More on Passion

Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings for Saturday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Reflection:

The reading today from Habakkuk has buried in it a huge lesson for us today. I know sometimes when we read the Old Testament Prophets we are thinking about their historical context and, in this case we think the prophet is lamenting the Diaspora, the disbursement and enslavement of the Hebrews by its neighbors. Of course the prophet is speaking to that event but in light of the Lord coming to us and what we know now of His glorious resurrection there is another message, very relevant to us, today.

Listen carefully to this passage:

You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler.
He brings them all up with his hook, he hauls them away with his net, He gathers them in his seine; and so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine; For thanks to them his portion is generous, and his repast sumptuous. (Hb 1;14-16)

I want to tell you a true story (Notice I said “true”, those of you who know me, know I am a story teller so I am clarifying.) A number of years ago I was the Human Resources Manager for a large research organization in Ann Arbor. I was contacted one day by one of the Lab Directors about one of his researchers who was not doing well at his job and whom his director wanted to terminate.

I invited the man into my office to see if this was a problem that had a less drastic solution. The man (about 33 or so years old) was a Ph.D. in Computer Science and working on some advanced image processing algorithms. When I asked him if he was aware that his work was far less than satisfactory, he immediately broke in to tears. I was surprised; it is not very often that technical professionals at this level display much emotion at all, let alone crying. I asked him what the problem was and he told me he was going through a very messy divorce.

This explained a lot. Most folks I have encountered who go through that traumatic process are in pretty bad shape for about a year. (If they are not, shame on them for entering into such an important relationship that meant so little.) In this case, however, the root of his depression surprised me further and lead to an epiphany related to our Prophet Habakkuk’s lament.

What was troubling this young man so deeply was not just that his wife of 4 years had kicked him out of their house, but that she was denying him access to his personal computer (a Mac I believe he said it was). This computer, he told me, his emotion now switching to frustrated anger, contained all of his personally work, his thesis research, his personal projects and his future plans. She would not let him even see it. (This last part was blurted out as he stood and actually shouted. I was becoming concerned (more like scared the guy was going to go ballistic)).

The conversation ended with him storming out of my office, slamming the door behind him. If you are wondering how the issue was resolved, I recommended suspending him from work until we could get a psychological evaluation that told us he would not be a danger to himself or his co-workers. It was not the quality of his work I was worried about, it was his emotional temperament. (If he had asked me, I might also have been able to give him some direction about his marital problems.) I also had a sit down with the director and asked him if any of his other scientists were exhibiting signs of emotional stress. He told me it was hard to tell. (You have to have known the work environment at ERIM at the time to appreciate the truth of that statement.)

The point of the story as it relates to Habakkuk’s prophecy is the young man in my story had substituted his principle tool for a spiritual relationship with God. He worshiped his computer as the evil ones in Habakkuk’s reading; “…he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine; for thanks to them his portion is generous”.

Given our love affair with technology, our cell phones, PDAs, and computers to mention a few bits, is it any wonder that more and more today people are turning to their devices for comfort and neglecting the relationship with the Lord that could make them whole. Granted, the story I gave you was extreme, but look at the news, people are worshiping their toys and tools.

Yesterday I said that by our passions we will be known. If we allow “Things” to become our motive for what we do, (“You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them” Ex 20 4-5) are we not violating this second commandment of the Decalogue? Granted we may not “Officially” bow down, but when we dedicate our effort to worldly goods we are walking a very dangerous path.

I see today I have run long and not even had a chance to mention the whole “…if you have faith the size of a mustard seed” debate. Let us keep that in mind as we ask ourselves today where we put our time. I hate to be repetitive but; by our passions we will be known.

Pax