Not kidding otherwise. The speaker was Mrs. Leahy’s son Tim, son of Ed and grandson of Joe, who immigrated here from Lithuania. (Again, kidding.) Tim is secretary-treasurer of the fed, for which he has worked for eight years. He cited "Jesuit tradition" and several popes for support of unions. Growing up as he did, he "could not imagine" either family, church, or union "without the other two."
Unions need the church, he said. "Unions and churches can’t go it alone," he said – remarkably, in view of the long history of the Christian Church pre-dating unions. "We need help in bargaining," he said but to his credit gave out neither telephone number nor email address. (Here’s the latter, actually: cfl@cflonline.org.) "We must work together to combat corporate greed," he said.
Leahy was labor coordinator for the 1996 Democratic National Convention and coordinator for organized labor for the Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1994 and 1998, the fed’s web site tells us. He thanked Fr. Daniel Whiteside, our pastor, and Fr. John Carolan, pastor emeritus, who said the mass I attended, for welcoming (and I presume inviting) him – to give us his labor-union spiel.
LEFT UNSAID . . . I would have preferred something more scriptural. Father John briefly explained the highly debatable "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother . . . he cannot be my disciple" from the day’s gospel (Luke 14. 25-33) as a "Jewish" manner of speaking, meaning standard ancient (or even current) Middle Eastern exaggeration to make a point. But then he gave us Leahy.
What else might a preacher have said? He might have addressed that hating-parents business as troublesome metaphor, like fighting wars with "spitballs," per Zell Miller’s talk at the recent convention – which was troublesome anyway to Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who asked Miller if he really meant that about spitballs. (Was Chris Matthews really wondering about it?) In any case, in this passage Jesus is setting high goals for discipleship – carrying a cross and renouncing all possessions were also mentioned.
Jesus also gave advice on "marching into [the] battle" of life: Sue for peace if you see the enemy is stronger than you. This folksy shrewdness works its way often into Jesus’ sermons. He goes metaphorical and anecdotal at the drop of a turban, in this case to urge us to "calculate the cost" of following him. We are elsewhere urged not to count the cost, it is true. Jesuits have that in their armentarium. It’s the call to martyrdom, or at least to commitment, which can come to the same thing, metaphorically or not.
If we find it confusing, the day’s OT reading, Wisdom 9.13-18b, tells us to remain cool, or gives advice that will help us to remain cool. "Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?" Wisdom asks. "For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans." You can almost hear Puck from "Midsummer Night’s Dream" in the background exclaiming, "What fools these mortals be."
We have trouble enough understanding what happens down here, without knowing what’s going on "in heaven," says Wisdom. All we know is that God has "sent [his] holy spirit from on high" to straighten us out in these matters. A little humility, in other words, a little lying back and letting that spirit speak to us, is what Wisdom has in mind. I think.
WHAT’S HAPPENING? . . . As for CFL’s Leahy, who seems in line for its presidency in so far as the present president, Dennis J. Gannon, was also secretary-treasurer, one can reasonably ask what he would make of Wisdom and Luke on this 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time? He went to Loyola U. and finds in politics "a passion and personal calling," the CFL site tells us. He’s well versed in organized-labor talking points, is or has been a Democratic party operative, and was happy, we may assume, to have St. Catherine & St. Lucy congregation for an audience, probably at all three weekend masses.
The pastor, Father Dan, hails from Arlington Heights and has spoken of returning there for family gatherings. Leahy lives in nearby Palatine with his wife and two kids. As pastor, Fr. D. would have done the inviting of Leahy. Is Leahy licensed to preach? If he’s a deacon, he would have said so. Are others permitted? The parish bulletin had nothing about Leahy. He was guest preacher of the weekend or at least for the 8:30 mass on Sunday, and nothing in writing to introduce him? Strange.
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Available at Xlibris.com: Priests at Work: Catholic Pastors Tell How They Apply Church Law in Difficult Cases, by Jim Bowman --
posted by Jim Bowman @ 9/05/2004 04:51:00 PM
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