March 22 - 5th Sunday of Lent

Bellarmine University

“THE EYES HAVE IT:” Part 5, “Coming to Sight”

Rev. Ronald Knott

March 22, 2015

                            

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the

ground  and  dies, it  remains just a

grain  of  wheat;  but  if  it  dies,  it

produces much fruit.

John 12

As some of you know, I grew up in the country. (Maybe you can tell?) I have helped plant wheat, corn, barley, soy beans and gardens of all sizes and varieties. In fact, I used to have a retreat house down in Meade County that some of our students stayed at during their “alternate spring break” that sat in the midst of some fields that will soon be planted with soy beans, wheat, barley or corn. Last year it was corn. Next year it will probably be wheat. (Farmers do that so as not to wear out their soil.) It’s always amazing to me that the farmers come in with one truck full of seeds in the spring and come back in the fall and harvest several truckloads of grain.  It is a sight to behold!

In a way, these farmers come in with their precious little grains, dig little “graves” for these small seeds, cover them over and come back months later and “boom” each little grain has turned into 30 to 60 new grains. One grain gave its life so that 30 to 60 new grains could come into being.

Jesus must have watched this process many times. In fact, the gospel has several references to the planting of seeds and the walking though standing grain. We know that Jesus’ disciples got into trouble in one place in the gospels for walking through a grain field and pulling off heads of wheat and eating the grains. The Pharisees saw what they did and labeled the simple acts of pulling, rubbing and eating as “working on the Sabbath.” It amounted. in their eyes, to harvesting winnowing and preparing a meal - all of which was forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus dismissed their concerns as silly and accused them of “straining out gnats while swallowing camels.”

Like he did many times, Jesus used his everyday experiences as tools for teaching.  Just as one grain of wheat must die so that the wheat species can continue to have life, Jesus said that he must die so that all of us can have life. In the image he used today, Jesus refers to himself as the grain of wheat which must die so that all of us may have eternal life.

When Jesus used the image of the grain “dying” in reference to us, he was not just speaking of our dying at the end of our lives. Sure, in the church, we believe that when this body is placed in the ground like a small grain of wheat, we will someday rise to a new and better life like a stalk of wheat adored with many grains of wheat. What Jesus wants us to know is that this happens, not only at the end, but all throughout our lives here on earth.  It is not just a future event, it can happen each and every day while we live here on earth. Let me offer a couple of examples.

A sperm and an egg, planted in our mother’s womb had to also “die,” in a way, so that we could come into being. Even when we were born, that baby had to “die” in a way so that we could grow into an adolescent. That adolescent had to “die” in a way so that we could grow into young adults - on and on until we die into eternal life.

In a similar way, each Fall we watch the trees and flowers “die” only to come to life again in the spring, bringing with them even more life. All this happens in the world of nature, automatically, but as human beings we can actually choose “to die” in a parallel way, so that we can increase life within ourselves as we go from one day to the next.

If we seek to always avoid these little “deaths,” we actually choose stagnation and a stunted life. For example, parents who protect their children too closely, holding them back and holding onto them too long, can actually retard the growth of their children into full human beings. If they really love their children, they will put them on the school bus when the time comes, in spite of their tears and protests, so that they can learn to relate to other children and learn necessary life skills. That process is like a small “death” for parents and children, but without it there is no new life for those children. Trying to cling to what was, is perhaps the surest way to sabotage any advanced growth as they grow older.

Those same parents come to a day when their children fall in love, marry, leave home and start their own families. No matter how much parents would like to hang onto to their children and keep them at home, they know this “death” is necessary, no matter how much crying goes on when they walk down the aisle and they kiss them “goodbye” at the altar. It is like Jesus said: “Whoever loses his life will keep it and whoever hangs onto his life too much will end up losing it.” Like Lennie, in Steinbach’s novel Of Mice and Men, who squeezes his precious bunny so tight that he kills it, holding onto life as it is for too long can actually lead to the destruction of the very life we love so much.

