the end of his life. He admitted that was not a “religious” man early on, he might have even compared himself to the prodigal son, but he “discovered” religion when he was faced with kidney disease. He told me he was inspired by his sister’s faith. He and Faye started coming to the Cathedral with Jim and Dot Patterson. I remember praying with him for a “miracle” kidney donor and looking for printed prayers to give him to encourage him. Friends, our prayers were answered and a ‘miracle” was granted! I received him into the church and I have been privileged to give him 4 of our 7 sacraments: confirmation, holy eucharist, penance and anointing of the sick! He was already baptized and married or he would have received all of them except ordination! We met regularly, talked about spiritual things, shared prayers and throughout, he took his new catholic faith very seriously! It brought him joy! Yes, it brought him joy! He brought me joy, as well, watching his spiritual life take root and grow!

Finally, friends, the parable today, applied to Dick, is this! Just like the father in that gospel story who loved both his sons, the good one and the bad one, God love the old Dick and the new Dick. Dick may have discovered religion at the end of his life, but God had been there all along - loving him all the time – both while he was away and when he came home! Today, I can imagine Jesus saying to him these familiar words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master!” ‘Enter into my joy because you welcomed that joy into your own life and you passed that joy on into the life of your family, your friends, your neighbors and your fellow men and women!’

Congratulations, Dick! You made it across the finish line! Like Faye kept saying at the hospital, we are really going to miss you, but someday we hope to see you again! In the meantime, pray for us and we will pray for you! We say that because he used to say the Creed with us every Sunday when we all professed together that “we believe in the communion of saints,” which is to say that we believe in a holy and unbroken connection between the living and the dead! 

Finally, let me say this – something I try to say at every funeral. Friends, if there are any slights, hard feelings or neglect between you and Dick Thurman or between Dick Thurman and you, let it go! God has forgiven him! God has forgiven you! He did his best and so did you! He is at peace and so can you be at peace! Let it go!

Now for the test! So that you won’t flunk, I am going to give you a hint! It’s one word and it begins with an “e!” Here goes!

FATHER KNOTT: Who does God love?

CONGREGATION: Everybody!

FATHER KNOTT: Correct! You get an A+! Now, go love each other as God loves Dick Thurman and you!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVEN THE THOUGHT OF THESE SCENES BREAKS MY HEART

 I am sure most of you know of Hurricane Beryl that ripped through the Caribbean Islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (where I made 12 trips as a volunteer Caribbean missionary) and caused damage as it made its way all the way up to Texas and beyond. 

While the damage in the islands of SVG goes far beyond this blog-post, completely destroying many homes and some churches, I want to focus mainly on two small churches on two islands where I had led an effort to provide several improvements. At least two churches were completely destroyed in the recent Hurricane Beyl and the other was destroyed in a volcano eruption on St. Vincent in 2021. Other destroyed or damaged churches, school roofs and homes we helped update are not included in this post.   

At least two churches, maybe three, were outfitted with red chairs that had come out of our Louisville Cathedral as part of a major renovation of  island churches: chairs, new ceiling fans, liturgical equipment and, in one case a new fence, gate and floor make-over.      

THE TRAGIC LOSS

of our

OLD CATHEDRAL CHAIRS, NEW FANS, NEW ROOFS AND MANY OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

#1

PRE-HURRICANE BERYL 

Immaculate Conception Church on Mayreau Island is part of a three-island parish cluster called Holy Family Parish. The other two churches are Our Lady of the Assumption on Canouan Island and St. Joseph Church on Union Island. 

Notice the large ceiling fans that we installed inside that church! 

 

Easter Vigil 2022 with visitors and Bishop Gerard County.

THE POST-HURRICANE BERYL DESTRUCTION

ACTUAL DESCRIPTION OF BEING CAUGHT IN HURRICANE BERYL

MORE IMPROVEMENTS LOST

New entrance, right before the new tall wrought-iron gates were installed. 

New fence to keep roaming goats out of the parish gardens. 

Thank God, none of these people, of the 50 who took refuge in the church during the hurricane, were killed! 

Parish kids with their Easter Baskets that we sent down. They are holding a sign that says "Thank You Father Ron" meant for all who donated and helped send things down to them. 

THE OTHER TWO CHURCHES OF THE THREE-ISLAND HOLY FAMILY PARISH

The Our Lady of the Assumption on Canouan Island with Cathedral chairs was not destroyed. Both sides of the altar have Cathedral chairs. 

The St. Joseph Church and Rectory on Union Island with some Cathedral chairs and our new ceiling fans with lights was totally destroyed. Photo of that destruction is not available at this time. The new roof and other improvements on the St. Joseph Retreat House, up the hill from the church, suffered severe damage.  

