Our guest for this show, Tricia Baker (www.patriciawbaker.com) brought an expansive smile to our faces and hearts. She was certainly leaven for our faith journey — and I hope she continues to add a spring to our spiritual steps and continues to help others around her in the joy of our Catholic faith.
So this show and this blog are about the call for us to be leaven. Jesus cautioned his followers against the wrong kind of leaven. We didn’t go into that on this program. But it is a reasonable challenge to ask ourselves what kind of leaven we are? Are you a part of all-grain natural bread? Or are you sourdough? (Smile). But we mean the subject most seriously. You’ve heard of the expression “pew potatoes”. Those are people that warm a pew for an hour and they aren’t seen or heard from again for 167 hours (if that) until they come back for the next hour of the ‘liturgy of observation’. Beware being that kind of leaven.
We were on a deacon and wife retreat this past weekend. We had a vibrant priest named Fr. Eric Knapp from Cincinnati as our retreat leader. In a talk to us about our call to be a part of the building up of the kingdom of God — and you do know that each of us are called to be a part of this building project, don’t you?… Fr. Eric shared a wonderful prayer and reading from the late Archbishop Oscar Romero, entitled PROPHETS OF A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN. I’d like to quote two paragraphs of this beautiful call to recognition and action:
“We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
That is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide YEAST that produces effects beyond our capabilities.”
Dearest friends from here there and everywhere. You may raise a child who will show mercy to someone on the road to Samaria… or Springfield, Missouri. The child may never practice the faith the way you had hoped. But the child may be called to grace because of the leaven of example you were 40 years earlier. Be leaven — each and every day. Amen.
Blessings.
Deacon Tom and Dee
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