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I teach a course in
organization theory for new students enrolled in the Masters in Public
Administration program at Villanova University. When students register
for this course, the Dean tells them they will be “Jacobized,” leaving
them to ponder what that means. That having been said, most students
are eager to be told what they need to do so that they might be
successful leaders of their hospitals, social service agencies, schools,
police and fire departments, foundations, and the like.
When introducing the
course, I tell my students how, during my travels over the years, I have
observed business people reading those “how to” books. Prominent titles
have included, among others: “Dressing for success,” “The one minute
manager,” “Iacocca,” “The fifth discipline,” “Building learning
organizations.” Spying upon these people as they poring over and savor
the content, it appears that they have happened upon the Holy Grail of
effective leadership.
In that introductory
lecture, I also mention that I don’t believe those “airplane books” are
worth the paper they are printed on. I say this because I believe
successful leadership is more about character than a set of clothing,
more about principles than of cookie-cutter recipes, and more of taking
responsibility for one’s decisions than blaming a book’s now-wealthy
author (or, for that matter, a professor of a graduate course) for the
mistakes one has made in doing what they were told to do. It’s the
equivalent of blaming the chef because the recipe one follows doesn’t
look anything like the picture in the cookbook. In short, successful
leadership involves wisdom more than it does knowledge.
However, most of my
students have their sights set on acquiring knowledge while I want each
of my students to become wise. Most of them come wanting to learn about
what has worked in the past, yet I want each of them to be more capable
of making principled decisions in the future. Furthermore, most
students are thirsting for certainty, while I want them to be doubtful.
And, while most students come to this course believing that success
requires telling others what they need to do, I come to this course
believing that success will require my students to listen to what others
have to say.
While it’s easy for us
to sit back, consider the challenges I am presenting to my graduates
students in this introductory lecture, and see that they’ve got it all
wrong in their minds, the caricature I’ve presented pretty well
describes the attitudes of many of us who aren’t taking courses in
public administration.
Standing in the
checkout line at the food store, all one has to do is peruse the banner
headlines of the magazines and tabloids to see lots of the quick answers
and cookie-cutter recipes that people must be hungering for in their
daily lives. If it’s not the miracle diet that promises to melt away
all of the added bulk one has accumulated during the winter months to
avoid being embarrassed by one’s corpulence when sporting a swim suit at
the shore, it’s how to set up a situation to seduce one’s “domestic
partner” and put the spark back into the relationship. (I do find it
interesting to note how, in recent years, the phrase “domestic partner”
and “sleep partner” have replaced the antiquated word “spouse.” A
Chinese proverb teaches: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by
their rightful names.” But, that’s another homily.)
Many parents are also
on the hunt for quick answers and cookie-cutter recipes. If it’s not
reading books that prescribe how to raise children perfectly so that
they will never present any problems (Dr. Spock being first to make it
big in this genre of self-help books), it’s perusing the self-help
articles and columns in the magazines in the doctor’s or dentist’s
office, the automobile repair shop, or barbershop or hairdresser’s
salon, for quick fixes to “kid problems.” It seems as if parents are
very eager to discover new tricks that will get their children and
teenagers to do what these parents want their kids to do.
People seem so
desperate today to find quick-fix solutions to life’s daily problems
when, in reality, today’s scripture suggests that people really should
really be searching for wisdom so that they might discern what virtue
requires and is truly life giving. Whether it’s about diets, marital
relationships, or raising kids, what many people want when they turn to
the alleged “experts” is information concerning what has worked in the
past so they can implement it in the present. The truth be told, what
people really need is wisdom so that they can make principled decisions
which will benefit them, their marital relationships, and their
children…maybe not immediately right here and now, but in the future as
parents and kids become wise and more virtuous.
Like my students who
want certainty, people
“on the hunt”
do not realize that
their doubt and wonder about what they need to do is, in reality, the
first step along the pathway to wisdom. And, if these people profess
themselves to be people of faith, they are looking for wisdom in all of
the wrong places in those airplane books and magazines and tabloids at
the grocery store’s check out.
