A Good Man

To all you Dads out there: a very happy Father's Day!

   Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time   B 

Readings

Robert Sargent Shriver died last year 

at the age of 95.

A devout Catholic, 

he had led a very full and noteworthy life:

he graduated from Yale 

and volunteered for the US Navy;

he married into the powerful Kennedy family 

and had five children;

he ran for Vice President
and served as American ambassador to France;

he was the founding director of the Peace Corps

and helped his wife, Eunice, 

start the Special Olympics.

His son, Mark, recalls that when his dad died

it seemed like everybody knew him,

and it also seemed that everybody—

from politicians to priests to trash collectors—

had the very same thing to say: “He was a good man.”

Mark Shriver has just written a memoir about his dad

with the unsurprising title,

A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver.

And in a recent interview about the book,

he takes the opportunity to reflect upon the difference

between being good and being great 

(NPR's Morning Edition Saturday, 6/16/12).

Great men and women, he says, because of their ambition

have lots of money, power, or prestige…

…but you probably wouldn’t want to have dinner 

or a drink with them.

They have accomplished remarkable things,
but they’re often not nice, and they don’t treat people right;

“when the lights are turned off and no one's paying attention,

they're not good."

Mark says that his father, on the other hand,
was as kind to the waitress at his favorite restaurant
and the guy at the airport ticket counter

as he was to presidents and cardinals and business executives.

Little wonder they all said the same: “He was a good man.”

Mark Shriver wrote his book because he wanted to figure out

just what was the secret to his father’s good life.

“What was the key to that life that he led?” he asks.

“That he was happily married for 56 years to the woman of his dreams,

that he raised five kids that all love him,

that he had countless friends.

He went to Mass on a daily basis,

yet he still did all of these great things,” Mark says.

“I think it really was his faith that gave him that foundation.”

In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus tells us two parables about seeds.

What a wise teacher Jesus is to use parables!

By teaching through such open-ended stories,

Jesus lets each of us apply them to our own lives,

and thus they remain just as vivid and relevant now

as when first spoken nearly 2,000 years ago.

So on this Father’s Day,

and in these final days leading up to graduation for the Class of 2012,

there is something to be learned from these parables of the seeds—

the scattered seeds that grow unseen to yield a rich harvest of grain;

the mustard seed which starts out so small a tiny bird can eat it,

but that has the potential to out forth large branches

in which many birds can make their home.  (cf. R. Bensen)

To all you dads: Be good men.

While your children and grandchildren may be rightly impressed

by the many great things you’re able to accomplish,

remember that it’s the small things you do, the good things,

that will matter most in the end.

Be good men, and be men of God.

Scatter seeds of faith in the hearts of your children—

something done best not with words alone,

or through show of brute strength,

but by your own good example.

Faith grows and sprouts in the Lord’s own time, we know not how.

But it needs to be cultivated and fertilized,

to be weeded and pruned.

Despite many impressions to the contrary,

religion is not “woman’s work.”

Your fatherhood, your goodness,

is meant to be a reflection of God’s own.

Whether you’re here in church or back at home,

off at work 

or casting into your favorite fishing hole,

in order for our Catholic faith 

to flourish and grow strong

in the hearts of generations to come,

we need your constant, courageous witness 

to that faith today.

And to our graduates:

You stand ready to turn the page 

on a new chapter in your lives.

There’s much excitement—

and a little fear, I’m sure—

about all that lies ahead.

Your minds are filled with dreams 

of doing great things.

Pursue those dreams!  Aim high!

But in your desire to do great and important things,

do not neglect to be good,

for to be good men and women

would be your greatest achievement of all.

Great people oftentimes forget their roots,

but good people stay in touch 

with their humble beginnings.

Allow the seeds of faith, the seeds of the kingdom,

which have already been sown within you—

no matter how small and insignificant they may now seem—

allow these seeds to sprout, to grow, and to ripen to harvest.

Keep close Christ and close to his Church,

wherever you go and whatever you do.

In that is the key to a good life,

for only God can take our littleness

and turn it into something both truly good and truly great.

As you might well imagine, 

in the high-powered Kennedy-Shriver family

there could be more pressure 

to be great than to be good.

“I think when you're surrounded by that culture,”

Mark recalled near the end of the interview,

“where you're trying to change the world,

or putting a man on the moon, 

or trying to defeat Communism,

for a kid that can be confusing 

because you can think,

'Wow, I've got to do something like that as well,'

and I definitely had those thoughts."

But by watching his father,

Mark Shriver learned that it’s often harder 

to be good than to be great.

"And that's what my dad did incredibly well,” he says,

balancing faith and family and friends

and doing something for the community.

You see, it’s not enough for any of us to strive for greatness.

God is calling us to something more—

God’s calling us to be good.

Lets each of us allow that small seed to grow.