Single Minded

 

31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Dt. 6:2-6

Heb 7:23-28

Mk 12: 28b-34

 

What motivates you? What is the most important thing in your life, the one thing you cannot do without, the one thing that really defines you? What would you be willing to give everything else up to obtain?

 

I myself have a hard time defining what that is. Maybe it’s my personality. I am not a particularly driven person. I do not throw myself fully into my career or a project or even any of my many roles. I am more of a generalist. I like to do a lot of things and many things interest me, but I do not get my sense of purpose out of the things I do. I tend to get it out of my relationships. Maybe you’re same way or maybe you do have things in your life that you are so passionate about that nothing else matters. If you do I envy you in a way, because I think the people who make the most difference in the world are those who can be single minded.

 

I hear passages like these this today and wonder if it is even possible to be so single minded. How can I love God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my strength? Wouldn’t that mean there’s no room for anything else? There is so much going on in my life that demands my attention. I find it difficult enough to love those closest to me with that much devotion and focus. There are so many things that excite me, that make me feel good, and so many other things that worry me, that take up so much energy. How can I even take the time to focus so much of myself on God? And why does God demand such attention and devotion?

 

I would think that many of you are driven by certain goals, goals that you do devote all your heart, mind, soul and strength to. Lofty, important goals. Many of you are very successful in your careers and have acquired lots of wonderful things along the way that are signs of your success. I imagine you have to sacrifice a lot of things to do whatever it takes to get you what you really feel is important in life. But does that make you happy? Is that all there is? Are we really focused on what is truly our purpose here in life? These are questions I hope we all struggle with.

 

And I struggle with this a lot. I can understand how someone can be so driven and focused on earthly things like a career or relationships, but how can we be so focused on a God we cannot see, on a God that is so often overshadowed by all those other things we focus on in our lives? Those things are front and center. I don’t always see God that starkly or obviously. God stuff floats in and out of my thoughts and my days. Sometimes I think of him throughout the day but oftentimes He is pushed into the background by the whirlwind of my life.

 

I spent some time this week pondering what types of people are single minded. I thought of athletes, especially those at high levels whose goal is to win a championship or a gold medal. They visualize themselves winning that medal, they work with coaches and train using the latest techniques and eat special diets. Top athletes have to be that obsessed and focused in order to succeed.

 

I thought of priests and bishops and people living the consecrated life, especially monks. Their days and nights are caught up in God stuff, in prayer and sacrament, service, being there for the people. God is their job, they don’t have all the other things the rest of us do to distract us, right? God is front and center for them all day long, so it’s easier for them.

 

I thought of lovers, especially those in the early stages of their relationships, when all they can think about is their beloved, and it actually hurts physically when they are apart. I thought of those who are suffering. Suffering can really focus you. And I thought of their caregivers, who are focused on the love they have for the person they are caring for. When you have to take care of someone, especially someone who is helpless, you go to extraordinary lengths to organize your life and your time. They become the center of your life.

 

This last week Nancy and I had our one-year old grandson staying with us while our son and his wife were on a trip. Boy, I had forgotten how all-consuming having a toddler is. We had to rearrange our entire lives for him, from baby proofing the house to giving up some of the activities we had wanted to do, to feeding, changing and playing with him on his schedule, not ours. We could never let him out of our sight. Even when he was asleep we listened to him on the baby monitor. I began to see how I might begin to devote all my heart, all my mind, all my strength to someone.

 

And I also witnessed single mindedness in him as he constantly fixated on the dog’s water bowl. Every time we would take him away from it he just crawled back to it, again and again and again. He was obsessed. Maybe that’s what Jesus was talking about when he said that we will not enter the Kingdom unless we become like little children.

 

Can I be obsessed with God? Can I grow in love for Him so that no matter what sidetracks me I keep crawling back, again and again and again? I hope I can. But it will require me giving up all those other things that I have thought to be important and submit to what God wants for my life. It will require not just setting the proper priorities but actually removing and reducing the things that keep me from focusing on God alone. Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all its righteousness, and everything else will come to us. Like an athlete, those are the fundamentals we need to master before everything else can happen. We need to lay the foundation of our relationship with God first and firmly, and not worry about the rest so much. It will happen if we submit to His divine will.

 

Both Moses and Jesus ties that submission to understanding and keeping God’s commandments. God ties happiness to keeping his commandments because they are all about how we are to live in relationship, both with God and with one another. We will be happy if we do not steal, kill, covet, or be unfaithful, and other people will also be happy if we don’t do those things. The commandments are natural and true and how we were created to live. If we live as we are created to live then we will be happy. Moses says today that we will grow and prosper the more. Jesus says that if we keep the commandments we will be close to the Kingdom of God.

