Soulful Muse

Who needs a health club when you have a job!

Jumping to conclusions
Flying off the handle
Dodging responsibility
Pushing your luck
Pushing the sale
“Just punt”
Doing an endrun around projects
You’re stepping out of line
You dodged that bullet
Just throw it in the trash
“Let’s take a time-out”
Throw in the towel
“Let’s put that on hold”
Rushing to conclusions
Shoving a knife in your co-workers back
Knocking the business down
Circling the issue
Stepping on her toes
“Let’s take a step back”
Tripping each other up
Running around in circles
This is over my head
Run over by a bus
Racing toward the deadline
Sidestepping expectations
Dancing around the issue
Stretching the truth
Pulling for others
Dragging out old grudges
and finally…
Butting heads together

And it’s all done before lunch!

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS. All available at Amazon.com
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and U.S. culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflections on the Christian seasons
of Advent/Christmas & Lent/Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,”
reflections on the Catholic Church and U.S. culture

Newest books include:
“Letters From My Cats,”
a collection of letters written by my cats
“Bowling Through Life’s Stages,”
Bowling as a metaphor for growing up

When you imagine what a prophet looks like, most likely it’s a raggedy dressed, messy beard (always a man, by the way), standing on a street corner yelling at everyone passing by but no one is stopping to listen.

That’s our imagination of a prophet. How would you imagine a righteous person? That’s easy. A blah sort of person, sitting in a corner of the room watching everyone else and thinking to him/herself, “I’m glad I’m not like them.” A righteous person, indeed.

Well, you know where I’m headed in this sermon, I’m about to dismiss both of those images.

If I went around the church today and asked each of you if you’re a prophet and a righteous person – you’d all say, “no,” but then think to yourselves, “I’m ‘kinda’ both.”

Prophet

I can tell you today that you’d all be ‘kinda’ correct. I like that word kinda. It has a middle ground feeling to it. “Are you happy today?” Kinda. “Are you feeling okay today?” Kinda.

A prophet informs the present because of understanding the past with a hint toward the future. Want to hear that again? It’s important.

Jesus was a prophet as well as how many others we could name from the Bible and over the centuries. Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar Romero, Thomas Merton, your mom. Wait! Your mom!?

Yes, your mom. She’s the one who told you not to put your hand on the stove. You didn’t listen and wonder how those painful blisters got there. Because you see, your mom learned that from her mom who learned it from her mom. None of them listened until the blister-thing happened. Now that prophetic message is communicated generation after generation to non-listening children’s ears. That’s the prophet each of us is.

“Do your homework if you want to get into a decent college.”
“Do the dishes because you’ll be washing them the rest of your life.”
“Learn to iron your dress shirts, it makes a difference for your first interview.”
“Wash your hands,” for obvious reasons.

When questions of faith arise each of us can be a prophet in our own personal way. We have centuries to fall back upon and our own experiences to build upon. That’s what makes a prophet. A prophet informs the present because of understanding the past with a hint toward the future.

Righteousness.

We tend to think of righteousness as an end we achieve and settle into but it’s really the quality of our lives lived each day. Some days we may hit the nail on the head in our behavior and the next day falters a bit. But we always have an open eye toward what is just, dignified and acceptable in God’s eyes.

I think one of the most beautiful parts of being a Christian is that we don’t need to perfectly land each day. We’re empowered, however, to keep trying, each day. Christians kinda do the right thing and other times kinda fail. But, we admit our failings and promise God to try better the next time. No one – God, angels or anyone else can ask no more or less of ourselves. So, please keep trying to be “kinda” prophetic and righteous people.

Now. I’m not kinda finished talking, I am finished.

And thank you for kinda listening.

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS. All available at Amazon.com:
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflections on the Christian seasons
of Advent/Christmas & Lent/Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,”
reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture

Newest books are “Letters From My Cats,”
a collection of letters written by my cats
“Bowling Through Life’s Stages,”
Bowling as a metaphor for us growing up

 

I know I look like Brad Pitt but I don’t want to be him. I wouldn’t want to be Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise either.

For the oldsters, it may be Douglas Fairbanks, Gary Cooper or Humphrey Bogart. Wouldn’t want to be any of them.

Is it because of their fame, money or large estates? Nope. It’s because of their stars. They’re usually the reason you go to a theater. They’re the drawing card.