Our new roof on St. Joseph Retreat House being  installed a few years ago was totally ripped off by Hurricane Beryl. 

 

#2
PRE-VOLCANO

Our Lady Star of the Sea Church On Saint Vincent Island - Top Floor 

(Episcopal Church - Bottom Floor)

Tim Toms, part of a group from Louisville who made a trip down to the islands and who helped with this project and others, standing in front (above) and sitting in the newly renovated church (this photo) - pre-volcano. 

                 

Notice the new ceiling fans, Stations the the Cross and Statuary and refinished floor. 

POST-VOLCANO 

You can see the very bottom tip of the crucifix (above) in the yellow wall opening in the center of this picture. 

18 inches of volcanic ash on the roof crushed the new ceiling fans, the Cathedral's old red chairs and most of the liturgical furnishings as it fell in from the weight. It's all crushed under that volcanic ash!

MOTHER TERESA'S "ANYWAY" POEM

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

         Inscribed on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta.

 

I thought I had "retired" from work in the Caribbean Missions, but this hurricane breaks my heart. It destroyed much of our work. I feel I have to do something "anyway." If this moves you to help in "anyway," you can send a check made out to ST. BARTHOLOMEW CHURCH - SVG MISSION FUND and I will see that it is deposited in their account at a local TRUIST BANK. I still have some of their deposit slips.  Don't make checks out to me, just send them to me for deposit:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court

Louisville, KY 40217

CRICTICAL and COMMITTED

The Birth of John the Baptist

Given at the Little Sister of the Poor Home for the Aged

June 24, 2024

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child

she gave birth to a son. They asked his father what he

wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote,

“John is his name.” The child grew and became strong in spirit,

and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Luke 1:57-66,80

 

 

He had a beard, so he can't be all bad. But in spite of his beard, John the Baptist has never been one of my favorite saints. Screaming men who wear fur and eat bugs make me very nervous. They are not the type of person you could sit out on the deck and have a beer with. Before you open the can, they would be giving you a lecture on the evils of drinking.

Since I have gotten older and wiser; I have begun to appreciate John a little more. In fact, maybe he could be a role model for today's American Catholic. John the Baptist stands out as a believer who is both critical and committed, the two essential ingredients most needed in today's church. He, above all, seems to have found a balance between those two poles.

As our church continues to undergo massive transformation, the tension between the left and the right continues to produce anxiety in the hearts of believers everywhere. It seems that zealots at both ends of the spectrum are claiming to own the truth. Somehow, we must cooperate and give up our competition, separatism, and fragments of the truth. Maybe John the Baptist can teach us to ignore zealots of every stripe and listen to the less shrill voices of reason and joy. Maybe we can find some common ground between the hypercritical and the blindly committed. Maybe John can teach us to be both critical and committed.

Criticism, without commitment, is cruelty. There is a growing number of Catholic people who have moved to the edges or left the church altogether to take potshots at the church from their safe positions of smug superiority. They have their well-documented lists of flaws and sins to justify their withdrawal from active church life and are willing to point them out on cue. They are like the people who look at a thorny bush with a single flower and see a thornbush rather than a rosebush. Behind their superior attitude is a belief that others are responsible for the health of the church, and they will not grace the church with their presence until it conforms to their point of view.

Just as dangerous are those who are committed without being critical. Even Pope John Paul II, when he was still Cardinal Wojtyla, wrote in 1969: “Conformism means the death of any community; a loyal opposition is a necessity in any community.” Blind commitment without question is also unhealthy for the church. There are those among us who would have us believe that anything our leaders say or do should be followed without question, without hesitation. Sometimes, the church's best friends are those who criticize it.

Criticism without commitment is cruelty. Commitment without criticism is lazy, sentimental, and infantile. What is needed is the spirit of John the Baptist. He was both critical and committed. What we really need today is people who care enough and love enough to raise some questions. We need committed people who are willing, in the words of Saint Paul, to "profess the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Those who drop out and attack from the outside are no help.  Those who stay and bury their heads in blind conformity are dangerous and destructive. What we need are people who are committed but vigilant and attentive, knowing in their hearts that this old church requires, in the words of Pope Paul VI, “that continual reformation of which she always has need.”

 

 

 

A SPECIAL CELEBRATION AT THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR

MOTHER PROVINCIAL JULIE, L.S.P.

Visiting From the Chicago Provincial House of the Little Sisters of the Poor

Palatine, Illinois

Celebrating Her 25th Anniversary of Vows

Part of my "retirement plans" was to volunteer regularly at St. Joseph Home for the Elderly, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, here in Louisville. 