This “wisdom” makes very little sense to the world, but it is so true. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and control.  Choose too much ease and you will slowly die – whether it is exercise or food – but choose the difficult and you will slowly have more life. Give into your appetites and laziness and you will slowly turn into a big slob of an unhealthy disease-ridden couch potato. Eat selectively and push your body to its limits with regular exercise and you will enjoy a lean, trim, vigorous, disease-free body that can serve you well for years to come. Indeed, “no pain, no gain.” Anyone, as well, who has ever been successful in a recovery program knows this life-giving principle of death and resurrection: the old addicted person must die a slow and painful death before a new and healthy person can be brought to life.

Students! All of us are given a choice each day: the easy way that leads to death and the hard way that leads to life. A well-adjusted adult understands this life principle and freely embraces necessary pain. A childish adult resists such pain, choosing ease at every turn. He will certainly come to know that with each lazy choice, his life gradually withers away.  As the old song from the 60s puts it, “If we are not busy being born, we are busy dying.”

Dying and rising are actually part of a healthy life. These little everyday “deaths” simply prepare us for our big death at the end. We believe that if we choose to die with Christ here, we are also choosing to live with him for all eternity.

Here is the great mystery! Pain before gain! Cross before crown! Death before resurrection! Then, as St. Paul puts it, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, not has it even dawned on human beings the great things that God has in store for those who love him.”

    

March 15 - 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)

Bellarmine University

“THE EYES HAVE IT:” Part 4, “Choosing Sight”

Rev. Ronald Knott

March 15, 2015

Serpents were biting people and many died.

So Moses made a bronze image of a serpent,

put it on a pole and made them look at it.

Numbers 21

If you have ever been in the hospital or flipped through the phone book looking for a physician, you’ve seen the image – two winged serpents wrapped around a staff. It is known as the caduceus. It has been the symbol of the American medical profession for nearly a hundred years – a decidedly odd symbol for doctors until you begin to investigate where it came from and its underlying meaning.

This ancient symbol of healing is referred to today’s first reading and the gospel. In their trek across the desert from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land, the People of God underwent all sorts of trials and troubles. The one mentioned today is their plague of biting winged serpents. After praying for delivery from this awful plague, God instructs Moses to make a bronze image of the same serpents, put it on a pole and invite the people to take a good hard look at it. When they looked at it hard and long, they recovered.

Now this may sound like some kind of voodoo magic, but it isn’t! It’s primitive psychology! All you future nurses, doctors, psychologists and mental health professionals, listen up! What Moses did here is still good practice! What he is saying here is that the road to healing is always through looking at the problem squarely. Failing to look at problems squarely is the best way to keep them going! 

The worst thing you can do, if you have a mysterious lump on your body, is to pretend it isn’t there! You need to pay close attention to it and have a professional examine it carefully and as soon as possible. The worst thing to do is to look the other way and pretend that it isn’t there! Healing begins with noticing!

The worst thing you can do, if you are having financial problems, is to keep on spending and pretending that the problem doesn’t really exist! If you are having such problems, you need to face some hard facts and get some help as soon as possible. The worst thing to do is to look away and pretend the problem does not exist! Recovery begins with facing that which is painful to face, squarely!

The worst thing you can do, if you or one of your friends has a drinking or drug problem, is to look away and pretend that it isn’t there! Reality must be faced squarely and help must be sought as soon as possible. The worst thing to do is to look away and pretend the problem does not exist! Recovery begins with facing facts squarely! That’s why people in AA must first of all say to themselves and others, “I am an alcoholic!” before their healing can begin!

We live in a world that has avoidance down to a fine art! If we don’t like something, we look away! Nowhere is it more obvious than the mushrooming credit card debt, when people spend and spend when they can barely pay the interest, even using one credit card to pay the interest on another!  

Nowhere is it more obvious than in our national obesity problem.  Instead of facing this problem individually, every time we sit down to eat, we keep stuffing our faces with massive amounts of bad food, while we wait for that magic pill that will melt fat away as we sleep. According to Dr. Phil’s new massive diet program, for the first time in our history the next generation will die younger than their parents because of obesity related problems.

Moses didn’t put it this way, but this is what he meant – all of us need to “wake up and smell the coffee” in several areas of our lives! As a culture, we are addicted to our denial. Whatever it is, we need to open our eyes and take a good hard look at reality and quit going to sleep just because it is comfortable and feels good for the moment! 

And, yes, on a spiritual level, looking at Jesus dying on the cross – looking intently at it and understanding what it means – not looking away and not avoiding our responsibility in considering its implications  - is the path to our eternal life as well!    

