So much of what we observe these days is just not right. When we are constantly bombarded by negative thoughts, we can’t help but respond with negative behavior. In this week’s episode of By Your Life, we talk about stopping the flow of negative so when we are tested, we are prepared to respond with what is just.

Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2020-08-16-usccb-daily-mass-readings

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 16, 2020

Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-fifth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing 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’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

Observe What is Right, Do What is Just

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) As I was reflecting on this week’s readings, I couldn’t get past the first line in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah. “Observe what is right, do what is just.” (Is 56:1)

Observe what is right. It’s not as easy as it sounds. So much of what we observe these days is just not right. Turn on the TV and the 24-hour news cycle is filled with everything that is wrong. Switch the channel to primetime listings and you’ll find reality TV exposing people behaving at their absolute worst. Flip to social media sites and you know what you’ll find there. I spent a little time scrolling today and reading posts and the articles people had shared. I did it out of curiosity and interest in what people think is important. But the more I read, the more it brought me down. It was not right.

When we are constantly bombarded by negative thoughts, we can’t help but develop negative attitudes, which will undoubtedly impact our behaviors and results. “Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just.” (Is 56:1) not observe what is wrong and do what is unjust. But that’s what naturally happens unless we stop the flow of negative and replace it with something positive.

Stop the Flow of Negative

I was working with a coaching client who was very skilled in her line of work, but she was challenged with developing positive working relationships with her coworkers. Through the process of our coaching sessions, she revealed that she was physically in pain across her shoulders and in her neck, so she constantly rubbed Tiger Balm on the affected areas. She also revealed that she didn’t sleep well and was tired all the time. She liked her job but wasn’t happy.

I explored the reason for her lack of sleep, and she said her nightly routine involved walking her dogs, eating dinner, and watching TV until she fell asleep. I don’t remember exactly what she watched, but I do remember saying, “No wonder you don’t sleep well. You fill your mind with these negative influences just before you go to sleep at the time when you’re most likely to absorb them. Stop the flow of negative!” So, she did.

My client turned off the TV and replaced it with good books and music. Within a month, she reported that she was no longer using Tiger Balm because she no longer had pain in her neck. She also told me she was getting along better with her teammate and felt things were generally going well.

Positive Attitude, Positive Behavior

They say that 85% of our success is based on our attitudes and only 15% on our skills and knowledge. Yet, 95% of all corporate training in America is focused on skills and knowledge. A significant percent of hiring decisions are also made based on the candidate’s skills and knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t hire a plumber to do brain surgery, nor should you hire a brain surgeon to do your plumbing, so skills and knowledge are important. But when hiring decisions are solely based on these criteria, you’ll make a significant number of poor hiring decisions. For this reason, screening candidates for things like attitudes and beliefs is an important part of finding a good fit for your organization and finding a candidate who will succeed in the role.

Testing for Attitude

Our daughter just started medical school this spring. When she applied for acceptance into the program, she felt confident she was qualified. She had the grades, test scores, references, and shadowing and volunteer hours, along with research, leadership, and social experiences to back her up. But when she went for her interview, she encountered an interviewer who seemingly wasn’t impressed. He challenged every point on her impressive application.

“Why did you only have so many shadowing hours? Why did you ask Dr. So-and-so to be a reference? Why did you list this volunteer activity as important?”, and on and on. His tone was demeaning as he challenged her list of qualifications. But, she defended her record and held firm in her conviction that she was a qualified candidate.

Within five days, she was notified that she had been accepted. It turns out, the interviewer was challenging her to see how she responded under pressure. The interviewer wasn’t really a jerk, he was an advocate for assuring the applicants could succeed throughout the 4-year, pressure-filled program.

How good is your candidate screening process? Do you know not only what skills and knowledge you want a candidate to have, but also what attitude and beliefs? What questions do you ask to find out if they are a good fit for the position and the company’s culture and therefore more likely to be successful in the role?

Testing for Faith

I bring up this story because, in our Gospel reading from this Sunday, Jesus comes across like a jerk when he tests the Canaanite woman. She cries out to him, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” (Mt 15:22), and at first, Jesus ignores her. But she persists, and “He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 15:24) Undeterred, “the woman came and did him homage, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’” (Mt 15:25) To which Jesus responds with what sounds like an insult saying, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” (Mt 15:26) But the woman stands firm saying, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” (Mt 15:27) Having tested her faith, “Jesus said to her in reply, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed from that hour.” (Mt 15:28)

Throughout his ministry, Jesus didn’t help everyone. When they lacked faith, he left their towns without healing their sick. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus tests the Canaanite woman. What would happen if he tested you? Not about what you know about your faith, holy Scripture and Church teachings, but what if he tested who you are and how you live that faith?

Passing the Test

Earlier this week we celebrated the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe who earned a doctorate in philosophy and a doctorate in theology, so he certainly was well educated in the faith. But when he volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, he demonstrated that he believed what he had been taught and was what he believed. It was said that each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looked calmly at those who entered. One account said that “from the underground cell in which they were shut up there continually arose the echo of prayers and canticles.”

Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man whose life was saved by Kolbe’s action, miraculously survived Auschwitz and was present at Kolbe’s beatification in 1971 and canonization in 1982. He said, “I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me – a stranger.”

When he was 12 years old, Maximilian Kolbe had a vision of the Virgin Mary. He described the incident saying, “That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.” Looking back on his life, we can say that when he was tested, he did indeed accept them both.

Most of us will not be tested to the point of martyrdom, but our faith is tried on a daily basis—at work, with our families, in our communities, and online. To prepare ourselves for these times of testing, I go back to our first reading. “Observe what is right, do what is just.” (Is 56:1) Fill yourself with “what is right” so that when the pressure is on, you will “do what is just.” Let’s ask our Blessed Mother to help us.

O Mary, Virgin Most Powerful and Mother of Mercy, Queen of Heaven and Refuge of Sinners, help us to dedicate our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, and all that we are to your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to profess courageously the truths of our holy faith, to live lives befitting Catholics, keeping the commandments of God and His Church, and to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to His service. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

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

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