Sister Julie's Family and Relatives

Among the Sisters at this table, there are Sisters from Kenya, the Philippines and the South Pacific islands. 

LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
“Sister Julie’s 25th Jubilee”
Rev. Ronald Knott
June 8, 2024

This is my commandment: love one another as I loved you.

John 15:12

Over the Christmas holidays, a couple of years ago, I got the opportunity to watch the 2007 movie, The Bucket List, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It is about two terminally ill men on a road trip with a “wish list” of things to do before they “kicked the bucket.” Since I had just officially retired, it struck a chord with me.

In one of my very favorite scenes, they are both sitting on one of the pyramids in Egypt. Morgan Freeman’s character says to Jack Nicholson’s character, “You know the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven…the gods asked them two questions. Their answer determined whether they were admitted or not. “Have you found joy in your life?” “Has your life brought joy to others?”

When Sister Julie asked me to preach today, I thought these two questions would be two great questions to propose to her as she reflected on her first 25 years as a Little Sister of the Poor! “Have I found joy in my life?” “Has my life brought joy to others?” Jesus, of course, put it this way! Has God’s love for me brought me happiness? Has God’s love for me inspired me to bring happiness to others? I am confident that she is able to answer both questions with a resounding “yes.” Her life as a Little Sister of the Poor has certainly brought joy to her life and her life as a Little Sister of the Poor has certainly brought joy to the lives of those she has served!

What we are talking about here basically is Sister Julie’s living out of the Great Commandment. The "great commandment" of Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "Love your neighbor rather than yourself!" In other words, if you have no love for yourself, you will have no love to share with your neighbor! You cannot give anybody else anything, if you don't have anything to give! As I learned in High School Latin class, "Nemo dat quod not habet." "If you ain't got it, you can't give it!" Only those who know God’s love can love another as they are loved!

To love oneself, one has to be dedicated to wholeness of "mind, body and spirit." We can also call it being dedicated to one’s "education, health and spirituality." Whichever words you prefer, the task is to fill your mind with truth, fill your body with a balance of healthy food and exercise and fill your spirit with help from your "higher power."  If you "fall in love" with pursing those three things in your own life, you will have an abundance of love to give to others. 

Sir Ranulph Fiennes makes a great point when he said, “There is no such thing as “bad weather,” just “inappropriate clothing.” We can complain about the weather or how bad the world is, but it comes down to us taking the necessary personal precautions to survive and thrive in the world as it is! If it's cold, we wear a coat and hat! If it is weak, crooked and selfish, then we make sure we are personally strong, honest and communally focused! If the world is filled with ignorant, unhealthy and materialistic people, then we make sure we are individually educated, healthy and spiritually sound! 

Alexis de Tocqueville was so right when he said this about personal responsibility and how it affects the society we live in when he said something like this: ‘A nation cannot remain strong when every citizen belonging to it is individually weak; just as no religious community, family, marriage or parish can be strong if it is totally made up of cowardly and enfeebled individuals.’

Taking personal responsibility is what it means to “love oneself.” That is part of the great commandment, the part that brought joy into the life of Sister Julie. However, that is only half of the Great Commandment. The other half is to “love your neighbor” – in other words to being competent in “bringing joy into the life of others.”

When I preached recently about the Good Shepherd, I noted that there were two possible words for “good” in the Greek text – agathos and kalos. Agathos means “good” as in “holy,” but that is not the word used for a “good shepherd.” The words used there is kalos, meaning “good” as in “good at something” – “competent”, if you will!

Sister Julie did not become a Little Sister of the Poor to merely bring herself joy. She became a Little Sister of the Poor to bring joy to the lives of others. To do that, she needed to become “agathos” and “kalos” – personally “good” and “competent at serving” the elderly poor! Just as no community like the Little Sisters of the Poor can be successful in its mission of service to the elderly poor if every Sister in it is personally weak and incompetent.  Each member needs to be both “good” and “good at it.”  Being a member of this community should bring joy to each individual member and each member of this community should bring joy to the lives of every other member. It’s that simple and it’s that hard! Being personally “good” and “good at what she does” is what we celebrate today in the life of Mother Provincial, Julie!  

With the help of Tim Schoenbachler, I wrote the lyrics of this hymn last year for the Feast of Saint Jeanne Jugan, Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor. We sang it as a Post-Communion hymn at the Anniversary Mass.

Last August, 2023, I published a collection of homilies I gave over the last few years at the local Little Sisters' Home for the Elderly.

The book is available at Amazon Books.