The Genius of Jesus
There was a story in The Atlantic last summer that
caught my attention. It had a picture of John Lennon
and Paul McCartney on the cover under the headline:
“How Genius Happens.” The author maintains that there
is great power in “creative tension.” Focusing on Lennon
and McCartney, the author writes, “The essence of their
achievements, it turns out, was relational. If that seem
far-fetched, it’s because our cultural obsession with the
individual has obscured the power of the creative pair.”
Provincial Council at Installation Prayer Service, June 1, 2015
evidently learned from that experience because each
commercial concludes with the adventurer looking into
the camera and saying, “Stay thirsty, my friends.”
Looking at a picture of the Kansas City Province,
one would conclude that if we have discovered the
Fountain of Youth, we haven’t been thirsty enough to
drink from it. But I would propose that each time we
accept the invitation of Jesus to drink from the cup
of suffering and blessing at every Eucharist, we are
sipping the elixir of eternal life; we are drinking from
the fountain of God’s forgiving love; we are savoring
the flavor of the liberation our loving God offers to
us. How can we not feel younger? How can we not feel
inebriated with redemption? How can we not feel the
spirit enliven our souls?
We cannot if we’re not thirsty.
So I believe even Precious Blood missionaries have
something to learn from the most interesting man in the
world: “Stay thirsty, my friends.” The kind of thirst I’m
talking about was captured in a speech Bobby Kennedy
gave to the youth of South Africa a few years after the
Kansas City Province was born 50 years ago. His brother,
Edward Kennedy, quoted it in his eulogy for Bobby,
when he said the way to address the problems we face “is
to rely on youth—not a time of life but a state of mind, a
temper of will, a quality of imagination, a predominance
of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure
over the love of ease.”
Are we as members, companions, and volunteers of
the Kansas City Province willing to stay thirsty? We
can talk all we want about 60 being the new 40 and
70 being the new 50, but regardless of the age we have
accumulated on our bodies, are we still willing to have a
thirst for adventure?
Perhaps because we are not Jesuits, it is comforting to
contemplate that the definition of genius has more to
do with the relational than the intellectual. But it is also
challenging because it reminds us how important it is to
work together. Being able to live with the tensions can
be creative not chaotic. Focusing on the relationship
we share as brothers and sisters in the blood of Christ
rather than on the differences that divide us allows
us to drink in experiences of one another that have
shaped our lives and brought us to this time in our lives.
Allowing the power of the relationship in the bond of
charity to keep us together affords us the opportunity
to look to the future with a “quality of imagination,
courage over timidity, and an appetite for adventure
over the love of ease.”
We certainly sense this creative tension in the Gospel.
When Jesus chose his inner circle, he called a couple of
sets of brothers to be the core group of his coworkers—so
there is certainly a blood bond of relationship and even
friendship that unites them. But he also chose people of
vastly different occupations and ideologies.
By the definition mentioned earlier, Jesus was a
genius because one look at the apostles gives evidence
he did not choose people with whom he agreed or who
agreed with one another. For example, Matthew was a
tax collector who protected the establishment, was paid
by the institution to essentially betray his own people,
until Jesus called him out of his IRS office to follow him.
You recall how upset the religious elite were when Jesus
went to Matthew’s house to celebrate with his friends
Matthew’s new job opportunity. Jesus turned on them
with the words Pope Francis has certainly underscored:
“It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice.”
On the other extreme, there is Simon the Zealot, who
by party affiliation believed in the violent overthrow
of the Roman occupation. How difficult it must have
been for Simon to hear Jesus’ words about turning the
other cheek, going the extra mile, loving one’s enemies,
The New Wine Press • Page 2 • July 2015
and praying for those who persecute you. How uncomfortable those first
meetings must have been when people from such different backgrounds
and beliefs sat down to break bread together and tell the group a little about
themselves. It’s like having Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz over for dinner and
a discussion on immigration.
Stay Thirsty
All of this suggests that part of what it means be “kingdom people,” to pray
“thy kingdom come” and to live in such a way that the kingdom of God draws
near, is the ability to hold in one’s heart inherent contradictions. At the center
of a creative heart—also a prayerful heart—is the willingness to listen to those
with whom we disagree. The Kingdom of God has something to do with that
space within one’s heart where one holds the contradictions of one’s life. The
genius of Jesus was to bring together those who disagreed—and some who
disagreed with him—to find that common ground.
Of course, you know where that led: nailed to the cross between two
criminals, one who harassed him and the other who hoped in him and found
heaven as his reward. And ultimately, because of our human condition, that’s
where our willingness to stand in the breach, to open that space within our
hearts for those with whom we disagree, will lead us. Can we drink this cup
that is bitter to the taste and difficult to swallow?
The smaller we get as a province the more noticeable our disagreements.
And the tendency then is to shrink back into our corners, our individual
ministries, our work and the people we serve, and leave the messy business of
community to a chosen few. When we do this, we will be playing out the final
scene of Samuel Beckett’s famous play, Waiting for Godot. You remember the
two characters spend the play waiting desperately for someone named Godot
who never shows up. In the final scene, one of the characters says to the other,
“Let’s go.”
“Yes,” the other replies. “Let’s go.”
And the stage directions say they do not move.
May we be thirsty for a new future and be ready to embrace our future
together. May we be willing to dialogue with one another and listen with open
hearts to each of our hopes and dreams, hurts and disappointments; and to
remember what Paulo Freire said about the kind of dialogue that is necessary
to make reconciliation and renewal possible: “Dialogue cannot exist in the
absence of a profound love for the world and for people.”
This is at the heart of what it means to be creative and courageous, not timid
and apathetic about the issues we face, the dreams we hold, the differences
we have as brothers and sisters in the blood of Christ. Let us enter a dialogue
about our future as we embark on the next 50 years of the Kansas City
Province and the next 100 years of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Let
us be bold and prophetic. Let us be imaginative and enthusiastic. Let us listen
with understanding hearts and speak our truth with clarity. And always, let us
be willing to enter this dialogue because we love one another and are willing to
serve one another.
Stay thirsty, my friends. Stay thirsty for the blood of Christ that reconciles
and renews the world. Stay thirsty!
The New Wine Press • Page 3 • July 2015
The New Wine Press
Missionaries of the Precious Blood
Kansas City Province
www.kcprovince.org
The Society of the Precious Blood
is a fraternal community
of priests and brothers
founded by St. Gaspar in .
Bonded through charity
by a promise of fidelity,
we are prayerfully motivated
by the spirituality of the
precious blood of Jesus Christ
to serve the needs of the Church
as discerned through
the signs of the times and in
the light of the Gospel.
The Kansas City Province—
incorporated members,
covenanted companions,
and candidates—
united in prayer, service
and mutual support,
characterized by the tradition
of its American predecessors,
are missionaries of these times
with diverse gifts and ministries.
In a spirit of joy,
we strive to serve all people—
especially the poor—
with care and compassion,
hope and hospitality.
The New Wine Press
seeks to remain faithful
to the charism of our founder,
St. Gaspar, and the spirituality
of the Blood of Christ
with its emphasis on reconciliation,
renewal and refounding.
We accept and encourage
unsolicited manuscripts
and letters to the editor.
Precious Blood Center
P.O. Box
Liberty, MO -
..
Editor
Keith Branson, c.pp.s.
[email protected]
Layout & Design
Margaret Haik
[email protected]
Printed on recycled paper by
McDonald Business Forms
Overland Park, KS