Tag Archives: servant leadership

Christ, Be Our Light!

11 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Bible Reflections, Charity, Christian Community, Evangelization, Grace, Hope, Love, Mercy, Prayer, Scripture

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As our deacon read the Gospel this morning at mass I couldn’t help but smile and look up to the crucifix hanging above the altar. I nodded to Jesus and uttered, “Thank you, Lord.” The Gospel reading for the day was Luke 10:25-37 which contained Jesus’ response to the scholar of the law about the Greatest Commandment:

27”You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

and the Parable of the Good Samaritan:

30Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. (A priest and a Levite passed him by and offered no help)…. 33But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. 34He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he…. took him to an inn and cared for him…..36[Jesus asked], Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robber’s victim?” 37He [the scholar] answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Our priest gave his homily and spoke of the recent violence in Dallas, Texas. He referred to this passage from Luke and reminded us that all lives matter, that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are all neighbors and, in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we all deserve mercy. Once again, I looked to the Lord, smiled and said, “Thank you!”

The hymn sung during the presentation of the gifts was one of my favorites, Christ, Be Our Light! As I sung the following words to verse two I closed my eyes and whispered, “Thank you, again, Lord! I’m getting the message!”:

“Longing for peace, our world is troubled. Longing for hope, many despair. Your word alone has power to save us, Make us your living voice. (Chorus) Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness. Christ, be our light! Shine in Your Church gathered today.”

These three, the gospel, homily and hymn were the perfect prelude for the next four days. Today through next Wednesday ten of us from our parish, five adults and five youths, will be serving our neighbors in need in one of the poorest areas of our country, Appalachian Eastern Kentucky.

This is my third year in a row to work with Hand in Hand Ministries at their Auxier Center in Floyd County, Kentucky, and the second time to chaperone a youth group. HHM is an excellent organization serving the needs of the community by coordinating and managing projects so that volunteers like us can work to improve the living conditions of those most in need.

But, the physical work we do is secondary to the real mission: to build up individuals and families whose spirit may have been broken as a result of their poverty; to build relationships with them which, by hearing their voice, will ease their loneliness; and by giving them hope by being Christ’s hands and feet to them. It’s a beautiful thing.

As our priest blessed the ten of us after mass, I thought of our five charges and prayed, “Lord Jesus, give us the Grace to lead these kids with understanding, let us demonstrate Your mercy by being merciful, and, as we are trying to be Your hands and feet to those whom we serve, give us the Grace to see You in them. Amen.”

(Christ, Be Our Light! was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

©2016 Reflections of a Lay Catholic. Reposting and sharing of material in its full and original content is permitted, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author(s) and Reflections of a Lay Catholic.

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The Rotten Tree

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in Bible Reflections

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This week finds me on the road for business again, specifically in Nashville, Tennessee, for two days and nights. After a long day of meetings I chose not to join my co-workers this evening at the restaurant where we usually go because I didn’t want to overindulge on their generous portions and delicious food. I am trying to minimize the opportunities for temptation to seize me. So, instead, I decided to make a trip to Kroger and purchase a healthier and more appropriately sized meal.

On the way to Kroger I happened to pass by the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. This in itself was sort of a serendipitous event because, for a city the size of Nashville, there really aren’t very many Catholic churches. The sign out front announced there was a Wednesday evening mass at 6:00 p.m., which was only 20 minutes away. My first thought was how attending mass would be a wonderful way to de-stress and refresh from a day of learning we would have to do more with already stretched resources. My second thought was how once again, through a “God-moment”, He shows up just when I need Him.

I parked, found my way to the front door, and entered the church. I was the first one in the church other than the lector, who was practicing his reading, so I knelt and got some good prayer time in. When mass started I was one of nine people in the congregation.

