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Fr. James R. Motl, O.P.
Personal phone: 314-977-7336 |
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I am writing my fall column on the Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary time. The Gospel for the day climaxes with the remarkable saying of Jesus, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” The first image this brings to my mind is a ticket line or a supermarket line with everybody pushing to get to the rear end of the line in order to be first. Jesus has more in mind here, however, than a reverse strategy for getting ahead. My response, in fact, shows how thoroughly I am infected with the competitive atmosphere of the contemporary world. The Olympic games that we observed in late August highlight the competitiveness of our society. The attention of American media focused on gold medals, the winners, the best in the world. Often taking a silver medal was portrayed as a loss, a disgrace. Even when the difference between first and second place was timed in thousandths of a second what called for attention was the win. Against this background what chance of being heard does a call to be last in people’s estimation have?
The real question is, does humbling yourself mean being last. For Jesus it did not. There can be no doubt that in urging his disciples to humble themselves he was asking them to follow in his footsteps. He, though Messiah and God, came as the son of a carpenter from Galilee. As a preacher and wonder worker he attracted large crowds but remained a wandering preacher both admired and scorned. In the end scorn seemed to triumph over admiration. Jesus was humbled on the cross. Thousands of his followers willingly followed him to death in succeeding generations. Today their example calls us to follow in their footsteps. This call, however, is not one that summons us to make less of ourselves than we really are. Jesus and his disciples certainly did not do that. Rather they made fullest use of the talents God had given them in order to make known the great love God has for the people He has created and called to his Kingdom. Following their example means for us self-examination not only for our sins, but also for the gifts God has given us. Only when we recognize our gifts can we begin to ask God to show us how best to use them to bring Jesus’ Kingdom call to people in our times. That was Dominic’s understanding of his call to follow Christ, and it should be ours.
Several people have shown me in the past few months that the spirit of Jesus and of Dominic live on. Mary Lee Odders requested at the last Provincial Council meeting to be relieved of her duties as editor of Challenge. She asked for volunteers to take her place. One member has offered to become the new editor, Joseph Komadina, a long time member of Queen of the Holy Rosary Chapter in St. Louis. Joe is a past moderator of that chapter. He is familiar with the technology necessary to produce the newsletter and is acquainted with many aspects of the Lay Dominicans of St. Albert’s Province. He was approved by a majority of the members of the Executive Board of the Provincial Council and has been confirmed by Ruth Kummer to become the new editor after this issue of Challenge. I want to thank Joe for his generosity in accepting this responsibility. I also want to thank Mary Lee for the years she has given to publishing Challenge at the same time that she acted a Provincial Treasurer. I thank her for her timely reminders to me to get the Promoter’s Page in on time and for seeking interesting and valuable materials to make the newsletter more than an information page. Mary Lee and now Joe both provide us with examples recognizing personal gifts and offering them for the service of Lay Dominicans throughout the Province
Guy Murphy and the River Forest Chapter are working with lay members of other religious orders again this year to sponsor “A Celebration in Thanksgiving for Lay Orders.” The celebration will be at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago beginning with liturgical prayer and the Rosary at 1:00 p.m. followed by Mass at 2:00 p.m. and a reception at 3:00 p.m. For more information contact Fr. Vidal at 773-638-5800, ext. 55. Last year’s celebration was a great success. I encourage all who can get to Chicago to attend. I hope that if there is a similar event in your area you can attend it or help to sponsor it. If you need some help in getting this kind of celebration started in your area, I’m sure that Guy would be happy to offer suggestions.
Ruth Kummer has been working at filling a number of positions created by the Provincial Council and Executive Board meetings last March. The Council asked that a new Development Committee be set up to prepare plans for increasing the membership of our Province by helping existing chapters to grow and by developing a strategy for establishing new chapters. That Committee will meet for the first time in October. Ruth is also establishing stronger contacts with two Iraqi chapters in the Detroit area. These contacts have the potential of expanding our provincial membership by several hundred Lay Dominicans. In my summer Promoter’s Page I reported the establishment of a new Vietnamese chapter in Denver with the help of Jim Steffens. I will be going to Kansas City, Missouri, in a few weeks to see if we can get a new chapter started there. We can do still more to make a Dominican lay way of life available to people who want to live out our ideals of prayer, study, community, and ministry. I hope that the Development Committee will help us all learn how to be humble, that is, to discover and use our talents to extend our Dominican way of following Christ to as many as we can.