 

I find it interesting that Jesus does not say that the second commandment is also to love your neighbor with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and with all your strength. He only says to love your neighbor as yourself. But that assumes the same single mindedness we must have for God when it comes to our neighbor. And it also assumes you love yourself with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and with all your strength.

 

It’s all tied together.  Because if you love your neighbor you can’t help but love God. If you love God you cannot help but love your neighbor. If you truly loved yourself as you should you would be loving God. If you love God and your neighbor you will be loving yourself.

 

What motivates you? What is the most important thing in your life, the one thing you cannot do without, the one thing that really defines you? What would you be willing to give everything else up to obtain? Is it God? Is God that important to you? Is life eternal with God the most worthwhile goal you could have? Is it worth giving it all you’ve got?

 

Believe it or not, you and your life are the most important thing to God. God loves you with all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his strength. You are the one thing God chooses not to do without. He was willing to give up his very life for you so that you could have the chance to live forever with Him. That’s God’s goal for you. All you have to do is accept it as your own.

 

 

Go Big!

 

26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Nm 11:25-29
Jas 5:1-6
Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

You know, He’s a big god.

Let’s talk a bit about the difference between ideology and theology.

Ideology is a set of principles or beliefs upon which a political system, party or organization is based. And I guess your definition of what makes an ideology good or bad depends on your point of view. We all have our ideologies, we all have a set of principles or beliefs that we hold together with other people, and I think in many ways they bind our society together and keep us connected to one another. That’s a good thing, in general. However, when an ideology becomes more than that and we let it define our self-image and self-expression then that can be unhealthy. People who blindly hold and profess strong beliefs in an ideology are called idealogues. Again, whether or not you think that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view, but generally we see idealogues as being rigid, dogmatic, and stubborn.

Theology is faith seeking understanding. Theology begins with the humble acknowledgment that we can never truly know the nature of God because God is so other than us, so transcendent. Theology is faith seeking understanding, not faith defining understanding. And theology also has a strong basis in reason and the reality of the created world and persons. It is not blind but actually very open. Theologians really just offer a different way of seeing things, of journeying to God. They will never get to the final answer, at least not in this lifetime. We are all theologians, even though few of us have degrees. We are all taking the faith that we have been given and doing our best to make sense of it and apply it to our lives.

While it is very easy for ideology to become exclusionary and closed, theology  should be more open and broad minded. It is very easy for an ideologue to become convinced that theirs is the correct and true and only way to think, believe and act. Idealogues are so sure of themselves. Theologians are comfortable with ambiguity. Theologians should be willing to be surprised.

Theology is a journey while ideology can come to a sudden, immovable conclusion. We heard it in today’s readings. Stop them, Moses, they’re not part of those of us special people God has chosen to prophesy. Stop them Lord, because they are not part of our little band of apostles. Who do they think they are? The end result may have been the same – the people prophesized and the demons were expelled – but they didn’t do it like we would have. They don’t know you like we do. We are the special ones. We have the secret knowledge and they don’t. Both Moses and Jesus rebuked that way of thinking.

“Whoever’s not with us is against us” seems to be a theme in our society today. We are so polarized. Our political parties are divided, we are split by ethnic group, religion, and class. And we think that we have all the right answers and those who disagree with us, well, it’s either us or them. It’s either/or, black and white, good vs. evil. We believe we have the truth and are beset by people actively opposed to who we are and what we stand for. There is antagonism between ourselves and the others. It’s personal. This is the attitude of idealogues in today’s world. If you don’t think like we do you must be against us. And if that is the case you must be stopped, even destroyed, because you are a threat to us.

But Jesus didn’t say “whoever’s not with us is against us.” He said, “If someone is not against us they’re for us. It may seem like a subtle difference but it’s really not. His is a much bigger idea. It assumes no malice on the part of those who aren’t technically part of our group. It assumes good intent and hope. There are many more people who are not actively against us than are. And while there surely are those who wish Christians ill, most people I think are simply ambivalent or misinformed or ignorant of the gospel. Jesus is saying that there is hope for all those who are not part of the inner circle. They too can enter in.

You know, it’s a big church!

Even within the Church it’s easy sometimes to get caught up in our own little pius thoughts and practices and think that our way of devotion is the only way or the best way. The apostles were like that to a certain extent. They had Jesus all to themselves, and they got jealous when someone else modeled Jesus’ behavior in a way different than theirs. Remember that these were the same guys we heard last week arguing about who among them was the greatest. But even though those other disciples were not part of the twelve, they were still part of the church. Even though those Jewish elders were outside the camp they were still part of the tribe.