The first reading came from 2 Kings but, between my hard-hearing and the lector’s soft voice, I failed to grasp most of the reading. Then, the pastor of Holy Rosary, Rev. Mark Hunt, delivered the gospel for the day, loudly and clearly such that I could hear each word:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire. So by the fruits you will know them.” – Matthew 7:15-20

Well, I don’t know about you but it always takes some dedicated effort on my part, or stooping to ask someone else, to get straight in my mind what Jesus meant in some of his parables. Just after I had resigned myself to stew on this later this evening, Fr. Mark delivered his homily with a message that helped explain it for me. I feel obligated to share with you the salient part of his homily in the best rendition I can muster:

“One day a man invited his boss to his home for dinner with him and his family. The boss was the type who had worked hard for his position but held himself in very high esteem and often let his employees know just how highly he regarded himself. After a fine dinner with the man, his wife and his son, during which the boss repeatedly expounded on his many accomplishments, the boss became aware of the boy staring at him. Not used to receiving this kind of treatment, the boss asked, ‘Excuse me lad, why are you staring at me?’ The son answered, ‘My dad says you are a self-made man.’ The boss, puffing up his chest, responded, ‘Yes, I am, but what is it about my success that is causing you to stare?’ ‘Well’, the son answered again, ‘I was just wondering why you made yourself such a jerk!’”

Thank you, Fr. Mark, for the lesson on the importance of humility, for explaining the difference between the good and bad trees, and the fruit that both bear. And, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you knew the boss I had back in ’95 and ’96!

“Heavenly Father, please forgive me for those times I have been a ‘rotten tree’ and have surely put on airs to impress myself and others. I beseech You to grace me with humility and a desire to serve others that allows me to be a ‘good tree’ from which may be harvested ‘good fruit’. Amen.”

  

(The post, The Rotten Tree, was first published in Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

Confession: Why Bother?

18 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Confession, Prayer, Reconciliation

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Psalm 25:11  “For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.”

Throughout late 2010 and into all of 2011, I worked to become a better spiritual leader to Elissa and my three daughters.  However, I struggled with the guilt of my past sins and prayed for guidance frequently.  The answer, of course, was in front of me every Saturday afternoon before 5:30 mass but I tried not to see it.  In December of 2011, God finally got through my thick skull that I needed to reconcile with Him by confessing my sins to Him through the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The confession of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others.  Through such an admission, man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.”

The problem was that I hadn’t been to confession in over 30 years and couldn’t even remember what to do.  I had to look up the rules on-line and re-memorize an act of contrition.  It seemed simple enough:  Walk in, say hello Father it has been 30 years since my last confession.  He’ll then ask me to state my sins.  I figured that might take awhile for me.  After that, he might ask me questions for clarification and then ask me to make an act of contrition, give me penance, and say a prayer of absolution.  Why was it so hard for me to step into the confessional?

During Advent of 2011, I finally worked up the nerve to go.  I did not tell Elissa in advance just in case I chickened out.  I went to 7 a.m. mass downtown at the cathedral, spoke with the priest after mass, and confessed the worst of my past.  When I was done, I felt a wave of relief and lightness in my soul that I had never felt before.  Elissa and I had always joked that if I ever went, the poor priest’s head would explode with all my sins.  I sent a simple text to Elissa “The priest’s head didn’t explode.”

Ephesians 4:22-24  “You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

Reconciliation brought me great relief and a renewed desire to grow in my faith.  It brought me closer to God, and made me want to amend my life in several ways.

Reconciliation made me want to grow in my faith.  I signed up for a Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) weekend in April 2012.  Hearing the stories of the men during my receiving weekend moved me deeply.  I realized that I was not alone in my troubles and that there was hope for a sinner like me.  I attended reconciliation that weekend and felt a new sense of peace.  I also did something I never thought I would do, join a CRHP giving team.  Those six months were a blessing in my life as I came to know, love, and respect all the men on my giving team.  Those blessings continued in March of 2013 when I joined several other men in Morristown, Tennessee to present CRHP for the very first time to 19 men at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.

