As the nation deals with the recovery from Hurricane Helene, I cant help but remember when Joel Osteen led his Lakewood Church congregation into the stadium formerly known as the Compaq Center in Houston. After $95 million in renovations and much political wrangling, the church moved into its new 16,000-seat home on July 16, 2005. Many a clergy, including me, were very envious! Then, in 2017, after the Houston flood, Lakewood Church became a public relations nightmare when reports surfaced that they refused to allow people in.
Clergy pounced with moral impunity and social media was a buzz! Smaller churches opened their doors with so little resources to help victims, and here was the largest church in the nation slamming their doors tight! It was a lack of compassion and worse, it was inhospitable!
Osteen later disputed that report, and we may never know the full truth behind that day when those rain-soaked Houstonians came to the doorstep of Lakewood Church, just the type of people that Jesus told his disciples to look out for, and were told to look elsewhere; just like Jesus’ own mom and dad. In hindsight, from various reports out later, it looked as if the Lakewood staff may have been justified in sending people to outside government shelters, but that doesn’t matter anymore. What matters, as is often true, are the optics looking so bad.
So, then, perhaps St. Francis was right and we might all be reminded of that on this Memorial of St. Francis. We should all focus on building what God asks us to build and let go of things not of our concern, or is perhaps out of our reach, and just be grateful for where we are and what God has given us to do. We care for so many children, so many homeless, and so many living in their cars. We care of the dead in our historic cemetery even though few still remember them. We care. That is what counts and why giving to Saint Miriam is something special, because it continues a legacy of somePLACE special!
Yes, dream, but dream with prudence and ambition that relies on God. Not everyone will agree to follow you, it’s true, but those that do must have water to drink along the way as the desert sun gets hot! That, my friends, if your job as priests with all of us! Perhaps this coming Lent we will be ready to finally hear more.
Remember, sin is not only that which we do, it is that which we neglect to do, too. After all, otherwise the optics are just bad.
Monsignor +Jim