Submit

2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Cycle C

IS 62:1-5

1 Cor 12:1-11

Jn 2:1-11

This Thursday will be the 15^th anniversary of my ordination as a deacon. That means, including the five years of formation that preceded it, I have been involved in this ministry for 20 years. And, as you may know, because the Sunday readings are on a three year cycle, these readings today are the first readings I preached on as a deacon, from this ambo. And I think the second reading from St. Paul is all about the diaconate – service – not just the ordained ministry but for all Christians.

So much has changed in those years. The White Pine Canyon Church had just been dedicated when I was ordained. I’m on my third pastor. I’m a bit grayer and a bit heavier. And I hope that I have grown and mellowed as I’ve aged.

I’ve changed. And you’re the ones who’ve changed me.

Every year around this time I try to stop and take stock of my faith life and my role as a deacon. It is so easy to get caught up in all the activities and stuff to do. It is hard to continue to focus on the calling I have been given, on the Spirit of God working in my life, and how I can better use the gifts he has given me to bring people closer to Him.

I have found the diaconate to be an extremely humbling experience. People tend to put priests and bishops on pedestals, but deacons are a bit different. Many of you knew me before I was ordained, and so we have a familiarity with one another, a casualness in our relationships that I don’t know that many priests and bishops experience very often. I have been humbled by the amazing faith I have witnessed in you, the people of St. Marys. I have shared your highest joys and your deepest sorrows. I have seen you live the wonderful gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon you, and you have been my role models in so many ways. So many of you are so much better at this deaconing thing than I am. And the most humbling experiences have been when I have made some terrible misstep and have had to try to make amends.

But the word deacon – diaconos – literally means servant, and it is that viewpoint and self-knowledge that truly should be what drives me and inspires me to continue. It is the concept that St. Paul is trying to convey in today’s second reading. It is the idea of the servant leader, and it should drive and inspire all of us.

St. Paul gives a list of the spiritual gifts. And he links them with the one Spirit that gives them purpose. These are gifts, not rights, and everyone receives them. We are called to be stewards of those gifts, realizing that we have them through no merit of our own, and must use them for the benefit of the whole and the glory of God. They are supposed to be a unifying force, because they all radiate from the unity of the Holy Trinity so that we can be of one mind and purpose.

We must decrease and Christ must increase.

It is not so much an aptitude as an attitude. Think of some of the best professionals you know. The best doctors, or teachers, or managers. They have developed great capabilities and skills, but what sets them apart is how they view themselves and the people they interact with. They are true servant leaders who do not focus on their degrees or titles or authority. They do not make their authority felt nor do they feel superior. They instead focus on the other. They did not choose their professions because they wanted status or power or money. They wanted to make a difference in the world. They wanted to help other people.

Those are the people who most greatly affect our lives. A skilled surgeon may heal you physically. A great doctor will make you want to change your life.

We cannot hear today’s 2^nd reading without also understanding the passage that immediately follows it: the famous Body of Christ analogy.

We are all given roles in the Body of Christ. God has a plan for his Church, and in order for the Body of Christ to function and serve as deacon to the world, with the ultimate goal of the salvation of souls, many parts must work in harmony with one another. It is not about power. It is not about prestige or honor or even responsibility. It is about serving the world. Or at least it should be.

The human body is not governed by democratic principles. The hands do not choose to become hands in the womb. The mouth, eyes and ears don’t get a choice either. Each is given its place, and its role, in the body by their creator. It is not a question of fairness nor equality nor diversity, it just is. Just as it is with the human body, it is the same with the Body of Christ.

We get so hung up on who does what in the Church. Instead, rejoice in the wonderfulness of the Spirit of God that directs everything we do. The Spirit does not divide, He unifies. Everyone is given his or her specific gifts, and is called to use and express those gifts for the benefit of the entire Church. We get so worried and concerned about roles and titles and prestige, honor and power, on who has it and who doesn’t, and in doing so we get in the way of God’s plan for us and the world.

Remember that even the apostles argued amongst themselves about who was the greatest. Jesus admonished them that the greatest should be the least among them, the servants of the rest. Instead of jostling and positioning for the best seats at the banquet they should be fighting over the lowest. Instead of worrying and complaining that I am being discriminated against because this person can do this or that thing and I can’t, I should be rejoicing that God has chosen someone to do it, for the good of the Church, and she is doing it so well.

We are each called to submit to the needs of others. That is what humility is. Humbling ourselves and offering the unique spiritual and temporal gifts to one another should be how we compete. Who can be the kindest? Who can be the best stewards of the gifts that God has given us? Who can most closely model Jesus?