What I do want to be and I hope I am, is a character actor. A character actor. I’m not sure what that means but I know its purpose. Character actors make the story in a movie move forward. They inform and enlighten the star of the movie. Often character actors are very smart people – they know everything about marriage yet they’re not married. (Go figure.) They don’t make much money, usually a have happy job and are quite content with themselves. I guess that’s why the star turns to them for confidence, perspective or saying to the star, “just get off your butt and go get the girl of your dreams.”

Jesus is telling us all to become character actors. Not the stars with top billing but secondary actors with a more important role in the lives of others. “Take my yoke” and place it upon your shoulder, Jesus says. In other words, take my problems and make them your own, as best you can.

You’re watching a movie and you see this character actor doing what characters do. You swear you’ve seen him before but you can’t remember the name of the other film. And, you can’t remember his name. At a party you hear someone say, “I know I’ve seen him in a lot of films, who is he; who is she, go Google it.”

Believe it or not but Jesus was a character actor. He wasn’t the star of the greatest movie ever made. His dad was the star. Jesus helped to move the story line forward to each of us. Jesus uses every preposition possible (“with, in, through”) to connect himself to his dad but in that union the center of attention is the star, our Creator.

Louis Guzman has been in 145 television shows and movies. I know you don’t know his name but if you saw his face, you’d say, “I know that guy!”

A good friend is telling you a troubling story and you could easily interrupt with a troubling story of your own (or trumping your friend with an even more troubling story) but you keep your mouth shut. If you were to speak then there’d be two stars on life’s stage instead of the necessary one. You listen as best you can. You’re able to console, give advice and keep a listening stare to support your friend.

A “listening stare,” a good term. It’s golden in its meaning and in measuring a friend’s yoke that’s been placed upon your shoulders.

I’m not the star. I’m a character in faith, a character in friendship and a character in fact.

Did you know that Rosie O’Donnell was a character actor before becoming a star? Did you know that if it wasn’t for Rosie O’Donnell, Meg Ryan would still be listening to the radio talk show host…Meg would never have returned the engagement ring to Bill Pullman…She’d never have seen the Valentine lit up on the Empire State Building…Tom Hanks would be still be talking to the talk show host and grieving his dead wife…and the kid (Ross Malinger, by the way) would have grown up without a mom.

Be a character actor. Carry someone’s yoke upon your shoulder. It may very well lessen the yoke that you carry. You can always try to become a star next year.

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Available at Amazon.com:
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflections on the Christian seasons
of Advent/Christmas & Lent/Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,”
reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture

The newest book is “Letters From My Cats,”
a collection of letters written by my cats

If someone asks me what day it is I now say that, “I think it’s Saturday.” I add “think” so they don’t put me away but inside myself, I truly believe in the Saturday-ness of it all right now.

My alarm-clock-wet-nose-cat routinely rubs his orifice into my face and I see that it’s 6:00 a.m. when I need to get up…wait, what’s the “need?” Bathroom time is still okay at my age. Whether it’s 8 or 9:00 a.m. doesn’t seem to matter much, unless I’m really tired and unable to fall asleep the night before.

My title doesn’t exist in the corporation who bought my corporation. Uniformity does make a business run more smoothly across state lines. “Who’s this guy with a title that doesn’t exist?” “I haven’t met him and never will but this is just weird.” Since they took over, “Catholic” and “compassionate” are posted everywhere I walked at work. I felt comforted that stability and strength would make us an even better facility.

It’s 10:00 a.m. now and I’ve already read the paper and caffeinated myself for a job I no longer have. My friends and two cats are comforting but the cats kinda stare at me wondering why I’m still here and it’s 10:00 a.m. I think of writing this now but then thought of doing it tomorrow. “What day is tomorrow?” I wondered and then quickly say to myself, “Why, it’s Saturday!” I’ll do it on Saturday.

One good friend offered counsel telling me that this is a “dry run” for what will last for me until death five years from now. The statement wasn’t that counseling but I was amused at having a test run for doing nothing a few years ahead of me.

True retirement must mean volunteering for a worthy cause or breakfast with like-minded friends lamenting over the destruction of the world while they are actually talking about their own destruction, as in death. (The world will continue on without you guys, trust me.)

