We all know that embracing diversity is good for business. Different talents, skills and perspectives are important for our organizations to thrive because different jobs need people with different qualities to deliver superior performance. When not embraced, diversity can cause division. In this episode of By Your Life, we’ll discuss how to create unity in diversity.

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_01_27.mp3

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 27, 2019

Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, or on the right side of this page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. As I usually do when I’m reflecting on the Mass readings, I thought about how the scripture is relevant to our daily lives in the marketplace. I also look for the connection between the readings. This week, there is an obvious connection between the first reading from the Book of Nehemiah (Neh 8:2-6, 8-10), the Psalm (Ps 19:8-10, 15) and Luke’s Gospel. (Lk 1:1-4, 4:14-21)

In the first reading, Ezra read from the book of the Law and explained it to the people. In the Gospel, Jesus also reads from the scroll and interprets it for those present. In both readings, the people listened intently. And the Psalmist sings, “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul; The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.” (Ps 19:8) But then we have the second reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 12:12-14, 27) where St. Paul writes about the various parts of the body, and it left me wondering, as my grandmother used to say “What does that have to do with the price of bread?”

So, what do all these readings have to do with each other and more importantly, what do they tell us about glorifying the Lord by our lives in the marketplace?

We know that our workplaces are filled with many different people. We come in different sizes, shapes, colors, and styles and we each bring different talents, skills and perspectives to work. These differences are important for our organizations to thrive because different jobs need people with different qualities to deliver superior performance.

Just as St. Paul writes, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?” (1 Cor 12:17), so also if the whole company were accountants, where would the sales come from? And, if the whole company were sales, how would the product be made? St. Paul is encouraging us to appreciate the value of each person who contributes to the whole with none more or less important than the other.

Yah, yah, yah, I get that we need each other to succeed, but all these differences are also the source of most conflict in companies, and families, and ministries…etc. The person who has the eyes—the vision—to see the big picture and set the strategy is unrealistic to the person with the hands—the responsibility to see to it that all the details are taken care of. The one who recognizes all the details is annoying to the visionary because they’re always pointing out obstacles instead of possibilities. The salespeople get annoyed that operations can’t deliver on time and operations get annoyed that sales over-promises stuff they can’t deliver. All this fosters conflict.

“But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.” (1 Cor 12:24-25) I want to repeat that so we can let it sink in. “God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body.” (1 Cor 12:24)

What if sales gave greater honor to producing and delivering the product than they did to selling it? What if operations gave greater honor to the job of selling than they did manufacturing? What if we all truly appreciated the value the other person/workgroup/department brings instead of focusing on our own self-importance? Wouldn’t we have less division if we did? Wouldn’t there be better communication and increased cooperation if each member of a team valued the others’ opinions, contributions, ideas more than their own?

Interestingly, this advice was given to me by a priest. Well, technically, it wasn’t advice, it was my penance. I didn’t like that I repeatedly reacted negatively to someone who annoyed me, and I brought this to Confession and sought the grace of the sacrament to help me respond more favorably to this person. For my penance, I was to write down the reasons I valued this person and the qualities they had for which I was grateful. So, I did, and through this process, I began to give this person “greater honor” where I had previously failed to do so. Instead of focusing on the traits that annoyed me, I focused on the virtues I appreciated. You can imagine how our relationship improved as a result.

Try it this week. I’m sure there is someone who you find difficult to deal with at work, or at home, or at church, or wherever. What is that person’s greatest asset? What do you appreciate about them the most? If you are like me, you may find that it is difficult to come up with something positive about this annoying person at first, but don’t give up. Write down the first positive trait you come up with, no matter how small. Then, ponder some more and write down the next thing that comes to mind. Don’t stop until you’ve identified at least five favorable qualities. Do this every day for a week. You may struggle a bit and you may have to let go of a lot of negativity that you’ve been harboring. It is helpful to think about how God views this person because we know that he or she is a beloved child of God. Give it a try and let me know how it goes by leaving a comment below.

Back to the Sunday readings…

What is the connection between the second reading and the first, the Psalm, and the Gospel? When Ezra the priest “read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read,” (Neh 8:8) they wept. Why did they weep? The Law told them how they were to treat others and they were brought to tears because they realized their transgressions. They realized how they had failed to honor each other.

But there is more to this story. Ezra was a priest at the time of the Babylonian exile when the people of Israel were held in captivity, cut-off from their tradition, and immersed in the culture of their captors. As Bishop Barron said in his homily for this Sunday’s reading, the people of Israel had forgotten who they were. They lost their identity and they wept because they had abandoned who they were as a people in relation to God.