Our wants and desires oftentimes have nothing to do with what we are called to do and who we are called to be. Just because you would like to become a doctor does not mean you have what it takes to study, prepare, and practice medicine. I know I couldn’t do that. I don’t have the right to be a doctor just because I think I should be one. I remember Bishop Neiderauer telling my formation class that we should have such a submissive attitude that if he came to us six months before ordination and told us that he had discerned that we were not being called to the diaconate we should be disappointed but not crushed by the news.

I believe that we should be constantly discerning God’s will and plan for us in all our roles. Are you called to marriage or the single life? Are you called to the priesthood or diaconate? Are you called to be a parent? What career should you choose? Should you change jobs at this stage in your career and why or why not? Should you move to another state or country? So often we spend more time working on our resumes than we do trying to discern our true calling in the world. It would be so much easier if we relinquished control.

We are such take-charge people, aren’t we? We like to plan out everything in our lives. We plan our vacations to the nth degree. We sock away our retirement funds for the future. We post our profiles on online dating services so that algorithms can find the perfect match for us. God laughs at our plans, doesn’t he? His plan for you is probably not what you had in mind. We see the greatest goal in life as our own personal happiness, and we think we know what will make us happy. But unhappiness and unfulfillment and lack of joy comes when we try to live according to our plan, not His.

The only way we can be happy, truly happy, is if we submit. Every member of the body is necessary for its proper functioning. There is no insignificant part. Find your role, accept your role, and embrace your role. You’ll never deserve it, but you are called by Christ to do it. That’s what it means to be a disciple.

First, understand and accept that you have been given these gifts. St. Paul says everyone has them. Then, pray. Make prayer a central part of your life. Actively pray, fervently pray for guidance and support. Actively discern your gifts, then cultivate and grow them. Ask others what they think you are being called to. Use your gifts with all your enthusiasm and energy. Live an attitude of diaconia. See yourself as a humble steward of those gifts, and always focus on other people. Be a true servant leader.

If you do these things, you will find your place in the Church and in the world. There is so much at stake. Your own personal salvation and the renewal of the face of the Earth. For us Christians, this is not optional. God has a plan for each and every one of us, and I truly believe that until we find that place and then submit completely to it we will never be happy. We will be fighting our own natures and fighting against God.

That’s a battle we cannot win.

Apocalypse Now

33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

DN 12:1-3

Heb 10:11-14, 18

Mk 13:24-32

We are nearing the end of the liturgical year, and so our readings take a turn to the future. At the end, we focus on the end. Jesus spoke so many times of the end times, of the second coming of the Son of Man. And to the Jews of the first century, this made perfect sense, because they were people looking for deliverance. They were actively searching for a messiah, someone who would deliver them from Roman oppression. One reason the disciples believed Jesus to be the promised messiah was his constant references to and predictions of the coming judgement. And that judgement was not one of punishment but of restoring justice to the world. The judgement of the Son of Man was the restoration of what once was, of setting things right.

Books like the Prophet Daniel and Revelation were written during times of great persecution and distress. They use very symbolic language not necessarily to explain what was happening to the people at that time but to give them hope. Their distress was being caused by powerful political forces, by the superpowers of their time. What the authors of these books were trying to convey was the fact that no matter how mighty earthly powers may be, God is more powerful. No matter how much the rulers of this world think they are in control, God is actually the one calling the shots.

Take the first reading for today, from the Book of Daniel. We heard about a time unsurpassed in distress. We heard that Michael, our prince, the great archangel, joins us in the battle against evil. The name Michael comes from three short Hebrew words: Mi-Ka-El: Who Like God?  The ancient kings who ruled when Daniel was written were considered to be gods. So the prophet’s response is Mi-Ka-El? Who is like God? The answer, of course, is no one. God is the Source who has no source. He is the Light all light comes from. He is the one in charge.

The reading speaks about the end of time and the final judgement of the world. We heard that those whose names are written in God's book will escape the destruction coming upon mankind. We learned that the wise shall shine brightly and those who lead many to justice will be like the stars forever.

Those who lead many to justice will shine like the stars forever. This is where the readings about the end of time become less about something we hope will be in the far future and more about the way that we are living our faith now. We need to lead the many to justice. Biblical justice is more than fair treatment in a courtroom. In the bible, justice means living so united to God that our decisions reflect his presence.