March 8 - 3rd Sunday of Lent

Bellarmine University
“THE EYES HAVE IT:” PART 3, “Losing Sight”
Rev. Ronald Knott
March 8, 2015

Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace.
John 2

In a moment of great humility, something rare for our church at that time, the bishops of Vatican II admitted in writing that the church is “semper reformanda,” “always in need of reform.” The human side of the church, like all human organizations, has a tendency to fall into sin and decay and must be called back to fidelity, over and over again as it moves through history. As it was in the beginning, is now and shall ever be, as long as it is on the earth. Yes, even in Jesus’ day, the church needed a good cleansing.

In a dramatic and public gesture of outrage, Jesus anger boils over. It is very important to remember that the anger of Jesus was not directed at people who sinned or failed in all its everyday ways. His anger was directed at those who controlled religion and used it to abuse simple people. He had pity and compassion on the outcasts, the sick and sinner, but he was outraged at what had happened, at the hands of its leaders, to the religion he loved. In some of the most blunt words from the mouth of Jesus ever recorded, he called them “snakes, fakes, phoneys and frauds. He called them “whitewashed tombs,” “all clean and pretty outside, but filled with stench and rot inside!” It is important to note that Jesus was not against organized religion, but what these people had done to organized religion. As this gospel story tell us, he did not come to tear down the temple, he simply came to clean house! Instead of serving the religious needs of their people, they used people to serve their own needs. The temple had become a market place and they were getting a cut from every corner of it!

Even so, Jesus is not interested in a shake-up of temple administration. He knew all that “religious business” came from hearts that had turned away from God. He wanted conversion and transformation of minds and hearts, not just some cosmetic changes in the structure. He was more interested in people changing than making changes in the material world, because he knew that if people turned to God, the organization would get better.

It is sad that many people never get below the packaging when it comes to religion. They see only the earthenware jar and never the treasure it holds. The purpose of religion is to serve, not be served. The purpose of organized religion is the transformation of people, not using people to serve organized religion.

It is also sad that many people naïvely assume that organized religion is always evil simply because it has gotten off track here and there in history. Jesus was clear that he did not come to destroy organized religion, but to lead it back to its original purpose, to do the right thing and to do it for the right reasons, to protect the “truth of the gospel.” Without organized religion the truth of the gospel would not have been passed from one generation to another. Without organized religion, we would never have heard the “good news.” Without organized religion, we would not have the sacred scriptures. Without organized religion, we would be split into millions of personal opinions and small little cults. Without organized religion, we could not be the unified “Body of Christ” in the world today. Without organized religion, the followers of Christ would not be able to take the “good news” of Christ to the ends of the earth. Without organized religion, we would not have a way to offer support to other believers around the world. Yes, the church may always be in need of reform, but that does not negate the need of the church to be organized. Yes, the church may need a good “house cleaning” ever now and then, but the organization of the church is always needed.

Students! The church of the recent past has been too closely identified with its leaders. These days we have re-discovered and re-emphasized the fact that we, each and ever one of us, is the church. For the last thirty or forty years, people have operated out of a romantic notion that all the ills of the church reside with the institution – so that if only we could reform it, we ourselves would be better Christians. The truth quite often is the other way around. The institution will get better when each one of us are reformed and transformed. These days, we are called to renew the church, not by focusing on the weaknesses of the institution, but through personal conversion, one heart at a time. No church can be strong when every member of it is weak. We are the church. We are called to “clean house” one person at a time! The problems of the church begins right here in our own hearts and in our own lives. When I get better, the church will get better. It’s like the old song about “peace.” “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me!” Let there be a renewed church and let it begin with me!

March 1 - 2nd Sunday of Lent

Bellarmine University
“THE EYES HAVE IT:” PART 2, “Hindsight and Foresight”
Rev. Ronald Knott
March 1, 2015
His clothes became dazzling white.
Then Elijah appeared to them along
with Moses, and they were conversing
with Jesus.
MARK 9

“Imagination” Now that’s an amazing human ability. “Imagination” means “to make an image with your mind.” Your mind can look back and make an image of some past event. Likewise, your mind can look forward and make an image of some imaginary event in the future. Amazing still, is that your mind can do all of this while processing information about the here and now. Because we can look back and look forward, we can cope with the reality in front of us. Neither what we look back on, nor what we look forward to, have reality anywhere except in our minds, but being able to do that helps us know where we are in the present.

