You’ve likely heard of Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In it, Habit 3 is Put First Things First®. Covey is referring to a time management principle that helps you execute against the right priorities. In this edition of By Your Life, we’ll see that there is only one right priority, all else is of the flesh.

Mass Readings Audio
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 17, 2019

Welcome to the forty-seventh 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 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In our Gospel reading this week, we heard the Sermon on the Plains, which is commonly known as the Beatitudes, but in Luke’s Gospel is referred to as “Blessings and Woes.” Jesus said, “ Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Lk 6:20)

Wait, what? The poor are blessed? That’s not what our culture says. That’s not what Jesus’ contemporaries thought either. He was definitely teaching something counter-cultural. Not only are the poor blessed, but he said, “Woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Lk 6:24) So, how are we to take this teaching and apply it at work this week? After all, aren’t we working for economic benefit? Don’t we all want to be rich?

Before we delve into the Beatitudes, let’s take a minute to reflect on the first reading from Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. It begins, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.” (Jer 17:5)

Bishop Robert Barron, in his homily about Sunday’s readings, said, “Jeremiah is going after a principal sin. That is, turning something less than God into god. Trust,” Bishop Barron says, “is the fundamental manner of ordering our lives. Everyone fundamentally trusts in or has faith in someone or something. For many of us sinners, this could be money position, politics, family, fame, country, or success. These are not bad things, but they don’t belong in the bedrock position of your life. If you trust in the flesh, (Biblical code for anything other than God), then you are cursed. We are wired for God and anything less will leave us dissatisfied.”

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey’s Habit 3 is Put First Things First® He says, “Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities. It is living and being driven by the principles you value most, not by the agendas and forces surrounding you.” If you don’t put God first, you’ll be living and driven by false priorities. You’re likely to fall into the trap of what modern culture says is important—riches, pleasure, gluttony, ego—and woe to you when you do.

Over the last 10 years, through the process of writing my book, The Value of Core Values, or as a contributing writer to TwoTen Magazine, I’ve interviewed dozens of successful business people. Many of these men and women shared similar stories of how they started out putting their “trust in the flesh” and they were cursed. It was when they hit rock bottom, they realized their trust was misaligned.

One of these stories was from Jerry Colangelo whose “rock bottom” came when he broke from his friend and business partner and discovered he had spent three years of blood, sweat and tears with nothing to show for it. Jerry had a wife, three young children, a mortgage, and no idea where his next dollar would come from. It was difficult for this self-reliant man to accept that he needed help. He said, “As much as you think you are able to handle all situations when something like that happens to you, it fractures you. I hit the point where I realized I had to turn my life over and put my trust in God.”

That night, he found a business card in his wallet of business owner and Chicago sports fan who had a dream of bringing professional basketball back to Chicago. Jerry was offered a job and six months later, they gave birth to the Chicago Bulls. And so began a career that rocketed from the youngest general manager in the NBA at age 26 to owner, chairman, and CEO of the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks—the fastest expansion team in MLB to win a championship. For an encore, he led the United States Basketball Team to win gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Another story I wrote was about a 20-year-old sophomore at Abilene Christian University, who was in a downward spiral. He would drink the weekend away, sober up, go through the week, and then do it all over again. Realizing his empty life was getting old fast, he returned to church, albeit hungover on occasional Sundays. He repeatedly heard the message of God’s love but didn’t believe it could be extended to someone like him. But, on one particular Sunday, he decided “Alright, I’m in. If I don’t let him forgive me, I don’t have a ‘Plan B,’ so I’m just going to trust him.”

In the 40+ years since that critical decision, this struggling college sophomore earned two degrees and his best-selling books have sold 100 million copies in 54 languages worldwide. You might recognize his name, because according to a LifeWay national survey, one in six Americans is familiar with Max Lucado, and one in seven Americans has read a Lucado book or purchased a video, devotional, greeting card, booklet, or other product.

Jerry and Max are just two of many whose lives changed when they placed their trust in God. But please don’t think I’m preaching a prosperity gospel where you’re guaranteed similar rags to riches results. I’m not. Neither did Jesus. In fact, he said, blessed are the poor, woe to you that are rich. What I am suggesting is what Jeremiah said and that is “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.” (Jer 17:7)

I’ve witnessed this to be true for myself when I put my full trust in the Lord, and it was also true for Peter Cunzolo and Jay Fechtel. I interviewed both these CEOs in 2009, at the height (or should I say low) of the economic downturn. Peter is CEO of ExecuJet, a charter jet company and Jay is CEO of The Fechtel Company, a custom home builder.