We are called to lead others to justice. We are called to help them see his presence in our actions, our care for the poor, the struggling, the sick, and all who are dependent on our compassion. Pope St. Paul VI, proclaimed, "If you want peace, work for justice." This message has animated many areas of the Catholic Church, particularly the Catholic Campaign for Human Development here in the United States. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Relief Services, the Diocesan Development Drive, missions in Haiti, Africa and throughout the world, the Peace Corps, Doctors Without Borders, and so many other charitable organizations are examples of the wise shining brightly. These organizations of charity exist because there are people of faith in the world, people whose faith is so strong that no matter what horrors have been or are being thrust upon the world, they firmly believe that God will win the final battle against evil. 

Pope Benedict said, "the question of justice constitutes the essential argument - or in any case the strongest argument - in favor of faith in eternal life." True justice may be rare in this life, but eternal life is justice itself. Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. In today's Gospel we see that after judgment Jesus will gather his elect. If we begin with that end in mind, then wouldn’t we want to know how we become part of the elect? That's the big question. In some ways, the only question. We should want to live as children of the light. Turn to God and renounce those things people do under the cover of darkness. We all bear a burden of shame. Don't run from it; take it to Jesus. Turn to him. As we hear in the second reading, he has offered one sacrifice for sin. In Jesus we can make a new beginning.

The disciples were very concerned about the end times. Mark’s gospel was the first written and that generation took Jesus at his word that he would return before some of them had even died. When the apostles started dying off they had to re-think Jesus’ words to see how they applied to them in particular.

Of course, two thousand years on, the people of today don't think like those early disciples. We tend to have the opposite problem; our temptation today is to think that the world will exist for thousands more years. Believing this we tend not to think too much about the end of the world or even for that matter about the end of our own lives. Like the disciples, we need to re-think Jesus’ words to see how they apply to us in particular.

But we need to prepare for our death, we need to put our lives in order, we need to confess our sins, we need to get ourselves in shape from a spiritual point of view so that we are ready to meet our maker whenever that day comes. But our death and the Final Judgement, while it is something we need to prepare for, is not something that we should be afraid of. Indeed, it is the very opposite, it is something we should hope for, something we should rejoice in. Pessimism is not the Christian attitude. Christians are optimists. Jesus Christ became one of us, died for us, gave us his life, and offers a personal relationship to each of us. He actually came so that we could be part of the elect.

This generation may or may not be around for the second coming of Christ. However, we can experience the second coming in our current life by keeping our eyes open and being aware of Jesus’ presence in our lives each and every day. By living lives of justice we can bring the hope of Jesus’ actual second coming to all those we come in contact with. That is the role of a disciple, that is the good news of the gospel.

This Thanksgiving be grateful for the gift of justice. This Advent and Christmas season commit yourself to performing works of justice. Go to confession and be at peace. Give a little bit more to church and charity. Surprise the people around you with simple gifts – a smile, a touch, an unexpected phone call. Reconcile with an estranged friend or family member. In a word, be the second coming of Jesus in their lives…for now.

Servant Leadership

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

IS 53:10-11

Heb 4:14-16

Mk 10:35-45

There is a principle of leadership that is popular today called servant leadership. Robert K. Greenleaf first coined the phrase in his 1970 essay, "The Servant as a Leader." As a servant leader, you're a "servant first" – you focus on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. It is a management style that, while it does have a kinder, more moral focus, is still ultimately intended to get better results from managing people. The focus is still on the bottom line, not necessarily the well being of the employees. There are entire institutes and training programs that people pay thousands of dollars to attend to learn the simple principle that people follow leaders who do not lord it over them, who put their interests ahead of their own.

I find it funny and a bit ironic that all the references I’ve read on servant leadership make it seem like it is a new innovation, almost revolutionary, when the idea goes back 2000 years. Jesus was the ultimate people leader, after all. He stated many times that the Son of Man came to serve, not to be serve. He said that the first among you must serve the rest. He washed his disciples’ feet at the last supper and told them to do the same to one another.

There’s a lot of talk these days in the Church about clericalism. Pope Francis keeps talking about it as being at the core of the crisis in the church today. He talks a lot about leaders being too interested in power and prestige, in enforcing strict rules on their people rather than humbly meeting their everyday needs with compassion and understanding. They need to get out of their nice houses and smell like the sheep. Francis thinks that clerics at all levels have lost sight of the type of servant leadership Jesus talks about in today’s gospel. This has led them to believe the rules don’t apply to them, that they can do horrendous acts without consequences, and that this attitude is what has been at the center of the scandals that surround us.

I have a bit of experience in this. It’s hard sometimes to remain humble as a cleric in the Catholic Church. People tend to put clerics on a pedestal. Luckily, permanent deacons aren’t thought of the same way priests and bishops are. I think many people are still trying to figure out who we are and what we do. But still, people defer to us. They call us by our titles and see us serving at the altar, preaching and working with the poor and the sick, and so we are given a certain level of respect that I didn’t get before I was ordained.