When all three of these abilities come together, the ability to “imagine” past, present and future at the same time, we experience a powerful blast of insight! Some call it an “ah, ha” experience. Others refer to it as “clicking.” Others say, “One day, it all just fell into place.” Others call it a “conversion” experience. The comics picture it as a “light bulb being turned on.” It’s that insight that comes from knowing “where you’ve been, where you are and where you are going” all at the same time. People who go through an experience like that have a glow about them. It’s almost like they give off light. If you’ve had one of those experiences, you know what I am talking about. If you’ve never had one of those experiences, I hope you will. It’s life changing!

Jesus had one of those experiences in today’s gospel story. It says that Jesus took his closest companions on a mountaintop retreat. While in intense prayer, his clothes turn white, the brightest white you can imagine. What is amazing about that is that those are the same words used about Jesus clothes in appearances after his resurrection. This is a way of telling us, Jesus got a vision of the future, a glimpse of glory and sneak preview of his life to come. While in that state, we are told that Jesus has a discussion with Elijah and Moses. Elijah and Moses helped Jesus realize where he came from, the voice from heaven and the dazzling clothes helped him to see where he was going. In this wonderful story of looking back, Mark presents Jesus as the fulfillment of every prophecy concerning the Messiah. In this wonderful story of looking forward, Mark presents the fulfillment of Jesus’ mission, not through glory, majesty and triumph over foreign nations, but through his death on a cross and, after that, resurrection from the dead.

This Lent we look back and we look forward. By looking back into scripture we get in touch with our history and we get a glimpse of our destiny. By looking into scriptures, we find out who we are today. We are God’s people. Our God has always taken care of us in the past and our God has incredible things waiting for us in the future. Because of that, we can live without worry in the present. We can wait in joyful hope. Our history is not in doubt and neither is our destiny. We are God’s people. We are earthenware jars that hold a great treasure. We are temples of the holy spirit. We are Christ’s body in the world. We are ambassadors for Christ. Knowing where we came from and knowing where he are going, we are free to “wait in joyful hope,” in full confidence, no matter what is happening to us or around us, for the eternal life promised us by our loving God.

This gospel today is not just a report of some long-ago “mountain top experience,” it is an invitation to us, an invitation to go up on our own mountain, look back over our lives and look forward to where we are headed. It is a time to “get back on the path of discipleship,” to remember where we came from and where we are going, to live deliberately, on purpose and with intention as a follower of Jesus.

Students, we have heard a lot about the weakness and sinfulness of the church these past years. It has been painful for me and you. Because of this pain, many of us may have lost our confidence, if not our way. I have tried to remind myself and remind you that just because our church leadership has made mistakes, just because many of our members have given up on the church, that does not mean we are off the hook. We, all of us, are still called to holiness. We are still called to become serious and effective disciples of Jesus. We are still called to carry on some part of Christ’s work. And, yes, we are called to heal the weaknesses of the church, rather than run from them, as if they were somebody else’s responsibility to fix. St. Paul tells us that, together, we are the Body of Christ and when one member suffers, we all suffer. He goes on to tell us that when one part of the body is sick or weak, the whole body works together to heal it.

This time of Lent, this time of looking back and looking forward, is a time to remember who we are, where we came from and where we are going! We were created out of love and, out of love, we have been redeemed. If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, not on our sins and failures or the sins and failures of others, we can live in joyful hope, even now!

February 22 - 1st Sunday of Lent

Bellarmine University
“THE EYES HAVE IT:” PART 1, “Insight”
Rev. Ronald Knott
February 22, 2015

Jesus remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.
Mark 1:12

What do you do when you are faced with an important decision? Ask the audience? Take the 50/50? Phone a friend? Do you take a poll? Flip a coin? Call Miss Cleo’s horoscope hotline? What do you do when you are faced with an important decision? Choose the least painful option, the most popular choice, the easiest route? What do you do when you have an important decision to make?

Under attack, Elijah withdrew to a cave by himself to listen to God and get clarity about what to do next. His guidance did not come out of some dramatic windstorm, thunderous earthquake or roaring fire or any other big spectacular event. His guidance came to him in a tiny whispering sound.

