Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Once there was a novel and a TV series entitled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

I never read the book or saw the show but the title always intrigued me and, in time, I had a chance to do a little bit of all of them. Well, except for the spy part. A spy is what we call the guys on the other side, the guys on our side we refer to as "intelligence officers." So, I was never a spy - but yes, I was an intelligence officer.

I am also proud to say that I was pretty good in 3 of the 4.

My experience as a tailor started when I was a young teenage cadet. I asked my Mom to sew my patches on my uniform once and she was very supportive until I asked her to re-do it because 3/4" was not the same as 1/2" and it mattered. Well, not to her so I learned to use the sewing machine. And I actually got pretty good at it that I started to do stuff on my own. I was so skinny when I was a teenager that I had to tailor my own uniform shirts or else it would look baggy. Yes, I was still skinny but my uniform looked good! I stopped sewing for years but I was pleased to see that I could still do a decent job when it came time to sew patches on my son's cub scout uniform and then my daughter's girl scout uniform. Oh yeah - the man can sew too!

I was a good soldier and an officer. I almost always got the mission accomplished, took care of my troops and my equipment and helped everyone whenever I could. When I look back at my 20 years in the Army, I have a lot of pride of accomplishment. I think I did more in my 20 years than many and I am very proud of my service.

I can't say too much about my work as an intelligence officer. I did some good stuff that mattered. I was good.

Have you guessed it yet?

As a tinker - I am a mess. I have no natural mechanical ability. I have tried. I changed my own oil. With my friend's help, I changed my brakes once. Air filters, headlights - OK.

Anything more than that - not so OK. For example, I tried to change my driver's side mirror today. I got most of it taken off and then it got to the part where I was supposed to remove the "retaining clip." Huh? What retaining clip? So, after several minutes of frustrated searching and prodding, it dawned on me - you are not going to find it and if you don't get this put back together your family is going to be down to one car.

For the lack of a retaining clip?

So, with wires and equipment dangling both in and out of my car I did some quick taping and drove down to the Ford dealer. Several hours later, everything was fixed and all it cost me was money and my pride. What a deal!

What did I learn from all this?

1. It is folly to compare your weakness to someone else' strength. I am not a good mechanic. If I measure my self-worth to the mechanics in the shop then I am certain to be unhappy. Having said that, I am pretty sure that those guys can't keep up with me in the Tailor, Soldier, "Intelligence Officer" area.

2. Don't let your pride get in the way of seeking help. I think sometimes we get too wrapped up in our pride of doing it on our own - at least I know I do. I convince myself that I should be able to do something even if it is completely unreasonable. It is only when we admit our own shortcomings and ask for help that we are able to gain in compassion for others and grow in our own humanity. I have found that it is true that when I am weak that God is strong.

3. God does call us out of our comfort zone and we need to have the courage to follow that call. It is too easy for me to only do what I am good at doing. It is human nature to stay with the familiar even if it is not good for you. But God has His own plan for us that is usually out of our comfort zone. It would have been easy for Peter to stay a fisherman but God wanted more and so Peter left his nets to follow Christ into the unknown. It would have been easy for the woman to continue to seek the traditional doctors but she knew if she could only touch Jesus' cloak that she would be healed - and she was and she was so scared of her own boldness afterwards that she could not even speak. It would have been easy for Jesus to stay a carpenter and to avoid the cross but then none of us would be saved.

So, I am pretty sure that I am not going to be a tinker but maybe a baker, or candlestick maker. Maybe I will even try my hand at swinging a hammer. I understand that there is good company there.

Hail Mary, Full of Grace

Today Catholics all around the world are celebrating the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is a special day that our tradition holds that Mary was brought to heaven where she lives with our Risen Lord. We believe that she is very much a part of our daily lives and intervenes for all of us to Jesus Christ our Savior and her son.

Catholics have great respect for Mary and that has led a lot of confusion among our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters. The chief misunderstanding is that non-Catholics think that we pray to Mary as a god and nothing could be further from the truth. We know that Mary is the Mother of Jesus and not God. Just as we ask our fellow Christians for their prayers, we think it is OK to ask Mary for her prayer and support.

And so why all this respect for Mary?

Let's look at the Bible.

Lk 1:39-56

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

(Emphasis is mine)

Mary had a choice - and she choose to believe. Because of her choice, our Savior was born and redeemed the world from sin.

God loves us so much that he always gives us free will. Even though He prepared Mary for this purpose by having her born free of original sin (that's why she is called the Virgin Mary because she was free of original sin not only because she had never been with a man), He still gave Mary a choice.

This young girl (between 14 and 17) could have refused God. There was lots of sensible reasons for her to refuse. First, people would have thought she was lying or crazy about talking to God. She was no one special from a family of no consequence. Why would God choose her to carry His son? Secondly, she was already betrothed to Joseph. Being pregnant would have brought shame not only to herself and her family but could have easily resulted in her being stoned to death. Read the passage again, there was good reason that Mary traveled to the hill country in haste. Finally, she was not going to get anything out of this - there was no reward, no fame, nothing.

How many of us would have agreed to this offer? So, not only will everyone think that I am nuts, but I get nothing for this and I might be killed? Yeah, I am going to sign up for that...

And yet Mary did. She believed and acted on her faith. She and Joseph helped raise Jesus, and after Joseph died, she helped Jesus on his ministry. Through the tough times and all the way to the foot of the cross where she saw her son die in the most horrible way - Mary kept the faith. She was truly the first disciple of Christ.

And in a culture and time that really did not value women, even the early church respected Mary's contribution and her faith. And we celebrate this day of her assumption every year all around the world.

As "progressive" as we would like to believe our western society to be - in many ways we still do not respect the role of women. It seems that the role of wife and mother are constantly being attacked. The world tells us that women are expected to have careers outside their home. Our young girls are told that they need to have their own lives, they don't need a husband, or children, they need to look out for themselves instead of for others. They are told it is a "man's world" so they need to be tough - they need to be men.

So, it is a good thing that we take a moment to consider Mary. A young girl who believed and choose to follow God's will and not her own. An example of what it means to be a disciple and a mother. Perhaps by considering Mary, we can begin to change our views on the value of women and motherhood in our own society. Perhaps we can gain the courage and the strength to act on our faith even when it does not make any sense. When God calls us, I pray that we can all answer - "Here I am Lord. Send me."