As a priest these days (or any days), I know that I am called to leadership. It is intrinsic to a priest's conformity with Jesus Christ, the head of the mystical body. But what sort of leader? Jesus was an amazing leader but not one who conforms to any model that I know of leadership. He really means all that stuff about being a servant. He really lives what his cousin John the Baptist said about decreasing. He really has no interest in the powers of this world. He really does empower those He calls and serves.
I ask for your prayers in trying to lead in His way. It is frankly kind of messy! Most people don't even want to be led His way. I need constantly to let Jesus call out and empower those in my care.
Let me give you a couple of examples. As I get my feet on the ground at St. Mary's, I see families with children. The Church calls on me as a pastor to assist the parents of these families in educating their children in the faith. That is exactly what I want to do: to help the parents but not to take over for them. I hope that this comment is not unfair, but I think that too often pastors and parents have been too willing to increase the role of parish or school catechesis and to decrease the role of the parents. I might be too hasty in my judgment.
Another example is stewardship. I want to try to encourage the practice of stewardship in the parish. I think that there are some good practices in the way the parish conducts its finances that can help with this concept. The people need to give, to be generous. The Church does not need to receive.
I think that the parish has a role to play but at the end of the day, I am not so interested in parish buildings or programs but in the discipleship of the parishioners in families, in friendships, in the community, etc. The same is true for the students of University Catholic.
We do need buildings and programs, but I don't need to own or run them. Many, many of the lay faithful are much better at those things. I can help to form the disciples. It seems to me that this is the main way that Jesus exercised His leadership.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
To the Outskirts
Pope Francis keeps calling us to go to the outskirts, to the margins, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to do this, in fidelity to the assignments given to me by Bishop Choby. In a certain sense, my assignments are far from the outskirts. St. Mary's is in the middle of downtown. Vanderbilt is an insiders' circle. What does it mean to go to the outskirts when you are assigned to places at the center?
Of course, we are still connected to the rest of the city and the world. The opportunities to serve at the margins are only steps away. But are there outskirts and margins even at the center of things? I think so, and I think that we are called to figure out how to reach there.
Someone once referred to all the state office buildings that surround St. Mary's as the place of many unhappy faces. Is there a way to reach that unhappiness? There is quiet despair among the elites at Vanderbilt and the hipsters at Belmont. Is there some way to reach that despair?
There is so much fear. There is so much loneliness. I am thinking that the best way to begin to go to the outskirts when one lives at the center is to invite the margins in: into joy, hope, peace, love. I find St. Mary's and University Catholic to be communities like this, but we need to become more contagious! A wise priest I know emphasizes "meeting the people" as the overlooked step in pastoral planning. So let's do it: meet the people! The good thing is that we don't have to go far.
Of course, we are still connected to the rest of the city and the world. The opportunities to serve at the margins are only steps away. But are there outskirts and margins even at the center of things? I think so, and I think that we are called to figure out how to reach there.
Someone once referred to all the state office buildings that surround St. Mary's as the place of many unhappy faces. Is there a way to reach that unhappiness? There is quiet despair among the elites at Vanderbilt and the hipsters at Belmont. Is there some way to reach that despair?
There is so much fear. There is so much loneliness. I am thinking that the best way to begin to go to the outskirts when one lives at the center is to invite the margins in: into joy, hope, peace, love. I find St. Mary's and University Catholic to be communities like this, but we need to become more contagious! A wise priest I know emphasizes "meeting the people" as the overlooked step in pastoral planning. So let's do it: meet the people! The good thing is that we don't have to go far.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Synchronicity with Pope Francis
I saw this expression in a blog I read from time to time. (although "synchronicity" -- no "r"-- was misspelled. Hey, I can't believe that I noticed a misspelling! That reminds me that I have started re-reading Flannery O'Connor's letters, a gift to me this week from one of our seminarians. Her "innocence of spelling" is just one more thing to love about Miss O'Connor.) OK -- back to the point. I am running into examples of Pope Francis commenting on things I am experiencing just then all the time! Just yesterday, I went to confession and the advice given to me was very much like a point that the Holy Father made in his homily yesterday. My confessor pointed me to Peter for the need not to focus on my sins but on beginning again, as Jesus invited Peter to state his love three times in reparation for his triple denial. I don't think that the Holy Father is particularly in synch with me. I think that Pope Francis is simply with us and leading us.