What do you do when you have an important decision to make? Gideon, in the Book of Judges, is more like us. When God calls him to save Israel from the incursions of Midianite terrorists, he was just an ordinary man going about his business. Feeling totally incompetent for such a big task, Gideon points out to God that he was the most insignificant son in a family of the most insignificant tribe in Israel. He asked God how could he possibly lead his people in battle against such a huge enemy. God answered him simply, “I will be with you.” Gideon was still suspicious, so he asks God for a “signs” so that he could make sure it was really God calling him to such a task. God sent a sign, but still Gideon wavered. He then asks God to send a second sign for good measure.

What do you do when you have an important decision to make? Our gospel today takes up immediately after Jesus’ baptism. Right after he came up out of the water, the clouds parted and God spoke to him saying, “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests” But what did that mean? Jesus immediately headed for the desert, a traditional place to go on retreat. The desert is a place unmercifully devoid of distractions, a place to hear God’s voice and get clarity. Jesus withdrew from all the noise and distractions to listen for that tiny, whispering voice that Elijah heard when he was in the desert. There he spent 40 days going over the options about what being “God’s Son” meant. Was he being called to be a liberator king? Was he being called to change the world by defying the laws of nature? Was he being called to produce amazing feats of power? All those options were tempting, but when all was said and done, when he had finished his listening, he got his answer: God’s way is not about worldly power, or changing things with supernatural tricks, its about changing minds and opening hearts, its about loving, even loving one’s enemies, its about seeing the presence of God already with us.

When he came out of the desert, Jesus preached that if people changed their hearts and open their minds they would see that they already have what they needed. A changed heart and a changed mind is the only path to a changed world. Changed people change the world. Jesus taught that if people would open their minds and hearts, they would see that they were already in heaven. Elizabeth Barrett Browning says it this way, “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes.

What do you do when you faced with an important decision? Forget what the audience says, don’t try to guess and don’t phone a friend, just shut up and listen. If you shut up and listen, God will tell you the way to go. As Isaiah put it, “A voice shall sound in your ear, should you turn this way or that, saying, “this is the way, walk in it.” God says this to Jeremiah, “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts.” The Book of Revelation speaks of the church in heaven as people who have “his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.” What did Jesus learn in the desert? He learned that life’s secrets are “in here,” not “out there!”

I learned something a long time ago about counseling: most people already know what their answer is when they come in. All you have to do as a counselor is to cajole them into listening to their own hearts for that tiny whispering voice, the whispering voice of God. The reason they cannot hear it is because their heads and hearts are filled with noise: their own mind chatter, the manipulations and opinions of others and the noise of an “always-talking- and-never-listening world.” If their head was a radio, they would be picking up 50 station at once. With all the chatter in the air, pulling us this way and that, no wonder it is so hard for people today to make a decision and stick with it. There are so many things to choose from, so many competing voices, some are paralyzed by all of it, some refrain from choosing and some bite into all the chocolates in the box and never completely eat one.

Do you hear what I am saying today? I could have given you a talk about the geography of Palestinian deserts, I could have talked about the symbolism of 40 days and I could have compared this desert story with those of the other evangelists. I am more interested, however, in telling you what it means than what it says. What this story is trying to get across is simple: Jesus got direction for his life through intense listening and so do we. What should you do when you are faced with an important decision? Simply put, just shut up and listen for that small whispering voice, the voice of God’s speaking to your heart.

Lent is retreat time in the church. A time to slow down, cut back and listen. Forget about giving up candy bars! It would be better to spend ten minutes a day sitting in God’s presence. Learn how to empty your mind of chatter, let it be still and focus on the spirit of God living within you. Forget about giving up pizza! It would be much better to spend ten minutes a day asking God to give you the courage to listen to your self, your true self, not the self you try to project for the world. Forget about giving up Pepsis. It would be better to ask God to help you recognize what you are running from and what you are running toward and show you where you ought to run. Jesus got direction for his life through intense listening and so do we! If you are not clear about what to do with your life, Lent is for you. If you have strayed from the path you know you should walk, Lent is for you. If you want to intensify the life you are living, Lent is for you.