Most of my immediate time is reflecting on what happened as though my thinking could change events. It happened. I’m here. What I need to do is to be “peaceful with myself” as my sister wished. I love the phrase because my head and sleepless nights are anything but. My task, during this temporary time, is to divide up the day so that something ends and something else begins. Otherwise, this super quiet day seems endless with a heart and mind dwelling on a place that no longer exists for me.

“Oh well, that’s their problem now,” I say to myself when I sufficiently solved all their upcoming problems with grace and diligence for twenty-two years. It’s only been two days but the shock is fully felt. I need to admit to myself that this is the beginning of something new and exciting.

That was another friend’s advise, “new and exciting.” I know that it’s Saturday but now I want to make it to Noon to decide what to do with my endless afternoon and a too-much-soul-searching evening.

Where Does It Begin?

An idea comes out of nowhere but originates in the ordinary mind of an ordinary person. An idea takes mindful flight as it travels, “tossed into the air and transformed…escape and recaptured..made iridescent with fancy, and winged with paradox,” as Oscar Wilde described it.

An idea is born and finds life while still living in your imagination, germinating and looking for maturity. You wrestle with it until you feel it is honed sufficiently to present it to others. The inner grin where the idea was born slowly emerges on your confident, smiling face. The first unveiling of this creative infant is a meeting tomorrow morning with your peers.

Tentative but Excited

Sheepish and positive, you present your still-growing, tiny gem to others. You expected the first reaction. “It’ll never work,” says the steadfast employee who enjoys the present status quo and hopes the boss agrees with him. After some stumbling talk, the next remark is also expected, “It’s been tried before and didn’t work,” said the employee whose newness ended after his first year. You sit back as the chatter heightens and you observe as your newborn is laid across the table of stability, small risks and continuing paychecks.

Ingenuity, innovation and creativity are words often used to describe a company but rarely to describe its employees. The words look inspiring in an annual report but the day to day operation is more frequently heavily weighed in a steady course toward retirement.
You drive home as alone as when you went to work that day. Smiling to yourself, however, you realize that you were never alone. You had an idea. It is growing, blossoming and has potential. This idea will soon have a life of its own. For the moment it’s escaped but soon recaptured and transformed for the its next stage, and your boss will take full credit for your idea. Your inner grin returns and soon becomes your outward smile.

The 3, 6 and 9th Bowling frames are my favorites. What other sport not only allows but encourages you to drink! These three frames are called “beer frames.” When I was in college, I received a college credit for Bowling – Tuesdays, and Thursdays, true story.

3, 6 and 9 are the “fun frames” because you either receive a treat from someone or you are able to treat someone. (Although it may not feel like a treat while you’re paying for the beers.)

The other frames never really interested me which is why I’m not a serious bowler. The other frames were just stepping stones toward those “fun three.”

But there they are; those other frames – 1,2,4,5,7,8 and that defining the 10th frame.

Frames 1 and 2 are those formative years of ours. Finding the right shoes, the right weight ball (not too heavy but not too light which more easily leans toward the gutter. You get to know your teammates – some perhaps for years while others just pass through. Jesus chose twelve bowlers, not because of their skills but because of their passion. He saw something in them that triggered and excited something in him. “Maybe these guys can really pull off this ‘Kingdom of God’ stuff,” Jesus might have thought to himself.

“Oh, finally, here’s frame 3. I get to take a break and this time I get to receive a beer.” Perhaps, frame 3 is a graduation of some kind, grade school, high school, college or technical school. The first sip tells you that you’ve made it through life’s first mark and you feel great and proud of yourself.

Frames 4 and 5 bring the responsibilities of using those newly gained talents. Now’s the time to be tested. You’ve had those earlier frames to get yourself warmed up and ready; now the work really begins. I don’t like those electronic signs which show everyone’s scores. Good or bad, it’s clearly visible for all to see. (It was bad enough during a bad game to just have your teammates look at that low score next to your name.) That’s what frames 4 and 5 brings. Scrutiny. Evaluation. Comparison. Jealousy. Competition. Success or failure. You can’t help but wonder when…

“Oh wait! It’s not “Miller Time,” it’s “Frame 6 Time.” Another breather. The second pause to this game that is sometimes just like life. There may be slight milling around during this break. Talk about family changes, updates about houses or jobs, gossip about people you hardly know or sharing a stupid joke that you heard at work. Before the other team wonders what happened to you, you all gather for frames 7 and 8.

