He sits and reflects on
forty-five years of
ordination to ministry —
the measuring stick,
the bar for a Christian
minister being how close
he or she followed Jesus
in one’s personal life
and in leading others
(parishioners in particular)
in the way of love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-cont-
rol on a personal level
and working for justice
for the poor, the outcasts,
the downtrodden, the victims
and helping to transform
structures of society to-
ward equality, dignity,
opportunity and possibil-
ity. In light of that
daunting task, he swallows
hard, shakes his head,
thinks about how much
easier it would have been
simply to call people to
believe in Jesus Christ
as their personal lord
and savior as a ticket
to heaven and out of hell,
but he knows he couldn’t
have done such an un-
biblical thing, so he
simply gives thanks for
grace and prays the Kyrie.