A Secretary’s Memoirs

Seeing our lives through the eyes of our secretary

01/25/2019

Acts of the Apostles 22:3-16 Paul addressed the people in these words: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well. "On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' I replied, 'Who are you, sir?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.' My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, 'What shall I do, sir?' The Lord answered me, 'Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.' Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.

At some point or another everyone thinks of writing their own autobiography. When we have lived long enough we begin to marvel at the adventures, the people, the places and even the close calls and narrow escapes we have had. Do you know who I hope never write down their memoirs? It is church secretaries, especially where I have served as pastor. But many times they have threatened to do exactly that, and I cringe inside. I have served in 18 parishes and mission and all secretaries unanimously agree that no one would believe the things they have seen, heard and experienced. It would definitely be a best-seller, probably in the dramatic fiction section.

The memoirs of a church secretary would inevitably include the parish priests they worked with. Our secretaries see us at our shining best as well as our most miserable worst. They know all too well that every priest has clay feet no matter how clean his collar. But the fundamental job of a church secretary is to make the pastor look good, in spite of himself. Church secretaries shoulder the same burden as altar servers at Mass, whom I instruct before each Mass: “You make me look good, and I will make Jesus look good.” Clearly the secretary and the altar server have the much harder job.

But church secretaries are also blessed to see the story of their pastor is not only the tale of a man, but also the testimony of the Messiah; it’s not only about John, but it’s also about Jesus. In other words, the secretary sees daily the miracles of grace that happen not only in the lives of parishioners, but also in the life of the pastor. Secretaries can say with St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” Every church secretary can repeat the opening lines of Charles Dicken’s classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That’s the life of every church secretary.

Today we celebrate the compelling conversion of St. Paul. But what I find fascinating about the conversion accounts in the Acts of the Apostles (there are actually three accounts in chapters 9, 22, and 26) is that they are written by his secretary. Even though Paul speaks in first person, as if he’s talking about himself, those words themselves are written by St. Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles. Luke was St. Paul’s understudy and accompanied him on his long missionary journeys preaching and teaching. Like all secretaries Luke saw St. Paul both at his best but also at his worst. In fact, that is the central point of St. Paul’s conversion story. St. Paul was probably thinking: did Luke have to include that story three times?

But St. Luke enjoyed a perspective that escaped Paul, namely, to see the miracles of grace not only in the people to whom Paul preached, but also the miracles in the life of Paul the preacher. Of course, Paul recounts his own version of that conversion event in Galatians 1, but that account is brief, and skips over the more embarrassing details, like I would have done in the autobiography of Fr. John. But St. Luke, the secretary of the Apostles to the Gentiles, knew all too well that the great missionary also had clay feet that carried him all over the world, and his story was both “the best of times and the worst of times.”

Have you ever thought you would like to write down your memoirs, or your autobiography, like all presidential candidates rush to do while campaigning? Would you depict yourself as the noble and shining hero who rides in on his white steed to save the day and the damsel in distress? If we are honest, we will admit we all suffer from an over-inflated opinion about ourselves and our accomplishments. Your life would be far more fascinating if your secretary wrote about you, or if your spouse picked up the pen, or your children wrote the record of your life. Their accounts might not be the most flattering version of the story, but they would probably be a little more factual. More importantly, they might see the miracles of grace in your story better than you can, like St. Luke saw them in the conversion story of St. Paul.

We all carry treasure in jars of clay. Our life story is both the best of times and the worst of times. If it wasn’t, it would never become a best-seller.

Praised be Jesus Christ!