April 26 - 4th Sunday of Easter

Bellarmine University

"Good Shepherds"

Rev. Ronald Knott

April 26, 2015

I am the good shepherd. I know mine and mine know me.

John 10

I may be retired, but I am not finished yet. In fact, so far, I can hardly tell the difference. I am still running around the United States and Canada leading priests retreats. I have led over 100 of them in 8 countries and I have 15 more to go - this year and the next. The simplest way to put it might be to say that I go to these places to deliver my crash course in "team shepherding."

Because of a couple of little books I put together on the subject of "spiritual shepherding" a couple of years ago, called The Spiritual Leadership of a Parish Priest, Intentional Presbyterates and A Bishop and His Priests Together, I have probably spoken to well over 20,000 priests, bishops and Cardinals in over one hundred dioceses around the world.

All these invitations, are not about my great personal talent or ability, but about the crying need the church has for "good shepherding." As you already know, lay people are dying for quality spiritual leadership from their priests and are often left disappointed. For some reason, I was simply able to notice this and try to do something about it by writing about it earlier than a lot of others. I am known for my "simple, hard-hitting, straight forward and direct" speaking style.  From priests, I usually hear something like this: "You hit us right between the eyes, you pushed every one of our buttons and you got away with it!" From bishops I hear, "Thanks for saying things to my priests that I cannot say. They listened to you and they even laughed while you were doing it!" I always try to remember  the words of  Oscar Wilde who said, "If you are going to tell them the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you."       

I am the good shepherd. I know mine and mine know me.

What has my work in dioceses around the world have to do with you?  I would say that it has everything to do with you. Most of you already know, at least intuitively that the most pressing need facing the Catholic Church today is the quality of its spiritual leadership - the ability of your designated shepherds to lead you to holiness. We still have about 67,000,000 Catholics on the books in this country, but we also about 20,000,000 who now call themselves as ex-Catholics, former Catholics or non-practicing Catholics. In the past, organized religion could impose unquestioned rules of behavior on its members, but not today! No amount of ranting and raving from our shepherds about how they ought to be listened to and no amount of new rule books will fix this. We need credible spiritual leaders who have the ability influence people, to inspire people, to move from where they are to where God wants them to be! Ordinations alone, Roman collars alone, new editions of the Catechism or Canon Law alone will not fill this gap. We desperately need spiritual leaders, not just in name, but in fact! Without "good shepherds," the flock will continue to be ravaged by wolves and it will continue to run away from hirelings who are only interested in what the sheep can do for them.

In the gospel we read today, Jesus is called the "good" shepherd. In my teaching at the seminary and to priest groups around the country, I like to point out that there are two possible Greek words for "good." Agathos means morally good as in she was a good person. That is not the word used here.  The word used here is kalos which means good at as in he was good at playing baseball or good at playing the guitar.  When the gospel says that Jesus was the Good Shepherd, it means to say that Jesus was good at shepherding, not just a good person. Jesus wasn’t just a fine person, he was good at finding grass and water – and he was good at keeping the wolves at bay!

When  speak to priests and seminarians, and most of them are very good people, holy people, I tell that that being holy, being good, is not enough! They must be good at leading you to holiness.  I always get a laugh when I tell them that their goal is not to have golden light coming from the priest’s house, but to have golden light coming from the homes of the parish. Their job is not just to become personally holy. They must be able to lead you to holiness.

Most of you will be called to be spiritual leaders as well - maybe not as priests, but certainly as married partners and parents. In fact, the Catechism is clear.  Those in Holy Orders and Marriage are both called to lead others to holiness - priests their parishioners and married persons their partners and their children. So those of you who are disappointed with the spiritual leadership of your priest must also examine your conscience about your own spiritual leadership within your families. You will be called to be good personally, but also good at leading your partner and children to holiness.  You must protect your children from predators, find the nourishment they need and teach them to graze safely in a complicated world, both physically and spiritually. You too must be good at being a marriage partner and good at parenting.  The "Good Shepherd" is a model for those of us in ordained ministry, but also those of you who will be marriage partners and parents. I will say to you what  say to our future priests, "If you are going to marry or be ordained, for God sake make sure you have what it takes to be good at it!"  

April 19 - 3rd Sunday of Easter

Bellarmine University

“PEACE BE WITH YOU!”

Rev Ronald Knott

April 19, 2015

Peace be with you!

Luke 24:35-48

I would describe myself, in my early years, as an “anxious” person. To be “anxious” is to be “uneasy and apprehensive about something uncertain” or to be “worried.”  It’s all about that awful thing mighthappen next.  Living in anxiety is a lot like living with a ticking time-bomb strapped to your leg – only all day, everyday. It is living in dread, living on “pins and needles,” “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” waiting to “hit bottom” after falling. It is no way to live and only those who have been there understand. 