His leadership is so refreshing, especially in light of the sort of secular leadership we are enduring these days. I think that I will try to focus more and more on letting Pope Francis guide me in how to follow Jesus and pay less and less attention to all the nonsense in Washington, Kirkland Hall, and elsewhere. We live in a corrupt culture and one that is getting more corrupt all the time. But hey, Greco-Roman culture of the first centuries of the Church was no picnic either! The Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Fathers of the Church were not primarily concerned about the terrible culture they lived in. They did live in it and did have to deal with it. Hey, they actually changed it in many ways! But the record they left was mainly about Jesus in the scriptures and the sacraments of the Church. This seems to be very much the approach of Pope Francis. I will try to get in synch with him.
His leadership is so refreshing, especially in light of the sort of secular leadership we are enduring these days. I think that I will try to focus more and more on letting Pope Francis guide me in how to follow Jesus and pay less and less attention to all the nonsense in Washington, Kirkland Hall, and elsewhere. We live in a corrupt culture and one that is getting more corrupt all the time. But hey, Greco-Roman culture of the first centuries of the Church was no picnic either! The Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Fathers of the Church were not primarily concerned about the terrible culture they lived in. They did live in it and did have to deal with it. Hey, they actually changed it in many ways! But the record they left was mainly about Jesus in the scriptures and the sacraments of the Church. This seems to be very much the approach of Pope Francis. I will try to get in synch with him.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Backseat Christians
Another great image from Pope Francis: "There
are backseat Christians, right? Those who are well mannered, who do
everything well, but are unable to bring people to the Church through
proclamation and Apostolic zeal. Today we can ask the Holy Spirit to
give us all this Apostolic fervor and to give us the grace to be
annoying when things are too quiet in the Church, the grace to go out to
the outskirts of life."
Ouch! That hurts.
I wonder just what backseat he has in mind. The backseat of the Church -- always the most popular -- where it is so easy to disconnect from what is going on? The backseat of a classroom where it is easier to hide? The backseat of a car because it is safer? The back bench in Parliament where you don't have to say much or even show up all that often? The backseat of the bus where the well mannered (albeit persecuted) stayed in their place?
Ouch! That hurts.
I wonder just what backseat he has in mind. The backseat of the Church -- always the most popular -- where it is so easy to disconnect from what is going on? The backseat of a classroom where it is easier to hide? The backseat of a car because it is safer? The back bench in Parliament where you don't have to say much or even show up all that often? The backseat of the bus where the well mannered (albeit persecuted) stayed in their place?
Old Time Maladies
I guess that it is fitting that I seem to suffer from old time maladies. Last year, I had shingles. Blessedly it seemed to be a mild case. And now my sore foot turns out to be gout! Well, that's embarrassing. It's all that high living. Actually, my diet has been atrocious, and I am sure that I could treat my kidneys with more care or at least with more water. Thanks to my doctor and old friend John Shaw for his prompt diagnosis and treatment. I know that these have reduced the discomfort very much.
I am actually grateful for both of these sicknesses. It seems to me that they are good examples in my case of the connection between body and soul. I have a pretty good idea what triggered the shingles last year -- too much worry, just as I have a near certainly about the dietary origin of the gout this year. They both have pulled me up short and caused me to reconsider things, at least for a time ;-) I have had stresses and pressures, probably more than usual, in the past year. My body is telling me that I have not been coping with them well and virtuously. My confessor could tell you much the same thing, although he keeps the seal better than my body does!
I have found the last two years particularly stressful, actually for different reasons. I am not sure if they have been objectively all that stressful, but I have experienced them that way. But that is not a good enough reason to fail to cope well, either spiritually or physically. Last night, Caroline's movie night at Frassati House was showing Life is Beautiful. OK, being thrown into a Nazi concentration camp, as well as your wife and child -- that's stressful by anyone's definition. And yet...and yet sacrificial love transformed the stress into a game and ultimately into triumph. Just think what a little more sacrificial love could do for my little bouts of stress. But I seem to prefer shingles and gout to love!
I am actually grateful for both of these sicknesses. It seems to me that they are good examples in my case of the connection between body and soul. I have a pretty good idea what triggered the shingles last year -- too much worry, just as I have a near certainly about the dietary origin of the gout this year. They both have pulled me up short and caused me to reconsider things, at least for a time ;-) I have had stresses and pressures, probably more than usual, in the past year. My body is telling me that I have not been coping with them well and virtuously. My confessor could tell you much the same thing, although he keeps the seal better than my body does!