Priests are given even more deference. Maybe it comes from the respect that was drummed into us as children. When I was in grade school the pastor would come by our classroom once a week, and we all had to stand up when he entered the room and politely listen to him. Our parents spoke of the priests respectfully, and we all seemed to recognize that these guys in black were special in some way. Some seemed grave and serious, others had a sense of peace surrounding them. There were so few of them compared to us, they dressed differently, and at Mass, they were up there and we were down here. The awesome ability to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ gave them an aura of the divine.

So, I think we the people have something to do with clericalism, too. It’s we who set up those pedestals oftentimes, and put our priests and bishops on them whether they like it or not. It can be hard to remain humble when people treat you as being special. Just like celebrities start to believe their own publicity, clerics can get caught up in the prestige and trappings of the vocation at the expense of smelling like the sheep.

The way the church is organized has a lot to do with the style of leadership priests have, I think. The pastor of the parish really has a heck of a lot of autonomy. He is the ultimate decision maker, the one with all the authority and responsibility. And just like in the business world, it is easy to become autocratic when given all that power. I think also the frustrations of leading a parish, trying to get things done through so many volunteers, many of whom seem to do nothing but complain, can lead to a more dictatorial style of leadership.

And it is even more difficult for the bishops. Bishops have all the authority and responsibility in the diocese. They are very visible, they preside at all the major liturgies and functions, they’re quoted in the press. And in most dioceses, the people rarely meet or spend time with their bishop outside of the confirmations he performs. We view them oftentimes more like politicians than shepherds, and sometimes they act like it, too.

I believe that most clerics feel called to servant leadership and truly strive to serve rather than dictate, but just like James and John in today’s gospel, we sometimes seek power rather than service.

Poor James and John, they go to Jesus asking for positions of power and they get suffering instead. They practically demand that Jesus give them the most prestigious positions among not just the apostles but all of humanity. What hubris. And instead Jesus gives them a choice. Can they accept the baptism of suffering and death that Jesus has accepted for himself? They have no idea what he is really referring to. They do not know what this baptism is, but they figure, if they say yes they’ll get what they want, so they agree. So Jesus says, ok, you’ve got it, but sorry, you don’t get the good stuff you asked for. You really aren’t as important as you think you are.

But then, if you think about it, Jesus did give them what they asked for, because he gave them the same thing he had. Jesus, the greatest servant of them all, was willing to give so totally of himself that he would take the sins of all humanity upon himself, and suffer and die to wipe them out. His total emptying of himself, accepting the ultimate humiliation of dying on a cross for the salvation of the world, actually made him the greatest person who ever lived. By accepting weakness he was made so powerful that he triumphed even over death itself. He was offering James and John that same power. By humbling themselves they would gain eternal life.

Jesus smacked James and John pretty hard, and their fellow apostles didn’t like their attitude much either. But he did it out of love. He used their arrogance as a chance to instruct them in how they should all behave. We are called to do the same with one another. It has been my experience that whenever I get a bit arrogant and self-important, God sends something my way to knock me down a peg or two. It may be the loss of some important position I was expecting to receive, or the failure of one of my initiatives. Many times it is one of you taking it to me, sometimes none too gently.

Clericalism isn’t just for clerics. The people can also be arrogant and condescending to their clerics and to one another. This group feels they know the really proper and true way to worship. That group thinks they know more theology than the priest or deacon, and they tell him so. Most don’t give the priest a thought other than when they see him on Sunday. They are quick to complain and gossip but rarely try to get to know him or ask him what his intent was behind what he said or did. When was the last time you thanked your priest for his dedication to your wellbeing and salvation? When was the last time you told him you were moved by his homily rather than write a nasty letter to the bishop about one you didn’t agree with? When was the last time you invited him over to your house for dinner to get to know him?

We are all called to be servants to one another. Just as our leaders are called to serve us, we are called to serve them. Not out of some misplaced awe of the hierarchy but out of love for them and appreciation for what they do. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every member of the church truly lived the life of a servant? Wouldn’t it be great if we could put aside all the power trips and prestige-seeking and condescension towards those we disagree with and just concentrate on modeling Jesus? What would the world be like if we could all forgive one another as we have been forgiven?

As St. Paul said, it is when I am weak that I am the strongest. The most influential and revered saints in history have been the most humble. And throughout our history, whenever the Church has been in crisis, that’s when we see our greatest saints. We just celebrated the feast of one of them, St. Francis of Assisi. As it says in the prayer attributed to him:

O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.