As a small child, anxiety was a simple, passing experience – the terror of hiding under covers, wide-awake, after your older sister had told convincing ghost stories or during the height of a crashing, booming rainstorm.

As an older child, living with a parent who had a propensity for fits of anger and rage that came from nowhere, our home was an emotional mind field, loaded with unseen triggers everywhere. You never knew if your next step would set off an explosion of curse-filled name-calling – and worst of all, knowing that there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from it. You had to stand and take it until the storm passed, only to have it return again without notice. 

As a young man still in school, it was about the fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, fear of rejection, fear of being laughed at and bullied, fear of not having enough to live on and the fear of going nowhere from where you were, the fear that “this” was going to be “as good as it gets.”

As a young priest, it was about being threatened by the Klan, being scorned in public for being a Catholic by Protestants and for being a liberal Catholic by fundamentalist Catholics, being stalked by a knife wielding schizophrenic, watching years of work and dreams crack and almost fall to the ground in front of you, sleeping with one eye open for years after having your home burglarized three times, being ashamed of being a priest and of being falsely accused, during wave after wave of bad news about the sexual abuse scandal, waiting for the results of a biopsy that might have been cancer. 

“Peace be with you!”

At 71, this may be the most anxiety free time of my life. Today, I know “peace,” the opposite of “anxiety.”  I have a safe place to live. I have enough to live comfortably and a little saved for the future. I have a few successes behind me and I have a variety of wonderful jobs to wake up for every day. I feel loved and accepted by myself and by most of those who know me.

But most of all, I am more at peace now than I have ever been because I have discovered the “good news” that Jesus came to bring. I know that I am loved by God, without condition, and in the end that everything is going to turn out OK, even if I may still have to face the challenges of old age, bad health and, God forbid, a painful death.  Because of the peace that God gives those who believe in his “good news,” I am confident that he will help me handle whatever comes my way, the rest of the way.    

“Peace be with you!”

As many of you know, I officially “retired” last June 30th. Before I retired, I worked for several years on a project that would help me and other retired priests across the country do exciting and interesting things we had always wanted to do, but never got a chance to do – things that would help the church and keep us engaged for several more years. I managed to get it funded, I was going to run it in my own retirement, it was all set to be launched when it blew up on the launching pad. Because the plans for my own retirement, as well as many others who were looking forward to this new program, were in ashes due to a couple of dysfunctional people, I was left angry and hurt and confused.  My peaceful center was shaken to the core. At my lowest point,  I wrote in my journal that I wanted to believe that when plan A falls apart, it just means that God has a plan B that he is about to reveal that could be even better.  Well, God’s plan B for me just may have been revealed over the Easter holidays! Indeed, we should be careful what we pray for because God is certainly capable of delivering some big surprises!

This last Holy Week, I went down to the Caribbean island countries of Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to help Bishop Jason Gordon with a prayer day for his priests preceding the annual Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Bridgetown on St. Vincent. That was followed by leading services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday at two parishes in the center of the island.

Before you think white sandy beaches and beautiful hotels, think poverty, heat, bad roads and foreign mission work! I am still reeling from one of the most challenging Holy Weeks I have ever been through. The people were very poor, the water risky, the roads a mess and the whole island was lacking in beaches and gorgeous hotels.  However, the people were friendly, they welcomed me with open arms and they can put Catholics in this country to shame when it comes to singing in church!

I am going back. Bishop Gordon, himself a native of the island country of Trinidad, wants me to come back two or three times a year mainly to do some ongoing formation for his handful of priests and deacons, as well as help in parishes whenever possible. He wants me to do some of these thing in both of his dioceses - Bridgetown (Barbados) and Kingstown (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). It’s tough, lonely, uncomfortable and demanding work. One has to have the heart of a missionary and a huge amount of God’s grace to serve down there!

I had no idea this opportunity would present itself. I don’t know how fast I can get involved, but I am certainly willing to explore these possibilities. I started out in the home missions of our diocese, now it looks like I could end up, part of the year at least, working in the foreign missions. One toe at a time, I am willing to take the plunge.  My peace and excitement has been restored.

“Peace be with you!”

These words of Jesus were not only addressed to the terrified disciples, huddled together and cringing in fear, in that upper room after his crucifixion, these words are addressed to all of us today; whether you are a student worried about grades, finances or the fall-out of a bad choice made in the heat of passion; whether you are living in abusive relationship or an unsafe environment or with constant discrimination of being different; whether you are unemployed and in debt up to your ears or barely handling a chronic health problem; whether you are a single parent trying to make it on your own; whether you are religiously scrupulous and live in constant fear of a punishing God and can’t let go of it. Jesus addresses his words to you today. Peace be with you! Calm down! It’s going to be OK! When all is said and done, things are going to turn out just fine. I am with you! Trust me!

