The Heart of Lent: A Sweaty Toothed Mad-Man

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Matt Hebert

  

Keating: What’s he mumbling?
Todd: Mumbling truth, truth like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.
[laughter]
Keating: Forget them, forget them, stay with the blanket, tell me about the blanket.
Todd: You push it, stretch it, it will never be enough, you kick at it, beat it, it will never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face, as you wail and cry and scream. 

TRUTH - what a powerful word.  When it confronts many of us, we feel the pounding stare of the sweaty-toothed madman - unless you’re the Samaritan woman from this Sunday’s Gospel.  Jesus looks into her past, calls her bluff of normalcy, and confronts her with the truth of the choices she had made.  Some would say harshly.  Now me, I love being right, and I tend to be defensive when confronted with some truth about me I don’t like. I don’t think I am alone in this reaction. I push at it, struggle with it, and allow it to cover my face as I wail and cry and scream.  I want my illusion that everything is great, that I am just fine the way I am,  to be maintained.  

The Samaritan woman’s response is, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.”  What sort of humility and grace does it take to recognize the gifts of the one who has just labeled her past so truthfully?  It is hard to be open to truth and harder still to act on the truth in order to become better.  It is so much easier to pretend that things, that I,  am just fine and dandy.  But this is at the heart of conversion, the core prerequisite of metanoia.  The ability to humbly accept the truth of our flawed attempts and actions and be willing to change - this is the heart of Lent.    

Oh God,  rend my proud heart. 

Let me accept and act on Truth like the Samaritan woman. 

 Allow me to humbly change for the better. 

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

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What makes a school “Catholic?”

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Matt Hebert

As Catholic Schools Week 2011 draws to a close, I offer my thoughts on what makes a school Catholic.  It’s tough to quantify because for me there is Catholic and then there’s Catholic.  In the ideal world a school should be both; my experience has shown that not to be the case. The distinction is some schools are merely “institutionally” Catholic. They nod their heads toward the institution that created them, but that’s all.  They disguise themselves well.  They hold school masses and para-liturgies, they teach Catholic doctrine, and they have icons and crucifixes on walls and statues in niches. They are even named after a Catholic saint and/or they have the word “Catholic” in their name. These are good things but are not enough to make Catholic schools “part of the saving mission of the Church,” which is their purpose.

The intangible element that makes a school Catholic is the people: the teachers, support staff and administrators.  The Congregation for Catholic Education writes: “For it is the lay teachers, and indeed all lay persons, believers or not, who will substantially determine whether or not a school realizes its aims and accomplishes its objectives.”  Isn’t it true?  A school can have a Mass, teach Catholic doctrine and put up crosses, but until a Catholic ethos permeates the people of the school, the school will fall short of the mission the Church has given it. 

Marc Cardaronella speaks in a recent post that to reach post-modern youth we must share our experience with them.  I agree. What makes a school Catholic is the Catholic nature and quality of the experiences shared with students. It is the math teacher who exhorts students to live sacramental lives because he lives a sacramental life.  It is the coach who forbids foul language on his team and doesn’t use it himself.  It is the science teacher that always points to the grandeur of God when covering the exciting realities of the universe around us. The reality for Catholic educators (all of them – not just Religion teachers and Campus Ministers) is that they must be both messenger and message.   Their lives cannot contradict that which they teach and the mission they have agreed to fulfill.   

So this Catholic Schools week we thank the educators who live a sacramental life of faith and are willing to share the positive effects this life has with their students.  We pray for the day when ALL our Catholic school employees are both messengers and the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ and His Church.  When this juxtaposition of Catholic ethos and Catholic practices happens, we will transform the students we serve and proudly fulfill the saving mission entrusted to us.  This is what sets apart the truly Catholic school.

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Can Catholic Schools form “Fishers of Men?”

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Matt Hebert

 In today’s Gospel Jesus calls the disciples by name and they drop their nets and follow Him.  When He called James and John they not only leave their nets but their father as well. These men answered Jesus’ call because before He came walking along the shore that day, they already had the feeling in their hearts that they were meant for more than catching fish.  They had some deep desire to do more, to be more.  They had settled into the life of fishermen because that’s what boys did on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  They were never given the option to explore the deeper desires and giftedness that resided in them – until He called.

Are we doing this in our Catholic High Schools?   Are we challenging our students to wake up to their giftedness and specific vocation?  Unfortunately we sometimes give the message that they must have 4.0 GPA’s and perfect ACT and SAT scores for “vocational clarity” – meaning college and then a good paying job.  Jesus thought differently!  

 Catholic High Schools should be asking students what they are good at and then helping these students use that gift for the glory of God.  I think it becomes very easy to slip into the “that’s what schools do mode” of mere college readiness.  Real formation is to help students find out what they were made for.  What a great opportunity we have as educators -to let loose a new generation of missionaries, artists, musicians, priests, dancers and religious. Let’s learn to value students by how they respond to their vocation – not by if they fit some prep school mold.

The heart of the matter is our fear.  Imagine this scene from Zebedee’s perspective.  Along comes an itinerant (homeless) preacher who calls out to his boys and they leave their stable, respectable, and useful profession, one that can provide for them and their families,  to follow a homeless man to God knows where and to do God knows what!  Can you imagine some father’s face when we encourage his son to go do mission work rather than go to college?  Or when we tell a mother that her only daughter should be a cloistered nun thereby killing her hopes of grandbabies?  Now imagine if Jesus had only thought of Zebedee’s feelings and instead of calling James and John just told them good luck fishing. 

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.

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The Ordinary Life

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Matt Hebert

ABC recently came out with a new TV show about a family who gains superpowers.  As plots unfold, it is through these superpowers that the failing marriage and fractured family bonds heal and become stronger.   What a crock!

For too long the reason I haven’t posted to this blog - which I created about a year ago - is because I was waiting for the perfect website construction, a perfect understanding of how to mesh the blog with Facebook and Twitter,  and the all important superpowered first post.  They don’t exist.  Oh the irony, my desire for The Ordinary Catholic Blog to be extraordinary and perfect have held me hostage. What’s more unfortuate is when ones spiritual life mirrors this unhealthy notion of “superpowered perfection.”   When we either wait till we are perfect to present ourselves to God or when we expect to become perfect because we have presented ourselves to God.  Many saints received mystic visions, levitated or even bi-located but the truth is I don’t.  There’s not much perfection or superpowered occuring.  In fact some days feel more like failure.  With the grace of God, I try to live my faith out in the ordinary tasks of raising my four kids, loving my wonderful wife, and doing my best at work.   How appropriate that this week is the first week in ordinary time.   Its a great way letting our Church remind us that most of life is lived as ordinary Catholics.  So don’t wait for the perfect or the superhuman  – you will be waiting for a long time.  Rather be open to the ordinary and its right in front of you.  Have fun playing with your kids, laugh while you unclogg a toilet, and rejoice in folding some laundry.  That’s all I am trying for and I’m just an ordinary catholic.

Dear God,

help me not wait for my life to be perfect

before I turn to You.

Help me to turn to Your Perfection

in my ordinary life!

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