Reconciliation made me want to be a better husband to Elissa.  To help with that, Elissa and I attended a marriage encounter weekend in May 2012.  If you have not gone to one, I highly recommend it.  We learned so much about each other, improved our communication, and renewed our commitment to each other.  During that weekend, we promised each other that we would try couples prayer.  Neither of us had much experience with spontaneous prayers said aloud.  I am happy to say that we have prayed together for a year now and it continues to bring us closer to each other and to God.

Reconciliation made me want to be a better father to my girls.  Dr. Meg Meeker, in her book, “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters” wrote, “Our daughters need the support that only fathers can provide—and if you are willing to guide your daughter, to stand between her and a toxic culture, to take her to a healthier place, your rewards will be unmatched…The only way you will alienate your daughter in the long-term is by losing her respect, failing to lead, or failing to protect her.  If you don’t provide for her needs, she will find someone else who will.”

In the summer of 2012, I started date night with Daddy for the girls.  Each month, one of my daughters picks an activity for just the two of us.  I have taken them to baseball games, fancy dinners at the Golden Lamb, and putt-putt golfing at the Web on Cincinnati-Dayton Road.  What we do together isn’t really the point.  What is important to the girls is that they get one-on-one time with their father.  I do this to try to demonstrate what love is to my girls so that as they get older they do not seek love from others in inappropriate ways.

Reconciliation made me want to be an active participant at our parish.  I did that by becoming a lector last year.  It has helped me focus on God’s word and set a leadership example to my wife and daughters.  One benefit I got from lectoring is that on August 26, 2012, I got to read Ephesians 5 to the congregation.  God spoke to me in August 2010 through that passage, urging me to serve my family by leading them to Him.  I read it from the heart because it has had such a strong and lasting impact on my marriage.

I am still a sinner, always will be, but with the sacrament of reconciliation and God’s grace, I can now confidently, and without hypocrisy, lead my family in our spiritual life.  I thank Him every day for another opportunity to do His will.

If you have avoided this sacrament, I encourage you to step out in faith and step into the confessional.  You will not regret it.

Spiritual Leadership of the Family

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

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At a Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) weekend in October 2012, I read the following passage from Philippians 2:1-11 to all men in the room:

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.  Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I chose this passage because it continued my witness theme of servant leadership.  In the secular world we think of leadership as telling people what to do and how to do it.  We expect people to follow us and meet our needs.  But a servant leader is just the opposite.  Our obligation is to find out what our family needs and and strive to meet those needs.  We should determine both their spiritual and physical needs.  Most importantly, however, are their spiritual needs.  There is no “one size fits all” for spiritual needs.  Some of our wives/families may need us to spend more time in prayer with them.  Some may want us to attend Mass more often.  Others may need us to encourage them to more ferverently pursue their faith.  For example, recently my wife was asked to take on a long-term leadership role of the women’s CRHP program.  While she may have had doubts about her fitness for the role, I believed that it was the right position for her because it would put her in a position to build up her faith and effect the faith journeys of other women.  So, I encouraged her to take the position and she did.

Our faith journeys are individual choices hopefully supported by our families and our faith/parish community.  We may not all share the same specific religious affiliation but I know we do share the same faith in God and our savior Jesus Christ.  Again, another personal example… One of my seven sisters and her husband are not Catholic.  However, they are two of the most God loving/worshiping people I know who have raised an outstanding son.  Joe is a true servant leader to my sister and their son.  When I start to get lazy in my leadership I look to Joe as my model.  When we spend time together discussing “religion,” we emphasize our common areas of faith rather than any differences in worship practices.  Reflecting on that last sentence, I really should do a better job building up that relationship.

To close this out, how can we be better spiritual leaders in our home?  My answer is that our needs must die to the needs of our family.  Jesus Christ literally died for us so that we might have a chance for eternal life.  The very least we can do is allow our needs to die to the greater spiritual needs of our family.  Spiritual leadership is encouraging our wives and family in the pursuit of a deeper relationship with God in whatever way they find most meaningful.