Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-09-19-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 19, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and eighty-second episode of By Your Life. My name is 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 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 focus on the readings for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, the wicked find the just one obnoxious. He is obnoxious to them because he opposes their actions and reproaches them for transgressions of the law. (Wis 2:12)
Silencing the Obnoxious
This week, eleven U.S. senators sent a joint letter to Google’s CEO asking why pro-life ads for Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) were removed by the search engine giant. U.S. Senator Steve Daines, founder, and chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, demanded answers from the CEO of Google on Google’s double standard in censoring pro-life APR advertisements while continuing to allow advertisements for deadly abortion pills. In the letter, the senators said, “Google’s pro-life censorship is out of step with the science and reflects an unacceptable bias against pro-life views.”
The senators pointed out that “Google initially approved Live Action’s APR ads and they ran for over four months, spending over $170,000 and directing thousands of people to the APR hotline. On September 13, Google unexpectedly shut down these ads without warning or evidence, citing its ‘unreliable claims’ policy. Google has subsequently indicated that it took this action after reviewing a one-sided pro-abortion ‘report’ provided by a left-leaning news agency. Google has also since stated that it censored APR ads because they made ‘unproven medical claims’, citing ‘serious concerns’ from the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). It is shameful that Google has acted to appease pro-abortion activists by silencing pro-life voices, rather than considering all the evidence and following the science.”
Google sided with the wicked. It appears that the wicked only supports a woman’s choice if that choice leads to the destruction of her child. But if a mother changes he mind and wants to make a different choice, she is obnoxious to them. The abortion industry reviles anyone who affirms a woman’s choice for the life of her child and it uses its power to squash their voices.
Disorder and Foul Practices
In our second reading, St. James says, “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” (Jas 3:16) Google’s actions this week were one example of a foul practice. But we also find this to be true in politics, in families, and in business.
In my experience, “disorder and foul practice” that is founded in jealousy and selfish ambition flourishes within organizations, and as a result instead of focusing on the competition outside the company, employees waste a lot of energy competing with others inside. Heck, even the disciples suffered from this problem. They argued among themselves about “who was the greatest.” (Mk 9:34) Jealousy and selfish ambition disrupt teamwork, cause division, expand silo-thinking, and ultimately get in the way of achieving goals.
This in-fighting is quite common and takes on many faces. Sales wants to satisfy the customer’s needs and then complains that operations can’t deliver. Operations wants to deliver quality products and services but can’t when sales makes promises they can’t keep. HR wants to invest in employees, but finance is cutting budgets. Finance wants to make sure that the company is investing its resources wisely and it is hard to measure the ROI of soft HR investments. Customer service wants their request handled first and manufacturing has 100 other custom requests to prioritize. They are all complaining about how the other department is preventing them from accomplishing their own, perhaps selfish, functional goals. Or, as the first reading put it, they complain about how “he sets himself against our doings.” (Wis 2:20) They are obnoxious to each other.
Not only do different departments compete with each other, but in-fighting also occurs within workgroups. I’ve had several different people tell me how they struggled in their job because they brought new energy, new methods, and new expectations to their roles and their coworkers didn’t like it. The old guard didn’t want these people to work harder, be more productive, or deliver better results because it would make them look bad. Anyone who was trying to raise the bar met with resistance from those who wanted to get by doing less.
Mission is King
Resistance is the main problem leadership faces when they are trying to create a cultural shift in an organization. I see it all the time. The interesting thing is, people actually want the new and improved culture the leadership is trying to create, they just don’t want to be the ones who have to change. Or they are so busy pointing the finger at everyone else, they don’t even realize they are part of the problem.
So, what can we do about it? First, if you are in a leadership position, it is your responsibility to make sure that everyone on the team is clear about your mission. In his book, The Culture Solution, Matthew Kelly says “One of the biggest questions that every organization needs to answer, clearly define, continually remind every team member of, and overcommunicate internally and externally is who or what is king of your organization.”
He continues, “Every organization has a king. In extremely unhealthy cultures, people don’t know who or what is king from one day to the next.” In the organizations he is involved in as the leader or the owner, there are two sayings that everyone is used to hearing a lot. “#1 Mission is king. #2 Matthew is not king!”
Mission is king. Jesus taught his disciples about his mission, but they wanted to make him king. Jesus repeatedly told his disciples what his mission was: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him..” (Mk 9:31-32) They didn’t understand their roles in the context of the greater mission. As a result, there was in-fighting as they discussed “among themselves… who was the greatest.” (Mk 9:34)
Mission Unites
When people don’t understand or buy into the mission, they get possessive about their own functional areas and furthering their own agendas. As St. James wrote, “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? (Jas 4:1) When people are more passionate about their own agenda than they are about the mission, they not only are likely to seek selfish ambitions, they tend to discount the value of the contribution of others. This leads to in-fighting.
But as St. Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary.” (1 Cor 12:21-22) When we consider the parts in the context of the body, we are able to appreciate their contribution and the value they bring to the mission. And, when each person recognizes that they are there for the mission, only then can you begin to end the in-fighting.
Again, Matthew Kelly writes, “If [the mission] is not the most important thing, the organization will be repeatedly kidnapped by egos, career climbers, whims and fancies, and constantly be engaged in a massive game of organizational tug-of-war.” However, “the greatest organizations with the most dynamic cultures don’t talk about work; they talk about mission…Men and women on mission behave very differently than men and women who are simply going to work.”
Keep the Mission in Focus
In the scheme of our businesses, our mission is to serve our customers and to create an environment where our employees can thrive. Yes, each functional area is important but only to the extent that it furthers the mission. If what you are doing or how you are doing it doesn’t contribute to the mission, you should question why and how you are doing it.
In the scheme of eternity, our mission is to become saints and help as many people as possible to do the same. Our mission is holiness and to help each other grow in holiness. St. James describes for us what that looks like. He wrote, “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.” (Jas 3:17) When there is in-fighting, there is no peace. When there is in-fighting, there is no mercy. When there is in-fighting, there are no good fruits.
If our work life is not leading us on the path to sainthood, we should question how we are doing our work. If our relationships are not leading us to holiness, we should question how we engage with others. There is plenty of room in our Father’s House. Our goal should be to be the last one in and help as many as we can find the way there too. As Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Mk 9:35)
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to grow in holiness and help others to do the same.
Lord God, when the wicked try our patience, defend us, When they put us to the test, deliver us. Help us to respond with gentleness, full of mercy, and with peace. Help us to bear good fruit so that we may glorify you in all that we do.
May God bless you abundantly and may you glorify the Lord by your life. Amen
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