That is what today’s
first reading from the Book of Proverbs teaches. Written in the style
of a loving Jewish father who is teaching his beloved son about how to
live as a religious person in a very secular world, the Book of Proverbs
offers readers the accumulated wisdom of the day. In this sense, each
proverb pits the secular “how to’s” against the religious perspective
provided by “wisdom.”
The culture in which
the ancient Jews lived was very hedonistic. For example, engaging in
sexual relations with prostitutes was commonplace. In today’s proverb,
the writer plays on this image by presenting Wisdom as a more alluring
and charming figure than Wisdom’s opposite, Folly, a prostitute. Lady
Wisdom invites the faithful to come to her house and to enjoy the
banquet she has prepared. The fine foods gracing Wisdom’s table
represent her ability to nourish the human spirit while the seven
columns represent the virtues becoming a perfect character. In
contrast, Folly promises to satisfy her customers, too; but partaking of
her fare leads not to fullness of life but to misery and death. Quite
obviously, this father wants his son to frequent Wisdom’s house and to
live well, not a house of prostitution.
From a biblical
perspective, “wisdom” is “the ability to live one’s life faithfully in a
cruel and harsh world” especially one like ours that has been seduced by
Folly’s promises.
Oftentimes, however, we
don’t think about ourselves or our culture being seduced in this way.
But, it’s true. We do equate happiness with possessing things more than
with being virtuous. But, that’s nothing other than materialism. We
also accord greater weight to the opinions of worldly figures like
celebrities and rock stars than we do to religious figures like the
Archbishop or Pope. And, we do eagerly anticipate sleeping in on the
weekend more than we do keeping holy the Sabbath. That’s nothing other
than secularism. Lastly, we dispose of perfectly good things simply
because a “new and better, improved model” has just been introduced into
the marketplace. “I don’t want it anymore. Give it to the St. Vincent
de Paul Society,” we say. That’s nothing but blatant consumerism.
For people of faith who
live in a culture mesmerized by Folly’s false promises, all of those
airplane books and self-help magazines and tabloids offer nothing more
than sheer and utter stupidity. That is, if one’s goal is to make
progress along the pathway of wisdom.
The content of biblical
wisdom, then, is not knowledge but principles. Being wise is not about
knowing what to do and then doing it as if one is a robot. Instead,
wisdom is revealed in the character of a virtuous person who makes
principled and deliberate choices in very difficult and challenging
circumstances.
Unfortunately, many of
us learn this wisdom far too late in life, perhaps only after we
recognize “the errors of our former ways” or maybe have also made a
wreck of the lives of other people.
For example, how many
“liberated” women have found, after years of chasing the Holy Grail of
greed, ambition, and success in a worldly career, that they actually
have been prisoners because there’s nothing more fulfilling than being
an at-home mom who watches her children advance each day in grace and
wisdom before God and humanity? For their part, how many at-home moms
know this but are embarrassed or feel inferior because they do not have
a worldly career? Given the choice, how many kids would rather that mom
be at home when the kids arrive after school? What’s “kid-dom” when
mom’s not home with homemade cookies and a glass of milk waiting right
after school and asking about everything that happened at school? Folly
has seduced women in our culture from their earliest years with the
promise that they could “have it all.” Yet, all Folly has delivered is
emptiness, regrets, lost childhoods, and no memories.
How many business
executives have, for years, traveled all over the world to promote their
corporation’s interests, only to discover all too late that, although
they were able to give their children everything they wanted, they
weren’t there when their children needed them? And, how many of us
who’ve never been executives feel ashamed because we’ve don’t believe
that we’ve ever succeeded in life even though we are surrounded by a
loving family who’ve had all of their needs met because of our hard work
and active presence in their lives? Given the choice, how many kids
would rather that dad be at home and involved in their lives or away on
business trips? Folly has seduced us with the promise that we “could
get around the problem” as we serve Mammon. Yet, all Folly has
delivered is lost hopes, strained relationships, and perhaps
estrangement.
