Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 29, 2010 - St. Catherine of Siena, O.P., Virgin and Doctor of the Church
[Acts 13:13-25 and John 13:16-20]Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
All of us who are engaged in full time ministry as a representative of the Church hope and pray that those words of Jesus are coming true in our efforts! Jesus speaks these words just after having washed the feet of the disciples at the last supper. He has charged them with following his example! St. Catherine of Siena took that example seriously and was a one-woman social welfare agency in addition to the good works of the Dominican lay group to which she belonged and the tremendously profound relationship she had with the Lord. As I go from parish to parish in my itinerant preaching, inevitably I hear complaints from parishioners about this or that person on the parish staff. Some of these, I know, are the result of demands by the complainer which may not be reasonable or may be presented at an inopportune time! All of us in ministry are familiar with that reality. On the other hand, we also know that we may be dealing with someone who has been "away from the church" for a long time and is "testing the waters" before making a decision about coming back! If we consider ourselves to be someone whom Christ has "sent," we need to be aware that this power is not OURS but Christ's power. If we substitute our desires and ambitions for that power, we stand in the way of Christ. Whether we be pastor or janitor at a parish, we are in service to God's people. St. Catherine may represent a somewhat extreme effort (she died in her early 30's) but there could be no doubt in her conduct as to whom she represented and whose example she was following. AMEN
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