Sunday, February 16, 2020

Teachers And Witnesses

This homily has two distinct parts: the first part could be a stand-alone reflection on teachers, witnesses, and the cost of discipleship. The second part is my pitch to the parish for hiring a parish catechetical director/youth minister, because, as Paul VI said, people will listen to teachers who are also witnesses, and we are in need of more of both. 


6th Sunday, Year A

Teachers and Witnesses


So today in the homily, I want to do two things: First, look at a sequence of readings to kind of get some ideas going for us. And then I want to try and apply those in some practical ways here for a parish and kind of give you a chance to kind of see the crazy insides of my mind. 

So start off with page 60 on your missalette. That's our gospel today. Start with page 60. It's Matthew, Chapter 5. So we're in the Sermon on the Mount. And this is really kind of the meat, the heart, of the Sermon on the Mount. The part where Jesus says, "You've heard it said X to your ancestors. I say to you, Y." Right, and then the back and forth. Two weeks ago would have been Beatitudes, which is like this beautiful poetic opening. Last week was the salt in the light. Now we're kind of getting into Jesus, reflecting on the law. And that's important is he starts by saying, "I did not come here to abolish the law" The law is good, right? We're keeping that. "None of it will pass away. I'm actually here to fulfill it. And my work is here to fulfill what's there in the Torah." 

But he does definitely say, we're going to do something more. Right. So on the right hand column, that's the first of this: "You've heard it said, 'Do not kill'. I said, don't even mock your brother. Don't call him 'Raqa'. Don't call him you fool. That's as bad." If you've ever wondered why our Catholic examinations of conscience, like under the fifth Commandment, it's not just murder, but it's a whole bunch of other things, like so: bodily harm but or some unkind words and hurting someone's reputation. They're all under there. It's because it's what Jesus does. He doesn't stop at murder. He goes through all these other things as, "This is part of that." Same with the sixth and ninth commandment; that's his next one, right? It's not just literally adultery. It's any kind of lusting, he says, "that's included". So we put under sixth and ninth as well. And then as well, with the oaths. On the right hand column of 61. The idea of—he says, "Just don't vow at all. Don't swear at all. Just simply let your yes be yes, and your no be no.". 

And when we look at that, there's a definite increase there. And it's especially interesting because we know that the law was already hard to follow. Paul tells us that, right? He says, and now we're going to add more. We're going to ask more of people. There's gonna be an even greater challenge, but that's definitely what Jesus is doing. What's interesting is that he says, "I want more out of you."  Look at page 60, left-hand column, very bottom two lines, he tells us: I want more from you. "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of this scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." The scribes and the Pharisees were the teachers. He says, they teach it, but they must not live it. They don't practice what they preach. He says, "You have to be more than that." And actually, he explains that like two lines above that, three lines above that, on the left hand column. "But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called the greatest in the kingdom." So teaching it, yes, but also obeying it. Walking the walk in addition to talking the talk. So he says there are teachers, and there are witnesses, and you need to be both.  

To understand more about where he's coming from, actually flip back a page to the beginning of our second reading on page 59. Now, the second reading and the gospel don't intentionally match. They're not put there together during Ordinary Time to match each other. But sometimes they show up really nicely together as they do here. And we see that Paul is also demanding more of his people. It's not just Jesus, right? Because Paul's writing to the Corinthians. These are pagans. Paul showed up and says, "I'm going to rock your world. You're not just gonna get Jesus' teaching. You're asking to be hearing hard things from me. We're gonna really spin your head here." And so he brought them the message of Jesus and it was demanding. He tells us about that. So, at the beginning of 59. "We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away." So he says, "This is not the wisdom of Socrates or Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Romans and Greeks," he says. "I'm giving you a different kind of wisdom. It's going to be different." And then he even says next column, "Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory." So he's saying, "God has something else in mind. But it's for our glory. It asks more, but it gives us more. It satisfies more, even though it actually asks more. 

So then go back one more page back: top of 58. That's last week's chunk of First Corinthians. And here Paul goes more into the depths on that. So he talks; he picks up that wisdom idea, though. So at the beginning: How did Paul come? "When I came to you, brothers and sisters proclaiming the mystery of God."—so there's that word—"I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom." So, again, he's not coming with the message of Aristotle. Right. He's come with God's wisdom, a different kind of wisdom. Therefore, he's gonna be a different kind of teacher and a different kind of witness. Right. And so he's going to challenge them even more. That what Jesus asking is hard. But he says, "I came with something else too." Look at the bottom line there —Oh I'm sorry. Go go back where I left off— what did [Paul] want to do? "I was resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." And that's the real key, because where are you going to find the power to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, hand away your cloak, to forgive your enemies? To not mock your brother? To not need to swear? To not lust? Where are you going to find all the power to do those kind of things? It's going to be in the cross. That's the only place you're gonna find the power to be able to do that. And so earlier in First Corinthians, Paul had said, "The world sees the cross and it sees foolishness and weakness." And he says, "You know, that's fine, because God's weakness is actually greater than the world's power. And God's foolishness is actually greater than even the world's wisdom." We continue at the bottom of that same column there, he says. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And my message was, my and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power." 

