08/17/2025
Luke 12:49-53 Jesus said to
his disciples: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it
were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how
great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to
establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on
a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a
father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother
against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against
her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Recently I’ve been reading a book
called Think Like a Monk by an Indian author from England named Jay Shetty.
Just like I spent 3 months with Carmelite monks, so Jay Shetty spent 3 years
learning the wisdom of Buddhist monks. He suggests that Buddhist wisdom can
help us go from having a “monkey mind” to a “monk mind”.
Shetty shared an example of how to
change from a monkey to a monk. He wrote: “A few decades ago, scientists
conducted an experiment in the Arizona desert where they built “Biosphere 2” –
a huge steel and glass enclosure with air that had been purified, clean water,
nutrient-rich soil, and lots of natural light. It was meant to provide ideal
living conditions for the flora and fauna within.”
Shetty continued: “And while it was
successful in some ways, in one way it was an absolute failure. Over and over,
when trees inside the Biosphere grew to a certain height, they would simply
fall over. At first the phenomenon confused scientists. Finally, they realized
that the Biosphere lacked a key element necessary to the trees’ health,
[namely] wind.”
Shetty explained why: “In a natural
environment, trees are buffeted by wind. They respond to that pressure and
agitation by growing stronger bark and deeper roots to increase their
stability.” Then Shetty drew this practical conclusion: “We waste a lot of time
and energy trying to stay in the comfortable bubble of our self-made
Biospheres. We fear stress and challenges of change, but those stresses and
challenges are the winds that makes us stronger” (p. 50). In short, winds make
us go from monkeys to monks.
In the gospel today, Jesus talks
about one of the self-made biospheres called our families. But our Lord intends
to crack open these family biospheres to help us grow stronger in his grace. He
says: “From now on, a household of five will be divided three against two and
two against three. A father will be divided against his son and a son against
his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother.”
Of course, we all want our families
to resemble the old TV show “Leave It to Beaver” or our homes to look like
those displayed in a Norman Rockwell painting. But the realty is there is
always family strife: divisions, disappointments, divorce, and finally death.
But those winds of change and challenge do not have to be all negative, they
can make us stronger and depend more entirely on God’s grace. In other words,
Jesus sometimes allows bad things to happen to good people. Why? So that good
people can become saints.
My friends, what other self-made
biospheres incubate and insulate ourselves in order to live a pain-free and
carefree life? I was very pleased to hear that Fort Smith public schools
implemented a no cell phone policy on all campuses this year. It is called
“Bell to Bell, No Cell.” By the way, the kids hate it. But that disruption and
discomfort is a wind that blows slowly changing their thinking from monkeys to
monks.
We can create spiritual biospheres
in our faith journey, never wandering off our spiritual safe spaces. Instead of
being a pew potato and always following your spiritual routine, which really
becomes a spiritual rut, push yourself outside your self-made biosphere. Become
a lector at Mass, a Eucharistic Minister, an Usher. Or join a parish group, the
Knights of Columbus, the Ladies Auxiliary, or become a Catechist.
All the spiritual masters tell us
that if we do not seek spiritual change and growth, Jesus will impose it. He
may send us a “dark night of the soul.” That’s not a new Batman movie; but a
spiritual dryness and desert-like experience, a profound desolation. Mother Teresa
for several years toward the end of her life doubted that God even existed. You
don’t become a saint without suffering.
Do you create political biospheres?
We can listen exclusively to conservative commentators on the right, or only to
progressive pundits on the left, and feel we know what is best for others and
for the world. When I watch the news, I’m constantly switching between CNN and
Fox News. I run between those two biospheres and hope somewhere in between I
can find the political truth. We have enough political monkeys and not many
political monks.
By the way, do you know who “the
big three” are in tennis? They are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak
Djokovic. Several years ago, Fr. Daniel Velasco and I were watching tennis on
TV and I casually remarked: “Can you imagine how many more titles that Rafa or
Roger or Djokovic could have won if the other two had not lived at the same
time?” He answered: “It is precisely because all three were present that each
became so great, because they pushed each other to greatness.” In other words,
the big three did not live in a self-made biosphere.
Praised be Jesus
Christ!
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