I have found the last two years particularly stressful, actually for different reasons. I am not sure if they have been objectively all that stressful, but I have experienced them that way. But that is not a good enough reason to fail to cope well, either spiritually or physically. Last night, Caroline's movie night at Frassati House was showing Life is Beautiful. OK, being thrown into a Nazi concentration camp, as well as your wife and child -- that's stressful by anyone's definition. And yet...and yet sacrificial love transformed the stress into a game and ultimately into triumph. Just think what a little more sacrificial love could do for my little bouts of stress. But I seem to prefer shingles and gout to love!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Hermeneutic key for Pope Francis
Set your search for the "eh?"s in Pope Francis's homilies and talks, and you will be in for a treat. He seems to throw in an "eh?" every time he says something that is a really great smack down!
A similar hermeneutic short cut for St. Josemaria: anytime he says anything really important, he says it in Latin first!
You're welcome!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
A similar hermeneutic short cut for St. Josemaria: anytime he says anything really important, he says it in Latin first!
You're welcome!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Surrender to God...
This is the beginning of the antiphon for the first psalm of the Office of Readings for the Tuesday of week two in the breviary. I'm sure you remember ;-) Actually, I do because it hits me "upside the head" every time I read it. You know, I would like to do that: to surrender to God. But I don't. And we sure don't collectively as a culture. All those little "I don't"-s add up to a huge "we don't." I don't think you can tell by looking, but I feel terribly alienated from reality. I live (and I think that you do too!) very disconnected from reality. That is why I need to surrender to God. He's real.
I often think of this in terms of the sexual chaos of our culture. God's way just works so much better than ours. But it is true about so many other things, like recycling or not practicing usury or staying home with the children. All these things are better, not just abstractly but practically. Being kind, forgiving, taking care of your parents, sheltering the homeless, praying, feeding the hungry, not killing people, etc. are all better than what we do. Instead we organize all kinds of things to do what we want: contraceptives, euthanasia, huge bureaucracies, huge banks, social entrepreneurship, drones, etc. I know this sounds like a mad rant, and maybe it is. But I think we live in a crazy way. So what are we to do? Go off on a protest? Become "occupiers" of some sort. Nope. Rather, let's be saints.
Today is the feast of St. Isidore the Farmer. He lived in medieval Spain. It sounds to me that he was a sharecropper. He certainly didn't own the land he farmed. He and his wife are both saints. Although hard and certainly unfair in many regards, his life sounds real to me. The lives of all the saints are real, even the ones caught up in the most alienating circumstances. A Marxist would have a field day with St. Isidore's social condition, I am sure! Although socially and economically alienated within his culture, he had surrendered to God. He was free! And you know what, you see his statue in just about every rural parish church in America.
You and I are also free. Free to love God and to surrender to Him. I know that St. Isidore has done much more good over the years than if he had been a proto-Marxist agitator. We need the courage to do the right thing, all the time, no matter the circumstances. We need to be radical disciples of the Lord Jesus. We might have some effect on the world in worldly terms, but don't count on it! Some saints have managed that but not many. Or our statue might be put up somewhere, but don't count on that either. But be real. Be a saint. Surrender to God.
I often think of this in terms of the sexual chaos of our culture. God's way just works so much better than ours. But it is true about so many other things, like recycling or not practicing usury or staying home with the children. All these things are better, not just abstractly but practically. Being kind, forgiving, taking care of your parents, sheltering the homeless, praying, feeding the hungry, not killing people, etc. are all better than what we do. Instead we organize all kinds of things to do what we want: contraceptives, euthanasia, huge bureaucracies, huge banks, social entrepreneurship, drones, etc. I know this sounds like a mad rant, and maybe it is. But I think we live in a crazy way. So what are we to do? Go off on a protest? Become "occupiers" of some sort. Nope. Rather, let's be saints.
Today is the feast of St. Isidore the Farmer. He lived in medieval Spain. It sounds to me that he was a sharecropper. He certainly didn't own the land he farmed. He and his wife are both saints. Although hard and certainly unfair in many regards, his life sounds real to me. The lives of all the saints are real, even the ones caught up in the most alienating circumstances. A Marxist would have a field day with St. Isidore's social condition, I am sure! Although socially and economically alienated within his culture, he had surrendered to God. He was free! And you know what, you see his statue in just about every rural parish church in America.
You and I are also free. Free to love God and to surrender to Him. I know that St. Isidore has done much more good over the years than if he had been a proto-Marxist agitator. We need the courage to do the right thing, all the time, no matter the circumstances. We need to be radical disciples of the Lord Jesus. We might have some effect on the world in worldly terms, but don't count on it! Some saints have managed that but not many. Or our statue might be put up somewhere, but don't count on that either. But be real. Be a saint. Surrender to God.
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