So he says, "I didn't just come teaching. I came witnessing also." I came with power, not just teaching, but action. A demonstration. Paul believes that he had to live the cross, even to looking foolish and weak to other people, if he was going to live out what Jesus wanted. So he's witnessing, showing people the cross of Christ, the weakness of Christ, the wounds of Christ, even the death of Christ in himself. He's a teacher and he's a witness. 

Why do I keep mentioning those two? (You can close your books, by the way.) I keep mentioning those two because [Pope] Paul VI, famously [said them], in 1975 had a letter called "Announcing the Gospel" and is even quoted by secular sources, it's such a good quote. He said, "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers. And if he does listen to teachers, it's because they are also witnesses." Think about that. Think what's your own life. Think about the best teachers, right? They didn't just tell you stuff. They lived in a certain way. They showed you a certain kind of life. They gave you examples in their own being. And you're like, "I want to follow that. They're a witness and I want to follow them.". 

And you think of that every step of the way. We know that the faith is more caught than taught. Think from the very beginning. Go back to the earliest teachers— "Who are the basic teachers, the original teachers, the primary teachers of children?" It's our parents, right? And if our parents are just teaching it but not living it, it doesn't stick. But if they teach it and witness it, then it sticks in an incredible way. Nothing can replace the witness of our parents. 

But we do have others, right? We have priests. Priests of a particular job. We always say that's not the job of priest to convert the world. It's your job to convert the world. It's the job of priest to give you the tools. To give you the scriptures, explain the gospel, to give you the sacraments for healing and for food for the journey. So that allows you to be the ones who can convert the world. But even with priests and parents, you still have other things, right? You know, we have religious education for a reason because we need more teachers, more witness. So, GodTeens, CCD, Catholic schools, right? They're all examples of: "Here's a person who's a teacher and hopefully a witness as well." And they're showing us how to do that. 

This now allows me to transition to my more practical thing that I want to talk about. Back in November, I said, "OK, we're finally having a balanced budget. What are the dreams we haven't let ourselves dream for years because we couldn't afford to? What are the things that we need?" And so I've mentioned that I'd like to see us give stipends to our musicians. I'd like to have a St Vincent de Paul [society], which I talked all about last week. To do some other little things here in the church. And —back then— I said, I'd like to have a youth minister, a part time youth minister to be able to help right here in the parish. Right. Gery Kenney is a campus minister for Bishop Newman. But that's just Bishop Neumann, 7-12. I want something for the parish. And if it actually helps the other parishes in the county, the, great, that's awesome, too. But somebody who reaches out in that way. 

And so— I can't do a lot with Microsoft, but I can do an Excel spreadsheet— so I made a little sheet asking myself, can we actually make this a full time job? Because someone said to me, "Father, you're not going to get a quality person if it's just part time. If you want somebody with real skills, I think you have to make it full time. Don't make it a youth minister. Make it a full parish catechetical director —with youth ministry— but also with adult education as well. And I think we can fill that 40 hours. By the way, that personal also then gave me ten thousand dollars saying, "Go for the big bucks; go for the full time job; make it a 40 hour job. Get somebody who's good at this." And then another person last week, give me another five thousand dollars. So I got fifteen thousand dollars. And now I want your money, too. All right. Because if you hear what I'm saying and it appeals to, if you say that's what we need, that would be good for our parish. Well, then, yeah, "Say, Father, here's a thousand bucks. We'll spread it out over the year." Right or, you know, "Here, we want to help in some way because we want this."

The person I'm looking for, the kind of person I'm looking for is, intelligent, personally talented, but also very resourceful, comfortable with young people, but also can talk to adults. (Some people can talk to young people but can't have an adult conversation; it's pretty awkward. Right?) Somebody who's organized; a lot of this stuff is actually organization. And somebody can talk to groups, but also talk one on one to individual people and help them. The reason I'm bringing this up now is spring is the time to look for someone. February, March. That's about as late as you want to go. Teachers are turning over jobs. Youth ministers are turning over jobs. Focused missionaries who have a lot of these talents I'm going to describe they're leaving their jobs; and some are looking for a nice, quiet little Nebraska town to settle down in. That's why we should be ready to grab these people. 

So I'm going to share some of these ideas here. Number one thing, absolute number one thing. I think we should have multiple Bible studies at Wahoo Public high school. I think that's an essential thing to reach out there. There's opportunities there. I would like at least two. Maybe it's guys/girls. Maybe it's older/younger. I don't care. But at least two to start with. I think this person should be the junior high CCD teacher. Junior high is a hard age. It's a hard age to teach. And If we're being also honest: oftentimes people, throughout the country, you get confirmed and you're like "Eh, I don't really need education any more." That happens throughout our country. So if you're going to have a junior high teacher, they better be good. They better be able to attract people to stay with it through those middle years. Right? 