February 15 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Bellarmine University
“We Do Not Think Like God”
Rev. Ronald Knott
February 15, 2015

Moved with pity, Jesus touched the leper.
Mark 1:41

I have never met a person with leprosy, but I have visited the tomb of St. Damien the Belgian leper priest of Molokai, Hawaii. However, I have known several people who have died with AIDS and who were treated like lepers. This was especially true twenty-five years ago. I was called several times to do those funerals by people I had never met, because I had the reputation of being the pastor of a church where everyone was welcomed.

Some families were so embarrassed by how their family member died that they made up some other excuse about the cause of death. Other families were so embarrassed that some members did not even attend those funeral.

The reason they asked me was the fact that I would, at least, not preach hell and damnation over their family members. I was often moved with pity, not so much that someone died – people die all the time - but that people, not only lost a loved one, but also had to go through an unnecessary and painful embarrassment because of a disease.

I am proud to say that I started the first parish fund-raiser here in Louisville, a downtown dessert festival went on for about 25 years, to assist those who were abandoned by their families.

Nazareth Home across the street was the first nursing home to invite AIDS patients in Kentucky. The ignorance surrounding AIDS has subsided, but it has not gone away. The members of the small Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka are still carrying out their gay-hating demonstrations at funerals of people who have died from complications relating to AIDS, gay victims of murder and even American servicemen.

Leprosy was the AIDS of ancient Israel. Leprosy, like all diseases back then, was seen as punishment by God for sin. The Book of Leviticus tells us how horrible the disease itself was, as well as how horrible people’s response was to it. Leprosy was not only a painful, disfiguring disease that led to the loss of extremities, one by one, over a twenty or thirty year period. Lepers were required to wear ripped clothing, to shave their heads, to cover their faces and to call out “unclean, unclean” when they saw someone coming so that people could run away from them. Lepers were required to live apart, in caves and cemeteries. Besides that, both the leper and the people around him believed it was God’s punishment for sin. So the leper not only had to suffer physical and emotional pain, but worst of all, had to endure it cut off from society and die believing that God hated him as well.

It is against this background, this history and these rules that Jesus’ words and actions stand out in bold contrast. Jesus did two things that would have been shocking in his culture: moved with pity, he touched the leper and spoke to him. Only a pariah would understand how important those two things really are. Think about it: being sick and slowly dying with no one to touch you or talk to you for years because you and everybody else believed God hated you for something you had done - maybe you didn’t even know what it was! When Jesus touched the leper and talked to the him, that in itself must have carried a healing as powerful for him as the physical healing itself. By touching him and speaking to him, Jesus reconnected this man to his dignity in God’s eyes, as well as well as his own and those watching.
The leper must have heard about the compassion of Jesus because we are told that he took the risk of approaching Jesus on his knees, instead of warning him away as was the custom.

By healing this man and many other rejects of society - the blind, the crippled and the mentally ill - Jesus taught the crowd that a disease is just a disease, a handicap is just a handicap, not some punishment from God for sin. Getting people in those days to believe these things took a miraculous physical cure. The God that Jesus embodied was a compassionate and loving Father, not some kind of super sadist god with a chip on his shoulder! In his miracles, the message of God’s love is more important than the physical cure, spiritual healing is always more important than physical healing.

What can we learn from the cure of the leper? The thing that Jesus taught us here and everywhere in the gospel is that all of us have worth, no matter what condition we are in and we will be judged by how we treat each other. Jesus did not fix every person he came upon, and neither can we, but he did teach us how to notice each other, to do what we can to reverence and respect every person, especially the weakest and most vulnerable among us, and to be the touch and voice of God himself.

The lepers of our day and time are the elderly, the mentally ill, the handicapped, the imprisoned, the diseased, foreigners, and the poor. In our society, the rich, the beautiful, the capable, the popular, the well-connected and the healthy are worshipped, while the old, the handicapped, the sick, the failures and the poor are often isolated, ignored, shunned and relegated to the margins. It is to them, especially, that Pope Francis says we must go.


