On Thursday of this week the priests of our Diocese got together with Bishop Crosby for a small convocation to discuss a few issues. We were seated at different tables, and I was in a group with a few elderly priests and during the break one of them burst into a response rather quickly. "Do you know what takes away my energy as a Pastor?", "No", I replied "Gossip and complaints! When someone begins a story - based on a lie - and it then leads to a bunch of complaints."
He began to become very animated about this whole thing and then turned to me and said "do you ever get complaints...do people gossip in your parish?" I chuckled and smiled and said; "well actually yes." "Over what?" He asked. I said, "well funny enough, speed bumps." He replied "what!?" I said "well we had to put a speed bump in the rectory drive way that is shared with a small parking lot of our Church after a little incident, and well just about everyday people complain about it." He laughed. I went on. " I am the one who goes over that speed bump more than anyone else in the parish; its right outside my garage. It doesn't bother me. But I know it serves a purpose."
Speed bumps - they serve a purpose, and why we don't ask for them, they really shouldn't let them bother us. We encounter them on the road and in driveways. We become engaged by them in relationships and in life. We become fatefully embraced by them spiritually as well. They slow us down, halt us, reduce our pace, relax our acceleration and for otherwise they affect our frame or state of being.
Spiritually what is the purpose of a speed bump and how do we handle them? Well - much the same way as the very one in the driveway outside the rectory.
1. Notice them
We become attentive to them, we see them, acknowledge them, ask why they are there, seek to see the purpose they serve or the danger they are trying to prevent.
2. Prepare for them
We hopefully don’t speed up when we see a speed bump - if you do I fear for the suspension of your car. If there is a spiritual or emotional speed bump in your life right now - are you slowing down? Pacing yourself thru it? Or are you speeding up to get through it or because of your anger that it is there. If so, I fear for the balance of your life as well - are you in balance?
3. Moving beyond them - keep moving
So much of how we respond to life - its unprepared encounters - is what we do - do we let them halt us or do we keep moving. Stopping on a speed bumps gets us no where.
That is why gossip is so harmful - its someone who can’t get over something telling another person so they can’t get over and its just keeps going on and on at the same spot.
That is why hatred is so harmful - its someone who can’t get over an experience permitting that experience to harm them, affect them and forever change them because they re live the same spot.
That is why anger, resentment is so harmful - its an experience which people are stopping at, halting over and just allowing it to fester in their lives - and more seriously - their soul.
Pope Francis, selected this week as our new Holy Father, strikes me as a man at peace with himself, His God and life. Have their been, will their be - speed bumps in his life - o yes, but he is at peace. He wears the shoes he wishes, carries himself in the proper manner he wishes, and leads his life - in union with Christ, His Church, Moral Teachings.
One lady in our parish remarked - "when I saw him I thought - he is someone I could just hug." His security might have something to say about that. Not being a huge hugger, I thought - why - well because he is at peace with himself and its shows.
How do we get that way - well St Paul gives us the total answer: " I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8-14). Please Him, be fair in His eyes, take everything to prayer and handle life on your knees standing proud. Don’t let the speed bumps - in life, in spirituality - even in my driveway - take you off course - notice them, prepare for them, move beyond them - live in peace!
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.