A Regular Joe: April 2016

Sunday, April 17, 2016

SECRET INGREDIENTS TO CREATING UNITY

New coaches, managers or team leaders are always curious to know the secret ingredients that create team unity. The secret is there is no secret. After working with teams for over 30 years, I have found that team unity is the result of two very important ingredients coming together:

Unity is created when people care about their team’s goal.
Unity is created when people care about their teammates.

That’s it—just two ingredients.[1]

In the Gospel Jesus makes it clear, “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me.” (Jn 10:27-28 NJB) Jesus desires to be united to us, forever, just as he is united with the Father, forever, which means we have to be united with each other, while we are on this earthly journey, to complete the team so that the team will function and achieve God’s goal for us, unity.

So the Gospel team goal “and the only work of religion is to create unity wherever we go. If you are not creating unity, you are part of the problem! You can come to Mass as much as you want and come to communion as often as you can, but if you are perpetuating, in any way, racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, rejecting or judging the broken, the lost, or the poor, you are making the choice not to be in communion”[2] with the team.

Paul and Barnabus speaking out boldly to this goal say, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you [the Jews, the chosen people] first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life” (Acts 13:46). This was the invitation to be participants in God’s team goal, but the Jews choose jealousy and violent abuse, to Jesus’ invitation and Paul’s invitation to be in communion. There is a choice to be made to be part of God’s team.

God made a choice, out of love for us and a desire for us to always be with him, he sent his only son Jesus to invite us to be in communion with him. Jesus made a choice, to be obedient to the Father, even accepting death on a cross, as the price to be paid for our salvation and union with him and the Father. If we hear his voice, we need to choose to accept the invitation to unite with him, to be on the team and care about the team goal; to choose to accept our share of His mission, to invite and care for each teammate as the Father has first loved us; and when we choose well, His promise is to “lead [us] to springs of life-giving water, and … wipe away every tear from [our] eyes.” (Rv 7:17)

This can’t be done from the sidelines. We have to choose to enter the game. Our job is to live in radical communion and not just ritualize it on Sunday, but to live it which allows us to overcome our desire to attempt to make other groups inferior to ourselves. We are all sinners and all deserve God’s divine mercy.

Project 5 is our parish’s intentional act to awaken us to God’s team goal of being in communion with Him and each other and creating an intimate awareness of our team mates who need our prayers and forgiveness. We did this by first asking you to pick 5 people you felt most needed prayer and to make the commitment to pray for them, every day. In phase II of the project we asked you to attempt to mend a broken relationship. Remember the second very important ingredient to creating team unity, caring about your teammates. It is all about relationship, “who is my brother” (Lk 10:29) my teammate? All of God’s children, especially those considered least among us, the rejected, the lost, the broken, the poor.

Phase III of Project 5 encourages us to come off the bench and reach out and engage in the care of others. It is an invitation to seek unity / communion with your fellow man and actively engage in the one of many outreach ministries of our parish. One of my favorite scripture passages fits well here; “What good is it … if someone says he has faith but does not have works. Can that faith save him?” (Jas 2:14) “Indeed someone might say, ‘You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.” (Jas 2:18)

If you truly believe, if you hear his voice, the choice is yours? Pray, Mend, ACT.

[1] Sean Glaze, Two Main Ingredients that Create Team Unity Association for Talent Development (formerly ASTD). www.td.org , July 30, 2013

Sunday, April 3, 2016

FAITH, TRUST, & MERCY

During my homily on Holy Thursday, when I called the people to have their feet washed early, I said, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” There was a lot of laughing except for one person for sure. I’ve said that many times to my beautiful wife throughout our life together and unfortunately there has been a few times that it just didn’t work out so well. So when I say, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing” it is a pinch point for Judy because trust in my words has been shaken by contradictory results.

“Faith is a rich reality that includes taking something on the word of another person.”[1] As the Gospel writer says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (Jn 20:29) Faith is often challenging, because it’s based on trust. Especially trust in the unseen and the often contradictory actions and results of the world around us. The question is commonly asked, “How can we say there is a loving and merciful God, when our children are turning to guns and knives to resolve school yard conflicts?” Thomas’ closest friends tell him, “We have seen the Lord.” (Jn 20:25) Yet Thomas rejects their testimony, his doubt matches their certainty and he lays out clear terms for yielding his disbelief. Because of this moment of doubt, Thomas is most often remembered as Doubting Thomas.

It’s interesting that Thomas only speaks four lines in the whole New Testament, all of it recorded in the Gospel of John: The first time we hear him speak, he says, “Let us also go to die with Him.” (Jn 11:16) Quite a courageous suggestion! But we don’t remember him as ‘Courageous Thomas’ do we? He then says, “Master, we do not know where you are going, how we can know the way?” (Jn 14:5) A very smart question that leads to one of Jesus’ most famous lines ever: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jn 14:6) Maybe we should be calling this Apostle ‘Smart Thomas’ for asking the best question in the New Testament. The last words we hear from Thomas’ lips are “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28) which is the culmination of John’s entire Gospel, but we don’t call him ‘Confessing Thomas’ either. It was because of this one sentence: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (Jn 20:25) We call him ‘Doubting Thomas’.[2]

Can you blame him though? Put yourself in his sandals. Your friends are in the midst of mass hysteria, claiming that someone who is very, very dead, and very, very buried, was alive! What would you think?!

Yet Thomas says something very important for us, he wants to see the wounds. Jesus needed someone to point out his wounds. Even though suffering and death are in his past, his future contains the wounds he suffered. Jesus wants us to know that even in heaven, he has those wounds. Even today, God bears the wounds of the Crucifixion.

Don’t you see? Because of those wounds, God can’t ever forget what he did for us! God can’t pretend that it never happened. No matter how sinful or ungrateful we are. No matter how many crusades, inquisitions, or wars—no matter what we do: those wounds are an eternal reminder of how much God loves us. Those wounds, even now, in heaven, are a reminder of what God is willing to do for you and for me—especially because we are sinners. Those wounds are a sign of God’s mercy.

In the Divine Mercy image, the rays emanating from the image of Jesus represent the blood and water that flowed from His body at the Crucifixion. It was his blood and water, poured out to cleanse a wounded world, pouring out abundant graces, especially for those who’ve had their faith and trust in His unfathomable mercy shaken.

So here is the great challenge of today’s Gospel message. Jesus says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” If your faith allows you, approach the table, enter into the Paschal mystery, to receive this sacred nourishment. Nourishment that enlightens our faith, strengthens our trust in God’s love, and encourages us to be witnesses to God’s mercy. Jesus needed Thomas’ courage, his intelligence, his confession, his insistence on seeing his wounds. He needs us to contemplate his wounds, to be his courageous witnesses, not of his judgement, beware of seeking God’s justice. For the judgement we use now, will be the yard stick God will use on us. Rather be an ambassador of his unfathomable divine mercy. Let the world see how we can confidently say, Jesus, I trust in you.