Overpaid and Underworked

Being motivated by love of Christ rather than money

04/22/2018

John 10:11-18 Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

Is it better to work for pay or to work for peanuts, that is, to work for free? Most people would answer it is better to get paid for your work. Otherwise, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. If you pay very little, you will get very little in return. There’s a very prevalent attitude that unthinkingly accepts that the more expensive an item is the more valuable it must be. Inversely, the cheaper the price tag, the lower the quality. Have you ever thought that when buying a new phone or a purse or a car? More money equals better stuff.

But in the church the opposite principle prevails in how we pay people. Do you know how much priests are paid in salary each month? We make a whopping $900 per month, which comes to a little over $10,000 a year. When you consider that I am the veritable CEO of three multimillion dollar organizations (sorry, not Our Lady of the Ozarks in Winslow), but I.C. Church, I.C. School and Trinity Junior High, many people would be shocked. I oversee combined budgets of over $4,500,000 and I am paid less than the least paid employee. Didn’t we abolish slavery by the thirteenth amendment?

One day a small boy told me after Mass he wanted to be a priest. I was pleased and asked him what inspired him. He answered that every Sunday in the middle of Mass he watched the usher bring a large basket full of money to give to me, and he wanted to make that much money, too. He meant the Sunday collection. I smiled and said, “I get paid a lot more than that.” And I wasn’t lying. My salary is not a paycheck, my reward is love. I wouldn’t be a priest for all the money in the world, but I would do this for love, the love of Jesus. One of my favorite Scriptures passages is 2 Corinthians 5:14, which reads: “Caritas Christi urget nos,” meaning, “the love of Christ compels us.” Indeed, I always feel like I’m being over paid for what I little I do. When the love of Jesus is our reward, every priest is overpaid and underworked. Love is the paycheck of the priest.

In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus tips his hand and reveals what he thinks about working for pay or for peanuts. Jesus explains the “modus operandi” (way of working) of the Good Shepherd. He says: “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man…sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.”  When it comes to the behavior of spiritual shepherd – that is, priests – you don’t always get what you pay for. When money is the motive you get the minimum; no one will die for money because you can’t spend it if you’re dead.  But when love in involved you get the maximum, even to giving one’s life, because love lasts beyond the grave.

Let me clarify that Jesus is not commenting on economic systems of capitalism or communism, criticizing one and extolling the other. Rather, he is setting the standard of behavior of his shepherds, whose motive should be love for the sheep not the size of their paychecks. I guess that means I don’t need to ask the bishop for a raise any time soon.

I believe we can apply this same spiritual principle of payment to the practical faith of all Catholics; not only to shepherds but also to sheep. If we are not vigilant a consumer mentality can creep into our Catholicism. You may not be a priest who pines for a paycheck, but you might complain about not getting anything out of the Mass. Have you ever heard that critical comment? But that concern is born in a heart that sees spirituality as a “quid pro quo.” I give you an hour on Sunday, Lord, and what do I get in return? The heart that loves, on the other hand, says, I am glad I could spend an hour with Jesus today, and I only wish I could have stayed a little longer. Love doesn’t ask what I get, but rather what can I give.

Have you ever looked at prayer like a business proposition? I said my rosary or novena, but why didn’t I get what I prayed for? Maybe I need to say more prayers or different prayers to get the answer I want.  My pay scale must be off. But the Christian moved by love offers prayers not only of petition (asking for something) but also prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for mercy.  Prayer motivated by love has very little to do with what I can get but everything to do with what I can give.

We can even have this “pay to play mentality” with other people. Some ask what good are the elderly or the homeless or the immigrants or the unborn or the refugees to the society as a whole? What do we get from them? They are only a drain on the economy. But a heart that is moved by love looks upon the vulnerable as Jesus’ little brothers and sisters and takes care of them without counting the cost. Loving one’s neighbor isn’t about what I get from them, but what I can give to them.

In a word, be careful not to calculate the cost of your Christianity. In the natural world you get what you pay for, and that’s a good thing; it keeps people honest and hard-working. But in the spiritual world you never get what you pay for; indeed, you always get far more than you deserve.  Why?  Because “caritas Christi urget nos” (the love of Christ compels us). When Jesus’ love is our paycheck, we are always overpaid and underworked.

Praised be Jesus Christ!