Anxiety is worry about what might happen. Peace is the awareness that everything will be OK no matter what happens.  Trust in God is the only way to peace. Peace is God’s gift to us and it is based on the “good news” that we are loved and that great things await us – because God said so!

“Peace be with you!”

April 12 - 2nd Sunday of Easter / Sunday of Divine Mercy

Bellarmine University

“The Whole Picture”

Rev. Ronald Knott

April 12, 2015                            

                              

   The community of believers was of one heart and mind.                                                  

 Acts 4

I cannot go through the Easter season without remembering the simple traditions we had growing up. Unlike today, when people buy clothes all year round, back then, especially in the country, Easter, along with Christmas and the start of the school year, was one of those times of the year when we got new clothes. New outfits also brought out the camera for pictures. Our family album was full of pictures of smiling kids, standing in front of the house, in new clothes: suits and ties for the boys, frilly dresses and hats for the girls, clutching Easter baskets. 

The family picture album is a very important part of remembering and sharing the history of the family: births, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, going off to college or the military, Thanksgivings, Christmases, Halloween parties, beach vacations and proms. Smile! Look this way! Stand up straight! Say cheese!

As wonderful as a family picture album is, it never tells the whole story, does it? Unless you were really weird, you never got the camera out to get a shot of Mom the moment she was diagnosed with cancer, you probably didn’t get a shot of Granddad taking his last breath or Grandma in her coffin, you didn’t get a shot of dad in a drunken rage, uncles and aunts not speaking to each other or old girls friends that didn’t work out, you probably didn’t get a shot of Dad when he lost his job or the response on your parents face when they found out that your unmarried sister was pregnant. 

   The community of believers was of one heart and mind.                                                  

Acts 4

What we have here is a beautiful snapshot of the early church in its finest, on one of its best days.  It is only one beautiful snapshot among many beautiful snapshots of the early church. The Scriptures, however, are disarmingly honest and, unlike most families, has included some not so beautiful snapshots of the early church.

Not everything was sweetness and light. Keep reading and you will see another side of the very early church.  (1) We read that people sold their property and possessions and divided them according to each one’s need, but we also read that the Greek speaking widows complained that the Hebrew speaking widows were getting a disproportionate share of that division.  One of the couples, Ananias and Sapphira,  made a pledge to sell their property and give it to the church, actually held back some of the proceeds and later lied about it. They both dropped dead for lying. (2) We read that “all who believed were together,” but we also read that Paul and Barnabas, two of the greatest missionaries of the early church, had such a bad falling out that they had to part ways and quit working together. We also read that Paul called Peter, the first head of the church, “two-faced” because he followed one set of rules when he was with Jewish believers and another when he was with Gentiles. (3) Even Paul, before his conversion, we are told, is out rounding up Christian and having them jailed for heresy, even holding the coats of those who stoned  St. Stephen to death. A new convert by the name of Simon, we are told, was so amazed that the Holy Spirit was being conferred by the laying on of hands, seeing a gold mine of opportunity, offered to pay money for that kind of power. These are a few of the not-so-flattering snapshots of the church, even at its beginning, that Scripture has the courage to include.

If we read only the good passages, without reading the rest of passages, we can actually get a distorted picture of the church in its reality at its beginning. When we idealize our history and make it sound so perfect, we erroneously conclude that the church today has wandered so far as to be nothing like it “should” be, and because it is not as it should be, it is OK to leave it!   If you do not know of the other early church snapshots, you might be tempted to be critical and even bitter about the weaknesses of the church today.  I believe those who leave the church because it is “not like it used to be” simply do not know how the church “used to be!”

Jesus was right, the church is like a field of weeds and what growing together. We are blessed with our great saints, embarrassed by our miserable sinners and most of us are somewhere in the middle. After a dozen years or so of watching our sins and dirty laundry aired on TV around the world, we can now stand proud of one of our great leaders, Pope Francis. Even Protestants, Jews, Muslims and non-believers are pouring on the praise. Before him, we watched the funerals of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II, beloved by people great and small, within and outside the church. Over the next few years, the world will no doubt focus on the faith, strengths, simplicity, honesty and good works of Pope Francis, a man who has made all of us Catholics proud of our church once again.

Yes, the church is that field of weeds and wheat growing together. Yes, it is tempting to get disgusted by the sins of some of our members and leave in a huff, as if we are so good and righteous ourselves that we do not want to be sullied by association with them. But the fact remains, that that field of weeds and wheat grows within each and every one of us. As one native American Elder put it, “Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. Which dog wins? The one I feed the most!”

We have a saintly side and a sinner side and just as God loves us for better or worse, we must love Christ’s Church for better or worse. In the end, there is no room for self-righteous indignation over the sins of others, because if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. To paraphrase one of our hymns, “Let the faith of the Church be renewed and let that renewal of faith begin with me!”