I guarantee you that as I have been speaking of ideology and idealogues you have immediately thought that it applies to someone or some group that you are not a part of. You probably thought of a politician or bishop or priest or political party, or even that co-worker who has the wrong bumper sticker on his car. It’s always the other guy, isn’t it, who’s misguided or wrong? We’re doing it right. We are the right thinkers. It’s never us who are the idealogues. But that kind of thinking is exactly what defines idealogues. And so often that attitude causes us to close our hearts not only to what other people are saying or doing, but to people themselves. We paint entire groups of people with the same broad brush, most of the time negatively, and then wonder why they do the same to us.

We should be theologians not idealogues. In the end ideology is more about me than about you. If I’m right then you’re wrong, I’m good and you’re not. It’s easy to hide behind such absolutes, because we feel good about ourselves when we think we have a special knowledge or position. And all too often throughout history we have seen those absolutes ultimately end in violence and oppression. In the end theology is all about the other. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus commanded us. That is the definition of a disciple when you strip everything else away. That’s what we need to hear in order to understand our faith more fully.

The psalmist says, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

We are all called to have open minds and open hearts. We’re all dealing with our own struggles and problems and issues, and yet we are all part of the same tribe of disciples. We’re all in this together. And those folks on the periphery, who are not actively against us but really don’t yet know what they are for or against, are we to write them off as wrong thinkers and outsiders, simply because they aren’t in the same place as us in our faith journey? Of course not. That is what it means to be a prophet. To bring those people into the camp.

We are all called to be prophets through our baptism. The beginning of prophesy is openness to the voice of the Lord. You cannot pass on the word of the Lord if you first do not listen to it and then accept your own individual commission from God to pass it on to those around you. Don’t worry about anybody else. Instead, rejoice that the Lord has bestowed his spirit on so many. Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all! Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? What would the world be like if everyone spoke out the truth of the gospel and then helped one another to live it fully!

It’s a big world, and a big task, but God is bigger.

 

The Care and Feeding of Priests

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Jer 23:1-6

Eph 2:13-18

Mk 6:30-34

 

Today we hear some damning words against the shepherds of the flock in ancient Israel from the prophet Jeremiah. Remember that Jeremiah was the prophet before, during and after the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people by the Babylonians. He is called the weeping prophet, and his message is often one of woe and warning. In a lot of ways he blamed the actions of the leaders for the suffering of the people. So, it’s easy to understand why he slammed them so harshly. Jeremiah is not the only prophet who chastises ineffective or even dangerous shepherds, and we have been both blessed and cursed with both good and bad shepherds since the time of the apostles.

 

The image of sheep and shepherds is a common one throughout the scriptures, not just in the gospels. Shepherds were a paradoxical group of people in the ancient world. They were both celebrated and despised. They served a very important function, but they did so with a very dirty group of animals. Not only were sheep a great source of wool and meat, they also served a vital function in the sacrificial life of the temple. But they were dirty and smelly, and as Pope Francis has famously said, the shepherds need to smell like the sheep, and so they probably weren’t so pleasant to be around.

 

The shepherds would live amongst the sheep, apart from the community. Oftentimes they would huddle together for warmth at night. The job of the shepherd was to watch over the sheep, to gently guide them to food and water, to keep them together in one flock. But the shepherd was also called to defend the sheep from predators, to fight off attacks, to kill the predator if necessary, even give their life for the sheep. The shepherd was not some wimpy kid who ran away at the first sign of trouble. He was a strong man who was intimately involved in the wellbeing of the sheep. They were his livelihood and probably the most valuable things he possessed. And so he defended and cared for them as if they were his children.

 

The sheep on the other hand were, well, sheep. We think of sheep as being docile, not very bright creatures, who can’t take care of themselves. All they do is eat and drink and bleat a lot. They are prey, not predator, and have no real defense against danger other than huddling together in numbers. They are powerless and sort of just wander about aimlessly, unaware of what is happening around them until they are threatened. Not a very complimentary analogy for us, is it?

 

There is always a tension between leaders and followers in every society, church, organization and group, isn’t there? The people always seem to need and the leaders always seem to fail at giving them what they need in some way or other. Rarely do the people universally acknowledge that this leader or that has generally been good and effective. The sheep always seem to have something to complain about. They never seem to be happy or want to take responsibility for themselves They demand a heck of a lot from their shepherds, and rarely can the shepherds live up to their expectations.

 

We do seem to have a love hate relationship with our leaders, and them with us. For example, we make jokes about and complain about politicians as a group, it seems, but we still get a bit of a thrill when we meet our senator or governor or the president personally. And I think it’s the same way with our spiritual shepherds. You may not like or agree with your bishop or cardinal or even the pope, but it’s still pretty cool if you get to shake his hand and say that you met him.

 

Jesus himself was not acknowledged as good and effective by all during his time, and even today most people still find fault with him and his disciples. In today’s gospel we see the people being so demanding of him that he didn’t even have time to eat. Jesus took the apostles off to a deserted place so they could rest. The Good Shepherd was shepherding the shepherds. But the people would not let them rest. When people are hungry, they’ll do whatever it takes to get fed. No matter how the shepherds feel, the sheep don’t care. They just want to be fed. And the good shepherds continue to feed them, even when they’re tired or don’t feel like it.

