August 23 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Bellarmine University

"Do You Want to Leave Too"

Rev. Ronald Knott

August 23, 2015

Many of his disciples no longer accompanied him, so Jesus

asked, "Do you want to leave too?" Simon Peter answered

him, saying, "Master, to whom would we go?"

John 6:60-69

Many people tell me that I'm nuts for being a Catholic priest. I hadn't been ordained but a day when the first person came out of nowhere to challenge me on this. I have told this story many times before, but it immediately comes to mind when I read this gospel. It happened at one of the receptions, following my first Mass.

I was standing there in my new black suit and Roman collar - a little proud of myself - when all of a sudden a stranger approached me and stuck a pin in my balloon. "I can't imagine anyone as intelligent as you seem to be would still be a Catholic, must less become a priest! I got out of all that craziness a long time ago!"

I stood there, shocked, like I had been shot at close range as she went down her well-rehearsed list of things wrong with the Church. When she finished, she disappeared into the crowd, never to be heard from again - at least that is what I thought.

Like me, St. Peter must have been challenged many times about his decision to stay that day, when so many others walked away because of Jesus teaching on the "bread of life" because he writes many years later, in the first of his two letters, "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence." (I Peter 3:15,16) When I am challenged, I try to follow his advice.

That first happened when I was 26. I am now 71. At 71, I agree wholeheartedly with Peter. "To whom would I go?" I have been offered a lot of so-called alternatives, I recognize more problems in our Church than most of you, but I can say this much in all honesty. I haven't seen anything yet that I would trade all this for! In the language of gospel music, I wouldn't take nothin' for my Jesus, his Church, and the work he has called me to do!

Students! One of the most important questions facing you in your young adulthood is, "Why do you stay in the Church?" Why do you choose to remain Catholic, when so many others your age are walking away? I am sure many of you have been challenged seriously, maybe even in an angry way. Maybe you have considered it. Maybe you have even tried it for a while. Maybe you remain because you are scared not to. Maybe you hang in there just to please your parents.

Well, let me tell you something. I was not "assigned" here by the bishop. I don't have to do this. I have plenty of other jobs - too many jobs, in fact. But I want to be here and I choose to do this because I want to help you be able to give yourselves, and those who question you, reasons to stay in the Church so that you do not "walk away,"  or worse, just "drift away." 

Yes, you heard me - "help give you reasons to stay in the Church." There are many people today who claim they want to be "spiritual, but not religious." Archbishop Dolan of New York described them this way, "They want to believe without belonging. They want to be sheep without a shepherd. They want to be part of a family, but they want to be an only child." The fact of the matter is, Jesus founded a church on Peter, one of those who did not walk away, and Jesus promised that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" and that he would "be with it always, until the end of time." The truth of the matter is, we are not individually children of God, we are each part of God's family with many children and, as a family, we are called to be our brothers and sisters keepers - to be responsible to, and for, each other. We are in this together! 

Melanie, Karen and I want to help you move from an inherited faith, to a personal faith. We find many of you you deeply spiritual, sometimes ravenously so, and we want to help you in your process of knowing God, loving God and serving God. We also want you to feel valued and appreciated by the Church - so hang in there with the rest of us who are on a serious spiritual journey. Each week, as I preach, I will try to help you find answers when "someone asks you for a reason for your hope," and, yes, I will try to do it "with gentleness and reverence."

By the way, the woman who challenged me forty-five years ago contacted me a couple of years back to apologize and to tell me that she had returned to the Church and was absolutely loving it for the first time in her life. As that great "theologian," Yogi Berra put it, "It ain't over till it's over."

If you do go away, for whatever reason, we want you to know that we will always leave a light on for you so you can find your way back. Like the father of the prodigal son, we will be waiting on the porch.

August 16 - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Bellarmine University

CONVOCATION MASS:  “Watch Carefully How You Live”

Rev. Ronald Knott

August 16, 2015

Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.

Ephesians 5:15-20

When I was preparing to preach on these words from St. Paul to the Ephesians, I immediately thought of the great American poet, Robert Frost, who ends his famous poem, THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, with these memorable words. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Students, you stand at such a “fork in the road.” Starting today and over the next few years, you will have a whole series of important choices to make! As the road continues to fork, you will be free to choose from a variety of paths and each path you choose will have consequences! As you stand at each fork, weighing your options, you need to know that along with the freedom to choose will come the responsibility to choose wisely. In the past, your parents made choices for you and forced you to accept them, then when things did not work out and you could blame them for their choices. Today, with the freedom to make your own choices, you must now be ready to accept responsibility for your own choices you – good or bad – and live with the consequences of those choices.  That’s is why St. Paul’s words to you today need your careful consideration. “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”

Failure to choose, putting off deciding, is also a choice!  Failure to choose has tremendous implications as well! In this regard, there are plenty of people who try to follow the advice of Yogi Bera who said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” George Bernard Shaw, on the other hand, has sounder advice when he said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself!” I discovered his words during my own college days, and I have tried to live out his challenge about “being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making me happy.”  In another place Shaw spoke about being pro-active in creating the lives we want. “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are! I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”  

Students! In the great scheme of things, compared to the world as a whole, you are privileged to be here! Opportunity is knocking at your door! However, even if opportunity is knocking, you still need to get up and open the door! As one proverb puts it, “Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell!” Believe me, the temptation to blow this opportunity will be unrelenting. Like kids in a candy store, many college students have crashed and burned in their first semester! It has always been easier to “go with the flow” than “grab the bull by the horns.” That’s why the words of St. Paul to you today are so important! “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but wise, making the most of the opportunity!”

What happens if you do not watch carefully how you live, living like a fool and blowing this opportunity? It will be the difference between “having a life” and a joyless, dull, survival existence. You will no doubt be one of those people who Henry David Thoreau described when he said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” You will no doubt be one of those people that Thomas Merton spoke of when he said, “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” You will no doubt be like those John Greenleaf Whittier spoke about in his great poem, Maude Mueller, who look back on their lives with sad regret for opportunities missed, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of these, it might have been!” There is nothing more stinging to live with than the knowledge of a great opportunity missed for which you, and only you, are to blame! The secret to making the most of this opportunity is to stand up to your own laziness and cowardice, to refuse to be ruled by your passions and addictions, to develop the personal discipline to delay gratification and to do hard things for your own good! In other words, you simply must take charge of yourself!

What happens if you do watch carefully how you live, living wisely and making the most of this opportunity? Again Thoreau puts it quite clearly when he says, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”  And again, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate himself by conscious endeavor.”  Jesus put it this way when he said to us, “I came to bring you life, life to the full.” “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you!”

Students! Watch carefully how you live! Don’t be a fool! Make the most this opportunity!