7 and 8 frames get a little easier. You’re comfortable now in your game. Either you’re slightly ahead of others, clearly ahead, solely behind or you just don’t care. Take your pick and you can link someone’s name to it. This is Jesus’ proving ground. Does he go through with this “God thing” to death or just chalk it up as a bad idea from a God he barely knows. He kneels at a stone and with a sweaty brow powerfully says, “If this can pass, I’m all for it. But if it is your will, I’m all in.” The other bowlers are sleeping off the two beers from frames 3 and 6 while Jesus continues his rumination, his doubts, his fears and truly his passion. He does this in private because no one else can capture, own, or live what he, himself, needs to do.

Oh yes, Jesus has read all the Ann Landers columns for years, the self-help books, friends from all over told him what was best for him and what the future held for him. He’s digested it all and now the 7 and 8 frames call him to something greater than himself. He suspects what it might be but is not entirely sure. He prays what he hopes it will not be but knows what he thinks it will be.

“Thank goodness, it’s the 9th frame. I thought it’d never come. Another beer! Only one more frame to go before I can place this heavy ball back into my bag. This heavy ball that has carried whatever I never wanted, what was placed upon me by life, what I carried inside myself that makes it so very, very heavy.

Roy Clark sang the song, “Yesterday When I Was Young,” and the song uses “tongue” as an image – a tongue to describe life’s regrets, successes, rewards, and punishments. Who would have thought of using a “tongue” as an image for life? Charles Aznavour. (Who would have thought of “Bowling” as an image for a Sunday sermon? Me!)

He begins the song…
“Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I’d always built to last on weak and shifting sand.
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
And only now I see how the years ran away.”
He concludes the song…
“There are so many songs in me that won’t be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.
The time has come for me to pay for
Yesterday when I was young…”

Enjoy Roy Clark’s, “Yesterday When I Was Young”

The 10th frame. It’s your final throw and the game is completed. The shoes and ball are safely tucked into your bag, your teammates wave and smile as they return to their homes and families and as Roy sings, “Only I am left on stage to end the play.” This play, this game we call life. Jesus played all the frames and came out to be to the Son of God. Who would have thought? And now what lives within us is a Kingdom of complete mercy, total forgiveness, and an enduring hope.

There are many opportunities in between those 3, 6 and 9 frames but it is those frames that help define and make us who we are today.

Whatever the weight of your life’s bowling ball, carry it carefully because it contains concerns for your children and friends, our society and your own well-being. Carry it carefully, hold it close to your chest, and even when it gets too heavy but never, ever left go of it.

Those shoes that you would never wear in public are safely tucked away in memories, reminiscences, passing thoughts about your past.

The jersey? Keep your jersey because it represents community, fellowship and family. Your jersey doesn’t say on the back, “Wonder Bar” but it says that you led a life to the best of your ability, you’ve made mistakes and you’ve accomplished successes. The mistakes, Lord, are for you to unravel and figure out. I only want to hold on to my successes.

Do you think Jesus kept his life’s bowling jersey with the same message on the back of it? I think he did because we’re on the same bowling team.

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Available at Amazon.com:
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflections on the Christian seasons of
Advent/Christmas, & Lent/Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,” reflections on the Catholic Church
and American culture

The newest book is “Letters From My Cats,” a collection of writings
from my cats’ perspectives

Available now at Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle, a great gift for cat lovers!

“It’s manna.” “No, I mean, what really is it?” “I’m telling you that it’s manna.”

At the beginning and during difficult times in our lives, this is the question we keep asking ourselves. If not those words then others similar in meaning. We may even preface those three words with the Son of God’s name with an exclamation point at the end. That statement tells us and those around us about the break from our normal to this now confusing or trying time.

“What is it?” is one definition of manna, food from Heaven. The forty-year desert travel was no picnic for the Israelites. God provided them with a daily, morning picnic of this dry food that needed to be quickly collected, eaten and stored before it evaporated. Manna from Heaven. God’s gift to help sun-drenched, thirsty people safely travel to their destination.

In difficult times we may not be able to identify or recognize a cause. We only have this one question with no response. It’s a numbing feeling, sometimes freezing. We look to manna, whether it’s a diagnosis, shocking news, a surprising turn of events or a personal shut-down. Manna allows us to gather, eat and store what we need to see through and beyond what holds us down.