This can happen to us too. We can leave church on Sunday, only to go into work on Monday and get sucked into the culture of our work environments. If we work in a place where they don’t intentionally create a positive culture, it is most likely toxic. When we are surrounded by this negativity, it is like sitting in a sewer. If you drink in the sludge, you absorb it, it changes you, and it makes you sick. Most of us don’t even realize it is happening. In Good to the Core, John G. Blumberg wrote, “We don’t go running away from our values, we go drifting away. And one day we wake up in a place we never meant to be, drifting in a direction we never would have chosen.”

So too had Israel drifted as a result of hundreds of years of captivity. To bring them back, the priest Ezra reminds them of their shared identity, their shared purpose, and the shared values which form the foundation of who they are and the guidelines for how they will behave toward one another. This is what creates unity in diversity.

And, this is what St. Paul was writing about in his letter to the Corinthians. He emphasized how different parts of the body are to honor each other, “so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.” (1 Cor 12:25) Yes, we are all different, but differences don’t have to cause division.

So, the people wept. And this was good because their tears were a sign of repentance. Ezra then helped them rediscover their roots and reestablish their identity in the Law and their relationship with God. He didn’t want them to view the Law as punishing, rather he wanted to encourage them to turn back to what was good. For this reason, he said, “Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!” (Neh 8:10)

The leadership of any team, group, ministry, organization or company who wants to create a thriving culture will, like Ezra, share the stories of their common purpose. Great leaders share the “law” or core values that they hold up as standards for living so the people know how to behave. They don’t use the law to punish, rather to encourage positive relationships with each other, and with customers, vendors, and the community at large.

An example of this type of leadership can be found at a clothing company called 3sixteen. I wrote an article about them for TwoTen Magazine. (You can find the article here.) The reference to John 3:16 in the company brand hasn’t necessarily helped them sell clothing in a very secular fashion industry. They encounter a lot of people who don’t subscribe to the same beliefs, or worse, hold negative connotations toward Christianity, so they won’t buy clothing with any religious affiliation.

But the owners, Andrew Chen and Johan Lam, are not dissuaded. They want to be a positive example of Christianity by the quality of their product and the way they conduct their business. When they encounter hostility from buyers or customers because of their brand, they respond with humility and integrity because that is who they are. They would rather lose a customer than lose their identity. On their website, you will find a reference to their core values. It says:

Our company’s foundation is in our faith. Humility and integrity are equally important to us as quality and design. We also strive to cultivate strong relationships with the artists, craftsmen, and friends to whom we owe our success.

3sixteen: the last shall be first.

When I interviewed Johan Lam, he shared a quote by Martin Luther: “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” That has always been their belief about their business. They want to glorify God by being excellent at what they do. If some potential customers walk away, it is their loss for choosing not to do business with a company where humility and integrity are as important as quality and design.

If you too want to create a work environment built upon the foundation of your faith, even in a secular business environment, start by identifying and developing core values to form a common identity. Then, just as we hear in the first reading that Ezra interpreted the Law for them and the Levites instructed the people, you need to help your team understand what the values mean and how their choices and behaviors create the environment they work in every day. What you and they do and what you and they say either take you closer to or further away from the culture you want and are trying to create.

It does get tough because cultural change doesn’t happen overnight, not everyone will buy in and some will resist change. When this happens, remember “Rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength.” (Neh 8:10) Be persistent, keep moving forward and keep making progress. You’ll know you’ve gained buy-in and commitment when, like we heard in the first reading, “all the people, their hands raised high, answer(ed), ‘Amen, amen!’” (Neh 8:6)

Each one of us makes this choice for ourselves every day. When you go into work today, will you go into exile and get sucked into the negativity or will you hold firm to the Law of the Lord that “is perfect, refreshing the soul; trustworthy, giving wisdom; clear, enlightening the eye; and right, rejoicing the heart”? (Ps 19:8-9) Choose to keep Him before you lest you drift away and lose your identity—the identity you have in Christ. For we have something greater than the Israelites did. We received him in the Eucharist. He lives in us. Let us allow him to fulfill the Scripture passage in us so we hear the glad tidings, are liberated from captivity of sin, can see the good in others, and are freed from the oppression of negativity. (Lk 4:18)

One final comment. As a nation, we have drifted far from our roots. The news this week of New York State passing legislation that allows abortion for any reason up and until the time of delivery, is an example. Not only did the people pass this law, they celebrated it. An lest you I’m taking political sides, I’m not. Our policies related to the treatment of the human beings who are seeking refuge from violence are just as egregious. How far we have drifted away from “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I weep.

We should all weep. And then, we must be a light in the darkness, at home, at work, on social media, and in our nation. So as we begin this day, let’s join the Psalmist and pray, “Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:15) And may we always glorify the Lord by our lives. Amen

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