Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-08-08-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 8, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-sixth 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.
Sick and Tired
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Are you feeling a little bit of pandemic fatigue? I am. I’m sick of it. When this thing started over 18 months ago, we all had hopes that 2020 would be the end of it. But here we are in the summer of 2021, almost half of the population of the US has been vaccinated, another percentage has had Covid-19 already, and we are being asked to mask up again. Whether people do or not, one thing is certain, we’re all tired of this thing and ready for it to be over—yesterday!
The prophet Elijah was ready for it to be over too. In our first reading from the First Book of Kings, “He prayed for death: “Enough, LORD! Take my life.”, he said. (1 Kgs 19:4)
The Backstory Story
To fully understand why Elijah said this, we have to know what happened previously in the First Book of Kings.” Elijah, “the only remaining prophet of the LORD” (1 Kgs 18:22) challenged the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. Elijah said to them “You shall call upon the name of your gods, and I will call upon the name of the LORD. The God who answers with fire is God.” All the people answered, “We agree!” (1 Kgs 18:24) But, as hard as they tried and as loud as they cried, the prophets of Baal couldn’t get a response out of their gods.
Then, Elijah called upon the name of the Lord and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back to you.” (1 Kgs 18:36-37) And the Lord God, being God, sent down fire that devoured the burnt offering and the wood and stones of the altar. (1 Kgs 18:38)
Having won the challenge, Elijah seized the prophets of Baal and slaughtered them, which didn’t please Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. She sent a messenger to Elijah and put him on notice that she intended to do to him that which he had done to the prophets of her gods. And so, when we encountered the prophet Elijah in Sunday’s first reading, he was fleeing for his life.
I shared the backstory because it helps us understand why Elijah prayed what he prayed. Without it, his prayer for death doesn’t make much sense.
Quick to Judge
How often are we quick to judge when we only have part of the story? To be honest, we do it all the time. We are human. We filter limited information through our biases and come to a conclusion that usually supports them. It doesn’t matter whether it is the truth. We don’t usually take the time to get the backstory, to fully understand what is going on. Instead, we react to what is in front of us, and we often get it wrong.
In our Gospel this Sunday, the Jews got it wrong when it came to Jesus. To them, Jesus was just another Jew. After all, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42) From the evidence they had, he was talking nonsense. In hindsight, we know better.
Things Aren’t What They Appear
Being quick to respond is not always the best option because there’s always more than one side to a story and things aren’t always what they appear. When we seek efficiency in responding, we rarely take into account the time it takes to correct mistakes, miscommunication, or misinformation when we react to what is presented to us. Our 24-hour news cycle feeds these phenomena. Social media exacerbates it. And we rarely see as much coverage of the correction as we do the misinformation.
Just take the case of Nick Sandmann, the teenager who gained national attention after an encounter with the activist Omaha tribe elder at the Lincoln Memorial. In the first video that went viral, Sandmann encountered the man who was beating a hand-held drum and singing, and it appeared to show that the man was being harassed by him and a group of 50 to 60 Covington Catholic High School boys.
Major news outlets, including the Washington Post and CNN, picked up on the story and condemned Sandmann and his classmates. Within hours, Covington Catholic High School’s communications director released a statement regretting that the incident took place saying in part, “We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general. … We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.” Even the bishop in Covington, KY issued a statement condemning the boys’ actions.
But other videos that surfaced days later provided additional context for the encounter and supported Sandmann’s denial of the accusations against him. But the first video had gone viral, touching off widespread controversy as photos of the teenager wearing a red Make America Great Again hat spread across social media. Eventually, the bishop apologized to the students saying he expected them to be exonerated, and within the next year and a half, both CNN and the Washington Post settled lawsuits brought against them for defamation. But those who condemned him on social media were pretty much silent.