How many parents have
openly advocated permissive approaches to teenage drinking and sex,
believing they were responsibly curbing illegal and immoral behavior
when, in fact, they were actively promoting both? And, how many
parents, when attacked and ridiculed by friends, neighbors, and even
their own kids for upholding what the law and morality require, have
given in to those who are allegedly wise in the ways of the world? We
all know what teenagers want, but what teenager in his or her right mind
would approve one’s own children dabbling in these and other similar
illegal and immoral behaviors? Teenagers know what’s right, proper, and
just as well as what’s wrong, improper, and unjust. Yet, once again,
Folly has seduced us with the promise of being able to get around the
personal difficulties posed by being role models and providing strong
moral discipline for our children. Instead, she has delivered
out-of-control parents and children who lower the standard of morality,
civility, and legality.
How many of us, despite
the protestations of our parents or friends, have jumped too quickly
into what ended up being failed marriages? Or, how many of us lived
together before getting married, only to discover that the spiritual and
psychological bond of connectedness upon which a strong marriage is
built on isn’t there because the couple didn’t want to enter the mystery
of the sacrament wholly depending upon each other and God but decided to
test out the mystery first? Folly has seduced us with the promise of
“happily ever after” should the test work. But, all that Folly has
delivered is disaffection, alienation, and divorce.
And, what about the
ideology of the birth control and sex education culture? Did it reduce
unwanted pregnancy, obliterate the abortion industry, and eliminate
divorce? Folly has seduced us with the promise of sex without
responsibility but has delivered suffering, pain, and death instead.
Lastly, some of our
fellow citizens are clamoring to define “marriage” as anything and
everything two human beings can legally contract and, if they can get
their church to condone it, to call this union a “sacrament ordained by
God”? Folly has seduced us with the promise that “same sex
marriage” will advance social justice, decrease prejudice, and increase
marital bliss. Wisdom teaches that Folly will deliver the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah instead
or, as St. Paul said
it succinctly in his Letter to the Ephesians: “Once we were also ruled
by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry,
and we were going to be punished like everyone else.”
Many people find this
sort of talk too hard to endure. It sparks feelings of guilt, anger,
and resentment which, in turn, oftentimes are directed at the messenger
with the hope that the message won’t be delivered. We’ve all heard
people complain that the Pope has no right to say anything about Church
teaching in matters of faith and morals. Likewise, I’ve been told after
Sunday mass that “priests are paid to say these things, to make us feel
guilty. I don’t come to church to get that!” I have also been asked,
“What do you know about what it’s like to live in the real
world?”
Fortunately, Scripture
and Church teaching aren’t based upon how people feel or public opinion
polls. No, both are rooted in God’s Wisdom. Their sole purpose (pardon
the pun) is remind those who listen to and ponder the message that our
true nourishment is found in the house that Wisdom has built, not in the
house of prostitution that Folly seduces us into building. “Wisdom has
built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her
meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table.” The challenge the
Book of Proverbs places before us today, then, is to avoid the detours
that Folly seduces us into taking and, instead, to use the standard of
faith and its seven columns―the
first of which is wisdom―to make our decisions.
If this is hard to
take, then consider what Jesus told his disciples in today’s Gospel:
“Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you
do not have life within you.”
Folly wants to seduce
us into believing that we are alive and that we don’t need to think
about anything more than the pleasures of the present moment. But
Wisdom teaches us that even if we can walk and talk and breathe and feel
our heart pulse, we are not alive because Folly can deliver no future
…only misery and death. That’s the price that Folly extracts of us.
Unless disciples
partake of Jesus’ body and blood, they are not alive because they have
no future. Instead, they are prisoners of the present moment’s
pleasure, waiting only to breathe their last.
For all of us who want
to live as Jesus’ disciples, then, it is as we partake of his flesh and
blood that our walking and talking and breathing and feeling our pulsing
hearts are transformed into life for the world, making wise decisions
not only for the present moment but also for our future in God’s
eternity.
I think this is what
the Dean means by being
“Jacobized.”
That is, one is challenged to think more clearly about things that make
absolutely no sense. |
HOMILY