One of the earliest and most enduring teachings in all the Scriptures is the teaching that “we are our brothers and sisters keepers.” That teaching is repeated in hundreds of ways throughout the Bible. St. John says, “If we say we love God and hate our neighbor, we are liars.” The whole point of the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told his disciples is that we be inspired to do the same for each other, regardless of who it is or what condition they are in. St. Paul teaches us that “the member of the body that is most hurting should get the greatest care from the other members.” Jesus told those who would hind behind pious religious duties that “it is not those who say “Lord, Lord,” but those who do the will of God.” He goes on to tell us that when it comes to our final judgment, “As long as you failed to do it for one of these least ones, you failed to do it for me.”

February 8 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“A Time For Quiet”
Rev. Ronald Knott
February 8, 2015
Rev. Ronald Knott

Rising very early before dawn, he left and
went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Mark 1:29-39

When I was a young boy, we lived across the road from my grandparents. We simply ran back and forth all day, as if we had a home and a branch office across the road. One of the things I remember clearly is going in the front door of their house after dark, knowing they would be sitting side-by-side in the dark in their rocking chairs.
They sat down in their rocking chairs after supper and, even though the sun had gone down and it had gotten dark, they didn’t bother to turn on a lamp. They just sat there in silence, rocking. I always knew where my grandfather was sitting because I could see the red dot of his unfiltered Camel cigarette glowing in the dark. It never crossed my mind whether they thought my arrival was a nuisance or a relief from the solitude. I guess I thought I was doing them a favor barging in uninvited!
I read somewhere that couples who can enjoy their time together in silence will always stay together, but a child cannot imagine anyone actually enjoying silence.
Today we read about Jesus getting up early in the morning to go off by himself for some silent prayer. Notice some of the things it says right before he got up early, before dawn, to be by himself in silence. “Everybody was looking for him.” “The whole town was gathered at the door.” “They brought to him all who were sick or possessed.” “He cured many of the sick and drove out their demons.” After all that, it says he rests, prays for direction and then moves on to another town to minister to the people there.
This is the pace and pattern of Jesus’ ministry – frantic activity, withdrawal and rest, prayer for clarity and then back to work! We see it here and we see it again and again. In chapter six, after an especially busy time, it says that Jesus took his apostles to a deserted place to rest and pray before going back to work. “People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat!”
For many people today, this kind of silence can be downright scary. There is a term for it – sadatephobia. This “fear of silence” was relatively unheard of fifty years ago, but today psychotherapists are seeing large numbers of individuals and they believe the numbers will continue to rise in the coming decades.
Many experts believe that technology has given rise to the constant need for sound, therefore producing a greater number of people suffering from sadatephobia. For many more people, not just the young anymore, it is impossible to sit in a quiet room for even a few minutes without their phones, music, TV or the noise of traffic around them.
I have suspected for a long time now that there is, as well, a connection between the noise level of the world and the loss of our sense of the divine. Simply put, it seems to me that the world is so noisy today that even God can’t get a word in edgewise!
There is a beautiful moment in the Bible when the prophet Elijah feels God’s presence. The Scriptures say that a powerful wind tore the mountains apart, but God was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. It was the whisper of God. God doesn’t yell, he whispers. Maybe that is why we can’t hear him too well these days.
Silence, today, is looked on as odd, when in reality it may be dangerous to do without it. “We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.” (Susan L. Taylor)
Several years ago, we dumped the idea that we need to honor the third commandment that tells us that we should stop every seventh day to rest and pray. Thinking that the whole idea of regular day of rest was outdated, thinking that we know better than God, we created the endless-loop workweek. Now we are dealing with the results of such arrogance: stress related diseases, alienation among spouses and children and the rise of the drug culture to kill the pain and to help us sleep. Thinking that the whole idea of a regular day of prayer was outdated, thinking that we can do without God’s guidance and input, we replaced regular prayer time with recreation, shopping or more work. God only knows how many Catholics skipped Mass last Sunday to get things set-up for the Super Bowl!

Is it a sin not to observe the Sabbath, not to rest and pray with the community once a week, like they used to say it is many years ago? Yes, I believe it is! Does it hurt God? Yes, but only because God loves us and it hurts us! God gave us the third commandment, not because he needs our worship and he needs rest, because we need to express our gratitude and we need to rest, because we need to listen for God’s direction in prayer before we go back into our frantic lives on Monday and because we need to spend some quiet time, on a regular basis, with our families and friends.

The world tells us that the secret to success is to do more. God tells us that the secret to success is to do less. Who are you listening to?