Spreading the Wrong Story
Social media allows for fake news, negative memes, and condemnations aimed at tearing down to be spread with a click. We see plenty of bitterness, fury, anger, shouting and reviling online. St. Paul, in the letter to the Ephesians, warns us that this must be removed from us. (Eph 4:31)
Many times, I’ve typed in a scathing response to someone’s post, and then immediately deleted it. I felt better for having typed it and I felt even better for not having sent it. How did Benjamin Franklin know about social media when he said, “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”? This is not the media for effective and meaningful communications.
Using the Wrong Medium
Many of my clients have had to deal with problems caused or at least exacerbated by using the wrong media to communicate. Meetings are used to go over things that could be put in writing. Emails are used when they should pick up the phone, texts are used when emails are more appropriate and pre-pandemic, all of these were used when it would be more effective to walk down the hall and chat face to face. These days getting face-to-face means setting up a video call and so it doesn’t happen as easily as it used to.
It is difficult to communicate effectively when there is a chasm between sender and receiver. So often, what is intended is not what is received and what is received is not what was intended, yet we assume the opposite. Remember, things aren’t always as they appear and there is more than one side to every story. By getting face to face, you can respond appropriately when you see the other person may have misunderstood or reacted to your style unfavorably. You can put into practice what St. Paul encourages and “be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” (Eph 4:32)
So, let’s stop murmuring among ourselves and take steps to improve communication with each other. This is easier said than done, I know. We all have those “difficult” people we have to deal with. They try our patience. They are negative, critical, annoying, and worse. The last thing you want to do is approach them to talk face to face. We feel like Elijah in the first reading, we’ve done what was right and yet they continue to attack us, so we’ve decided to give up trying.
Crossing the Chasm
But St. Paul says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” (Eph 4:30) The Lord himself is our answer. He provides us with everything we need for this journey, including how to deal with difficult people. The first step is to take it to prayer. As Jesus said, “It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.” (Jn 6:45) Allow God to teach you.
Renew yourself in the sacraments. Elijah was able to walk for 40 days after being strengthened by the food provided by the angel. How much more are we strengthened by “The living bread that came down from heaven?” (Jn 6:51) You can’t change that negative, critical, annoying person. But you can change yourself and how you deal with them. Allow the Eucharist to transform you.
Pray for the difficult person. Ask God to help you when that in itself is difficult. It is rare that a difficult person sets out to be difficult. They simply are doing the best they can from their perspective. You never know what brought them to this place in time. “Believe me,” Longfellow wrote, “Every heart has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
Seeking the Whole Story
The physical and psychological impacts of returning to our professional and social lives even though a pandemic still rages on are taking a toll on all of us and leaving us with a feeling of immense exhaustion. Dr. Carl Lambert, MD, director of the Family Medicine Leadership Program at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago said that with COVID-19 fatigue, “you’re tired in your soul—emotionally, psychologically, socially, spiritually, you are just tired and not motivated.” Yes, that’s exactly how it feels—tired in your soul.
We encounter people every day who are bearing the burden of this pandemic. Some are doing better than others. For some, the changes have been manageable, and some have even thrived as a result. But others were bearing great burdens before Covid and the economic, social, mental, physical, and spiritual effects have made life overwhelming. We encounter these people in our workplaces and when we visit, shop, dine or work with people in their places of work. We encounter them on the road, in the park, at the gym, and at Mass. Before judging what they say or do, we need to remember that we never know how they are coping with life during a pandemic. Things aren’t always as they appear and there’s always more than one side to every story.
In This for the Long Haul
Scientists at the World Health Organization are saying COVID-19 is likely to become endemic, or permanently circulating in the population. So, remember to “be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” (Eph 4:32) And you’re going to need to nourish yourself with prayer and the sacraments or the journey will be too much for you. Let’s start now.
Heavenly Father, we come to you today, exhausted from the burdens of life, yet grateful for your gift of living bread. You do not abandon us, but you feed us for the journey. Help us to listen to you and learn from you and never stop going to Jesus, who is the Bread of Life, so that in all that we do, we may glorify you by our lives.
May God bless you abundantly and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
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