We expect our priests to do it all for us. We want them to preside at Mass, perform weddings and baptisms when we want them to, on our schedules. We want them beside our hospital beds and gravesites. We want them to remember our names and our birthdays. We want them there to heal our broken marriages and help us raise our rebellious children. We want them to make us feel welcome and special. We expect them to run our parishes like efficient small businesses, paying the bills on time without ever having to ask us for money on Sundays. We want them live up to the highest standards of discipleship that we rarely hold ourselves to.

And you know what, all that’s exactly what our priests want to do. That’s why they became priests, and hopefully they entered the priesthood with open eyes. They knew what would be demanded of them. That’s why Anthony is here with us this year. They want to gently teach us and guide us in the truth and treat everyone with mercy and compassion. They want to smell like the sheep and be an intimate part of our lives. They want to show courage and strength in defending us from those who would cause us harm and lead us astray. They desperately want to keep us unified and whole around the truth of the gospel. But they need our help to do so.

We talk a lot about what a good shepherd is, but not so much about what it means to be a good sheep. You cannot learn what it means to be a good shepherd just by studying it in seminary or by being ordained. You learn how to be a shepherd directly from your sheep. Our former pastor, Fr. Bob, told me once that the Church ordained him a priest, but his people made him a pastor. And I can relate to that as a deacon. Much of what I have learned and experienced in my vocation has come from the joys and hard lessons learned in my interactions with my people. We are formed as shepherds through experiencing the amazing love and care we receive from our people, and also through the many mistakes we make in dealing with you. Sometimes the corrections we receive are subtle and other times they hit us right between the eyes. You become a good shepherd by making mistakes, by sometimes unwittingly hurting the sheep, by being horrified when you learn about it, and by being forgiven by those you have hurt.

That’s called wisdom, I guess, and a wise shepherd is probably the one who has been forgiven a lot. And I think that receiving forgiveness is the highest experience of love. We are all sheep and are all shepherds in many ways. And each role requires a deep level of self-awareness and humility if we are to really live them fully. Many people do not want to be sheep. They do not want to be led, or they see themselves as being greater or smarter or wiser than the shepherds. Many shepherds can be arrogant and inflexible and lord it over the sheep. We all make mistakes in our roles, yet we all need to want to live according to the gospels in all our relationships.

If we expect our leaders to have courage and protect us from attacks from without and within, we need to have that same courage when dealing with our shepherds. There have been many times in the history of the Church when some shepherds were incompetent and some outright evil. But today for the most part I don’t think there are many shepherds who knowingly want to lead the flock astray. They are sincere in their interpretations of the gospel, even though they might veer off course from time to time. Just like the rest of us, they have a worldview and a point of view when it comes to discipleship, the church, and its teachings, and that flavors their beliefs and the way they deal with others. We are all products of our upbringing and life experiences. The job of all disciples is to be sufficiently informed about the truth of the church’s teachings, and then to compassionately correct one another when we go astray. The bishops discuss and debate and work out policies and statements, bishops help their priests and deacons, priests and deacons work things out amongst themselves. And the laity are called to have the courage to speak out also. We are all struggling to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. Everybody wants to be treated with compassion and mercy. The sheep deserve this and so do the shepherds.

So, first shepherd yourself. Allow yourself to be a sheep and be led. Take time to get better yourself by truly studying your faith and making it central to who you are. Then shepherd your family, especially your children. Look at the issues that affect your family through your eyes of faith. Fulfill the promises you made at your children’s baptisms by fully integrating your family into the life of your parish, especially by participating in the Mass. Shepherd your fellow Christians through fellowship and by sharing in each other’s joys and sorrows. Lovingly admonish one another and give each other effective feedback. Never gossip. Cut each other some slack and remember that you will be forgiven by God in the same measure that you have forgiven others. Finally, shepherd your shepherds, humbly and with great compassion. If you have questions about why they are doing something, ask them about it. Don’t assume the worst intentions. If they have hurt you, tell them. I guarantee you they are unaware of what they have done. If they have caused you joy, tell them. They are probably unaware that they had done that, too. Did I say never gossip?

 

I believe that a large part of what keeps many of us Catholic are our personal relationships with our priests. And I truly believe that much of what keeps our clergy faithful is their relationships with their people. How many of you have more than a cursory relationship with your priests? So many come through the doors, give a little nod or a wave, and then never try to get to know the priest. Have you ever met your bishop? When was the last time you invited them to a meal? Our shepherds so desire to smell like their sheep, but so often we don’t allow them to. Be aware of them, care for them, forgive them, and pray for them.

 

Because that’s what they do for you.