Pick Up the Call…Please.

A Eulogy for a Friend Who’s about as Far From Dead as You Can Be

Fr. Mitch wears a rainbow pin on his lapel a little to the south and west of his priest’s collar.  Just to the north of that collar, he wears a nose that got crooked in a West Point boxing ring forty years ago.  Having spent ¾ of our lives best-friending each other, I know Mitch about as well as one man can know another.  When we were young, we’d get in and out of trouble together.  These days, Mitch gets into what Civil Rights leader, John Lewis, called, “Good trouble.” 

A priest’s collar can signify a lot of things to a lot of people.  In the case of my pal, Mitch, it serves roughly the same purpose as the rainbow pinned on his chest.  They’re both meant to function as homing devices that welcome both parishioners and spiritual wayfarers, alike…to come in from the cold.  Just after his gay nephew’s sudden death, Mitch decided that nobody like his nephew was ever going to feel like a stranger or an alien in his church onhis watch.  Come to find out, he’s been learning that such choices can get you—the equivalent of—a punch in the nose every once-in-a-while.  I’ve always thought that Mitch’s crooked nose looked pretty good on him.

A Way to Get Through the Wilderness

Speaking of getting punched in the nose…how are you navigating through our political and cultural wilderness these days?  In both my personal and professional lives, I’m getting asked some version of a two-part question. 

On the one hand, “How do you hold onto a sense of peace?”   

On the other hand, “How do you substantively address injustice, cruelty, and misinformation?”

A substantial question deserves a substantial answer.  I’m imagining how Viktor Frankl, the grandfather of all resilience studies, might respond? His foundational research was developed and tested in a death camp in WWII Germany.  Quite a psyche laboratory don’t you think?  Time and again, he found that people who lived with a sense of meaning and purpose survived better than those that didn’t.  And, come to find out, not just any old purpose is big enough to sustain a person in the darkest of times.  In his book, The Unconscious God, Professor Frankl came close to sounding a whole lot like Rabbi Frankl.  He said that nothing short of a “calling” could provide the kind of muscle needed to survive the worst of what life could offer.  He was clear.  You don’t create a calling.  You discover it.  You uncover it.  

Some Advice about Finding a Calling 

Some years ago, I sat in a typical MLK-day gathering that sought, like most MLK gatherings do, to honor that Twentieth Century prophet in the usual, gauzy, cost-free way.  The event coordinators got more than they bargained for when they asked St. Louis’ Sister Mary Antona Ebo to be the main speaker.  She knew Dr. King personally.  In fact, she walked across the Edmond Pettis Bridge with him sixty years ago.  They weren’t sure they’d get to the other side alive. 

You know how sometimes old age can make a voice more powerful by softening it?  The same way that wrinkles can sometimes highlight a wizened elder’s graceful dignity?  A kind of authority attended Sr. Ebo.  I noticed how the children came to her first, followed by the rest of us.   They got real quiet and leaned in to hear a thundering soft voice calling them to deepen their spiritual lives.  “I knew Dr. King.  He got his calling from Jesus Christ.  That relationship meant everything to him.  It’s what kept him strong…kept him moving.”  You could have heard a pin drop.  

I don’t know if you’re Christian, or Jewish, Moslem, or more secular in your spirituality?  Lately, I’ve been hearing the voices of Viktor Frankl and Sister Mary Antona Ebo echoing down through the years into our day.  They’re calling you and me to listen…to listen for your own individuated calling.  You and I are living in a time that needs someone like Mitch, someone like Sr. Ebo, who isn’t afraid to take a punch and lean back in to love some more.  I’d like to share with you the stories of a few people who have bothered to listen, and then respond.    

Some Perfectly Imperfect Saints for Our Time

Abby

Artists and scholars have noticed for decades an array of corrosive factors that have led to the darkness of this historical moment.  My friend and colleague, Abby, feels a calling to address the central problem of our time:  disconnection and isolation.  This young mother invests her time and energy to build up her South St. Louis City neighborhood.  She works hard to strengthen her community’s bonds so that they’ll be strong enough to hold her children and family.     

Don

Don has noticed how health disparities, and opportunity disparities have created a caste system in our country.  Over the years, I’ve watched him respond to his calling.  He lends his time and talent to mentor city kids to get education and jobs.  He’s also part of a rotation that brings a mobile health-care clinic full of supplies and personnel to underserved communities in Missouri.  

Peg

In the wealthiest nation in the world, the poor, and the stranger get ignored, and even vilified.  My pal, Peggy, refuses to pass out judgements.  Rather, she passes care packages to panhandlers.  In the process, she exchanges warm humanity with them:  feeding both receiver, and giver.

Diarmuid

Matthew’s Gospel (25: 35-45) echoes the most common command of the Torah, Prophets, and Wisdom literature of the Old Testament:  to care for “the stranger and alien” in your midst.  Diarmuid assists faith-based hospitals in constructing policies to deal with governmental agents when they arrive to remove and deport undocumented patients and their families.  Along with Pope Francis, Diarmuid recognizes a universal citizenship in God that won’t abide alienation.   

Mike

Mike is a retired grandfather who wants to leave this world better than he found it for his grandchildren and great-children.  Forty hours a week, he follows his calling.  He provides form-fitted PowerPoint presentations for teachers and students, politicians, farmers, church and business leaders.  In his work, he highlights Pope Francis’ urgent pleas to heed scientific research on human-made climate change.  Like Mohammed Ali, he knows how to patiently take punches as he awaits an opening to deliver his message. 

Mitch

Mitch has always heard a call within a call.  He’s now pastor in a neighborhood that has suffered the most dramatic effects of systemic racism.  He works as pastor of the newly named, Saint Josephine Bakhita, a Catholic church community just north of downtown Saint Louis.  His mission?  Nothing short of taking the stone rejected by generations of builders, and turning it into the cornerstone of renewal.

Tom

Through his Sundaymorningcafe project, he hopes to encourage people like Abby, Don, Peg, Diarmuid, Mike and Mitch to find connection, and nurture a spirituality that can support their missions.  His primary insight?  When anyone moves more deeply into the heart of God (or Authenticity if you prefer), he or she pulls the whole human race in that same direction, regardless of their visible successes.  

Dialogue

What methods do you use to discern your call in this time and this place?

Who are the members of your support network that support your search?

Do you believe that a calling can evolve or even change over time?  How has your calling changed?

What meditative or contemplative practice supports your resilience in this work?