It is a strange ending, isn’t it, to today’s gospel passage. The guy is invited last minute to the feast, and then is yelled at and kicked out because he did not have time to rent a tux. How do we understand this? Is it really about the clothes he is wearing? Or something more?
So let me share a true story from our priest’s convocation last month that may help. I had the gift of sitting at the table with the Archbishop Carlson for one of the morning sessions. The work of that morning’s session was to name the values for us as priests to live in our relationships with one another. In the course of our conversation, the Archbishop articulated two ‘negative’ values, as things he did NOT want to see, as a way of helping us own what we DID want to see. He said there is no room in the priesthood for:
- Priests in private practice
- and what he called “the second Tribalism” — priests who only relate to those who think the same way they do.
Nothing will destroy a diocesan priesthood more quickly than those two trends. Nothing will prevent the bonds of fraternity from deepening than those attitudes.
I have reflected on those words these past few weeks since our return from Convocation. I realized that I am guilty sometimes of being a “pastor in private practice”. You have been very patient as I have slowly learned how to be a pastor ‘while on the job’ here. But more often than not, I tend to hold my own counsel in terms of decisions, and in terms of the running of the parish. Though that is an efficient way to make decisions, it does not work very well in terms of using the gifts of the baptized. It speaks of an attitude that does not shepherd the community by empowering its leaders. It is easy to be a pastor in private practice.
It, I fear, is also easy to be a parishioner in ‘private practice’. “I come to mass. I get there just in time or on St. Ann time. I say the prayers, lend my slightly off key or wonderful voice to the singing. I receive the Lord in communion. And make my way home without ever having interacted with the people in the pew two in front or two behind me. And more importantly, without ever asking how God might be inviting me to be a parishioner in PUBLIC PRACTICE – connecting, serving, giving of who I am in concrete, tangible ways.”
THAT is why the man is thrown out of the banquet. He was ‘there’ physically, but not there, ‘dressed for the banquet’ – not engaged in doing the work of the kingdom – by being involved in relationships, caring for others, giving of who he was for the good of others. Sure, he could have gotten a garment from a supply that most hosts would have in a side closet. (like the jackets and ties that some fancy restaurants also provide.) But the fact that he didn’t and that he stayed silent said he was only there for the food and nothing else. This little story, tells us exactly what the Archbishop said that morning around the table: there is no room in the kingdom for people trying to go it alone, people unwilling to get involved in life, involved in relationships, involved in caring for others. The bouncers toss him from the gathering because he is unwilling to do what the celebration asks of him.
To put it another way, it is not sufficient just to be called/just to be a catholic. Once one answers the call, one must choose to be ready for the festival, to be prepared for the joy, to dress for the event. Everyone is invited, but the decision as to what you do when you arrive is up to you.
Concretely, like that exercise at the priests’ convocation, this week in your prayer, if you had to name a few values or virtues that we, as the people of St. Ann should be living, what would you name? We understand that tribalism and private practice don’t cut it. But what does? Hospitality – certainly we do that. Engagement? And how would you be willing to live that out? By volunteering at one event per semester? Make it as concrete as possible. And then please filter those ideas to me, or to the stewardship committee as they work to move me away from being a pastor in private practice.
The good news is that we ALL are invited to the party called the kingdom of heaven. Get ready for it, for it is not just the party of the season, or the century, but of our eternity.