Gathering, Eating & Storing

Calling our present situation “manna” allows us to make this whole experience spiritual, God-infused, God-influenced, God-centered. Including a spiritual perspective breaks us from the loneliness that bad news brings. Through prayer or meditation, we include a spirituality in our present and future deliberations. That’s the gathering of manna.

Gathering manna together with God connects us to family and friends who divinely represent the best of what manna means. We then slowly begin to eat, digest and become a part of a spiritual hope, fortitude or whatever strength we may need at the moment. (You are what you eat?!)

The storing of manna is my favorite part. Like a healthy squirrel, we fill our cheeks with all the “tomorrows” we can hold. It’s that damn “today” that holds us down but it’s those hope-filled “tomorrows” that lead to peace. If it sounds too optimistic then keep gathering until you reach a plateau beyond yourself. It is then that eating and storing will make sense and become real.

Later in the Scriptures, Jesus tells us that he’s the manna sent from Heaven. Those desert folks died, he said, but those who eat and drink of me will live forever.

Whatever union we seek, whether it’s Jesus or another form of spirituality, it all adds up to answering that haunting question during a questioning period in our lives, “What is it?”

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Available at Amazon.com:
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflection on the Christian seasons of
Advent, Christmas/Lent, Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture

The newest book is “Letters From My Cats,” a collection of writings from my cats’ perspectives

We may not always know who we are but we are error-free when is comes to knowing where we were when…

When what? Well, it’s when that happened. The “thats” are the significant events and times in our lives and the lives of others.

Kennedy assassination? Easy, sixth grade. We’d just finished the rosary after lunch and recess when Sister-Principal announces on the classroom speakers (We called her “Sister PA”) the tragic news. My sixth-grade teacher, Sister Mary Thomas had us kneel for another five of those decades to pray for the repose of our first Catholic president. (I wonder if we’d done the second time thing for a Protestant!)

Lee Harvey Oswald? Easy, also. It was late Sunday morning watching TV alone and hearing the gunshot in a tunnel transporting him to another location.

Johnny Carson’s farewell show? Cinch. I’m at a friend’s house in Illinois and he misses all the fanfare for that “old guy.” I got to hear Bette Midler sing her song to him as he wiped his eye toward the end. (Real tear of not doesn’t matter, it’s good television finishing thirty years.)

My ordination? I guess that’s not fair. Anyone in my shoes would remember everything about it. But still, it was Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and everyone’s waiting for my mother to appear. Prior to this, she decides to go for a walk with a priest-friend but we still started pretty close to the time in spite of a quizzical look from the retired bishop.

All my siblings weddings? Got it covered. I can even recall songs, food and beverages. The eldest sister’s choice was Pina Colada’s prepared in our home garage by my brother-in-law. (It was a marriage on the cheap, but still fun.) “Et Us Tu” was beautifully sung at their wedding.

I’m told that women are better at details…

I’m told that women are better at details of these “Where” events remembering colors worn, type of weather and even the shoes of others. (“She wore ‘those’ shoes to a wedding?”)

Both parent’s deaths? Exactly what you’d expect from their son. Both are engraved and never to be challenged for its details or feelings. (Even if some details may be slightly off.)

I remember my eighth-grade slap from Bishop Stanilaus V. Bono while being confirmed as a Catholic (to show being “a solider for Christ”) and serving morning grade school Masses with the priest who always smelled like strawberry jam.

1960’s songs conjure up memories with friends, locations and situations. “Atlantis,” by Donovan was playing on the driver’s radio when a friend and I hitchicked forty miles from the seminary to Appleton, WI for no apparent reason, only to prove that we could, indeed, do it.

Prince’s death and Bill O’Reilly’s dismissal both happened on vacations. The first was shock and the second was pure joy.

There’s more but you get the picture. Summon up your own “Wheres” and recollect what you can to recreate a specific time, in a particular place that partly shapes who you think you are.

Books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Available at Amazon.com:
“Soulful Muse,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture
“Living Faith’s Mysteries,” reflection on the Christian seasons of
Advent, Christmas/Lent, Easter
“Spiritual Wonderings and Wanderings,” reflections on the Catholic Church and American culture

The newest book is “Letters From My Cats,” a collection of writings from my cats’ perspectives