The diocese is inviting every freshman in our diocese in the fall to come to a freshman "Encounter" retreat. It's like a one day retreat at Pius high school. It's not teaching. It's not catechetical. It's witnessing and evangelizing. And then they'll go back to their parishes having made these little "freshmen encounter groups". And so I think this person should be very instrumental in forming that and maybe even leading that freshman encounter group. This will eventually kind of age-out GodTeens. But you also need somebody who can help with GodTeens right now. This person would help with that. 

But also, what about adults? We said it's important. I think I've come to realize that I talk to high for RCIA. I think I shoot over people's heads. You know that every Sunday, right? So the idea would be, let's have this person teach RCIA to people who are new. I can do another Adult Ed class on another day. And then I'd like this person to teach a second class. That'd give you three adult education opportunities throughout the week. They'd be amazing because we totally act like if you're 18, you're fine; we'll never teach you again. Right, just come to Mass on Sunday. But we need those opportunities. Also, I want at least two adult Bible studies, and these would be like "led Bible studies". Here's a person who has a set of knowledge and information. Let them teach you how to pray. Let them teach you to be disciples. Let them teach those kind of things. Also, a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Meeting with priests, finding out what we're doing and what we need. Meeting with other youth ministers in the area. Finding your peers and learning what they're doing. Work with them. Assorted preparation work. 

Meeting with parishioners—this is huge. Some people will come talk to priests, but other people won't, right? And people are like, "I don't want to go there; I don't want to I talk to a priest." Could this person, like, do one-on-one discipleship over the long term with people that be awesome? I think they should at least three hours available a week to do that. Maybe also just doing like one-time counseling, not discipleship, but like, "I just an hour to talk to somebody; can I share my thoughts with you?" That would be a great thing. Also, things like FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, we have it here in Wahoo, maybe they can work with them. 

Junior high. Junior high gets forgotten. People just totally forget that, right? We'll take care of you K-6 and then we'll take care of you at 9-12; we got stuff that. And junior high is just like a wasteland, right? Just like: it's left there. We should be having regular activities for our junior high, both in the Catholic schools and in the public schools. We should be pulling them together and doing events. I think this also be monthly events where everyone in like the high schools can come together. Also service opportunities, not because we need service hours, but because just even once a week there's an option that, "You could go serve?" I think people would do that if it's regular. We need somebody who knows: this old lady can't clean her house, somebody who knows that this old man can't do his yard. We need to have those options: go to the food pantry and organize. If you do those regularly, it doesn't seem weird and extraordinary when you try to have service. 

This next one is gonna be a little weird. I'm gonna explain it. I think we should have dinner for CCD, at least the older kids, because what happens? You come out of practice —fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade— and you don't have time to do all three of these: to eat, to shower and to go to CCD. So either you come sweaty, or you come hungry, or you don't come, right? So put the meal in there. They eat fast: 15 minutes to eat a hot meal and go right to your classroom? I think that's reasonable. You could have a different family every week for like 15 weeks and then do it again next semester. This person could coordinate that. They don't have to cook 30 meals, but they could coordinate and help in that in that way. I'd love to. Also, it lets us use our cafeteria, the new cafeteria, on Wednesday nights immediately as soon as we have it done. That would be great. 

Other things. This is huge to me —I don't know if this person will have the skill set, but somebody needs to do this— I want Religious Ed, even if it's just an hour a week, for people with special needs. Maybe it's special needs kids, because they need to know Jesus. Or maybe it's adults. When I was in Hastings, there was a religious sister who would do special needs for like 16 to 40 year olds and they would watch Bible videos; they would learn about Jesus. Nobody takes care of those people. Nobody gives them religious education like anywhere in this country. We need that. They should know Jesus, too. They should know the Bible, too. So maybe that's this person. Maybe not. But I want it. 

Somebody checks with the homeschoolers even just a couple times a month" "Like, how are you doing? Do you want to come to our stuff, these events? That'd be great." Somebody who visits 6th Grade, in CCD and at St. Wenc. How are you gonna get them into junior high stuff? Talk to them in sixth grade. And then finally, just promoting diocesan events. World Youth Day, March for life, TEC retreats, SKY Camp, the canoe trip... Any of those things, they would promote those. 

According to my sheet, that's 19 and a half hours directly in front of people and 19 to 21 hours behind the scenes, because you should have about 1 to 1 on those things. Now, not every week has all of that, of course. Right. But the idea that over the course of a month they could be doing 30 to 35, maybe 40 hours— that I think is worth it. If this is a thing that interests you and you think this the thing we should do. Let me know. Help me out here. Say, "This is this is a worthwhile thing." And give me names, too, if you can think of people,. 

Finally I just want to say: the beauty of this is that it's not just teaching. If people are teaching and witnessing, they make other teachers; they make other witnesses. If this person can do that also for adults in Bible studies, then you have an army of teachers, an army of witnesses to go out there and share the faith. 



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