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3d Sunday in Advent Lk 3/10-18 |
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| Background: What do you know, John the Baptist again! Does it sound like good news that the One Who is to Come will burn people in unquenchable fire? Is that a prediction of what Jesus is like? Did not Jesus say he would not harm the bruised flax? Was he not meek and humble of heart? Yet it often seems that those who preach Jesus sound more like the Baptist than they do like Jesus. The Baptist stirred people up to change, but Jesus had to point the way for the change. There is not a trace of fanaticism in the message of Jesus. Yet how many followers of Jesus have believed that you impose the good news by hatred, oppression and even murder? How many more have thought that you win people to Jesus by making rules and enforcing them? Forgiveness, these folks seem to think, is not a sign of the good news. Fire is. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time, a new principle came to a certain Catholic school. She was very intelligent and well trained -- She even had a Ph.D. Moreover she was deeply committed to Catholic education. Finally, she was charming and persuasive. She was shocked to discover how disorganized the school was. It seemed to limp along on a muddling through policy. There were no clearly defined goals, no mission purpose, no guidelines for teachers and students. The faculty rarely had formal meetings; most of their conversation took place in the teachers lounge over coffee. Discipline in the school was lax. The kids kind of ambled down the corridor chatting as they went from room to room. Everyone was having a wonderful time but this principle believed that education was about more than having a good time. Admittedly the standardized test scores in the school were among the highest in the country. But with proper order and focus, the new principal believed that they could be even higher. Well, she imposed all kinds of new rules. Faculty meetings every week, no talking in the coffee room, silence in the corridors, strict discipline for the kids, expulsions for those who fought in the school yard. Someone remarked that, even though she was a lay woman, she might have made a fine mother superior in the goold old days. What happened? At the end of the year half the faculty quit, parents pulled their kids out of the school, test scores plummeted. But she said to the pastor, now we have a really good model school. We're organized, we have a clear mission statement, we know exactly what we are supposed to do. People will come from all over to see how we do it. Next year the test scores will be higher than ever. Yeah, said the pastor dubiously. |
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