If you talk about two industries that were severely impacted by the recession, private jet services, and residential construction would be near the top of that list. But neither of these men were fearful because they are men of faith. They had long before put their trust in the Lord and in that year of drought, they showed no distress.

If you recall early 2009, anyone who utilized private jet travel was demonized by the politicians and the media as wasteful, extravagant, and haughty. So, in addition to economic factors, there were social factors that were negatively impacting the industry as well. But Peter Cunzolo wasn’t anxious. He said, “I’m a type A. I’m a hard charger about making sure things tick and that we maintain our profitability. But I do have a sense of calm and peace when it comes to these situations because I know where my strength is coming from. I know who is providing. I know who is protecting me and my employees and their families.” (Taken from The Value of Core Values.)

The Fechtel Company also remained whole throughout the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The reason is because of how Jay Fechtel runs his company. He’s consistently focused on integrity and quality. He said, “The guy who’s driven by greed may get what he wants, but inside there will be a sense that something’s not right.” Jay continued, “I believe all the things we do in that short space of time have eternal consequences. When we get to the end of our time on earth, we’re not going to wish we had made more money. We’re going to regret it if we didn’t develop better relationships and do things right. God made us to glorify Him. Unless we live for that purpose, we will never truly be fulfilled.” (Taken from The Value of Core Values.)

Yes, all four of these men had brilliant careers and business achievements in terms of the way the world measures of success. However, that isn’t how they measure it. If you ask Jerry Colangelo, a legend in the world of professional sports, how he wants to be remembered, he will tell you that he hopes when people think of him they will say, “He cared.”

When we turn our lives over to the Lord, something changes and that something is us. What used to be important, isn’t anymore. How we live our lives is different. If there is no real transformation, we are clinging to the old ways and we are cursed, cut off from the deepest sources of life. We may look like we’ve got it all together, in the eyes of the world, but spiritually, we are dead. This is the counter-cultural message of the Beatitudes.

So, I’d like to finish by sharing Pope Francis’ thoughts on the Beatitudes taken from his Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, on the Call to Holiness in Today’s World.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Lk 6:20)

Pope Francis writes, “The Gospel invites us to peer into the depths of our heart, to see where we find our security in life. Usually the rich feel secure in their wealth, and think that, if that wealth is threatened, the whole meaning of their earthly life can collapse. (GE 67) Wealth ensures nothing. Indeed, once we think we are rich, we can become so self-satisfied that we leave no room for God’s word, for the love of our brothers and sisters, or for the enjoyment of the most important things in life. (GE 68)

Looking into the depths of your heart, where do you find security in life? What are your priorities? Who or what do you worship? Who or what is the foundation of your life?

Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. (Lk 6:21)

Pope Francis says: “Hunger and thirst are intense experiences, since they involve basic needs and our instinct for survival. There are those who desire justice and yearn for righteousness with similar intensity.” (GE 77) “Experience shows how easy it is to become mired in corruption, ensnared in the daily politics of quid pro quo, where everything becomes business. True justice comes about in people’s lives when they themselves are just in their decisions; it is expressed in their pursuit of justice for the poor and the weak.” (GE 78, 79)

I invite you to think about decisions you’ve made recently. What did you hunger for in your choices?

Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. (Lk 6:21)

Pope Francis writes, “The world tells us exactly the opposite: entertainment, pleasure, diversion, and escape make for the good life. The worldly person ignores problems of sickness or sorrow in the family or all around him; he averts his gaze. But the cross can never be absent. (GE 75)

Allow yourself to experience the cross and you will be consoled, not by the world, but by Jesus.

Finally, Luke writes that Jesus tells us, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! (Lk 6:22-23)

Again, Pope Francis reminds us that “Jesus himself warns us that the path he proposes goes against the flow, even making us challenge society by the way we live and, as a result, becoming a nuisance. He reminds us how many people have been, and still are, persecuted because they take seriously their commitment to God and to others. Unless we wish to sink into an obscure mediocrity, let us not long for an easy life. (GE 90)

Let’s not pursue mediocrity, rather, let’s pursue a life of meaning. When reflecting on this week’s readings, Dr. Scott Hahn wrote, “The promise of the New Covenant is joy and true freedom even amid the misery and toil of this life. But not only that as St. Paul says in the second reading, but we’re also to be pitied if our hope is “for this life only.” (1 Cor 15:19)

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us keep God as the #1 priority, the one in whom we place our trust, so that we may experience authentic blessings in this life and the next.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them, the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.

May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life. Amen.

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