You Can Only Have One Boss

If you want your meeting to be efficient and end quickly then take all the chairs out of the room and have everyone stand. I learned this from working for my father. Every morning the crew would stand around the sawhorses. My uncle would point and say, "You. Do you see that pallet of shingles? Get them up on the roof, now." And the meeting was over.

A few years ago I was at a meeting. We were sitting on comfortable leather chairs; our coffee was in China cups and placed on a nice long mahogany table. They even had snacks and bottles of water scattered around. The meeting lasted all day, eight hours. That night, after the meeting, one of the guys who attended with me said, "I can't believe you. You only said one thing the whole day." Then he said, "But you know something? I remember what you said. I don't remember much of what anyone else said but I remember what you said." "That's right," I replied, "that is why I only said one thing."

We heard at Mass that Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain to attend a meeting. The guest list was impressive. Mosses, who needs no introduction, Elijah, one of the greatest of prophets and Jesus, wearing a lighting bolt. God the Father crashed the meeting on a cloud and the Apostles had the sense that they were "not in Kansas any more." With all of the drama, and the stars arranged together for the apostles to see, God the Father said just one sentence. No ten commandments, no list of precepts and no long instructions, just one thing. Why just one thought? So, that we will never forget: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and we are to listen to Him.

My father gave me some insight into this. My father has been a carpenter for fifty years. Not many carpenters can say they have fifty years experience. Any contractor wanted my father on the job. They wanted him for his deep knowledge and experience. Whenever my father got a job the first thing he said to the contractor was, "You are the boss on this job. I will do what you want me to do. I may not agree with the way you run it or I may have a better way of doing the job, but we are going to do this job your way." I said to my dad, "That was a nice thing for you to say." He replied to me, "Peter, in construction you can only have one boss. If you want to make a profit and if you want to finish the job as friends with everyone, then you can only have one boss."

When we go to Mass and say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," what do we mean by that? Are we really saying this: "Lord, You are the boss. I may not always understand or even agree with You, but we are going to do things Your way."

Last week I called Fr. John Uni who is the pastor of St. Cecilia Parish to thank him for doing me a favor. He just got back from Haiti so I asked him about his experience. He said to me, "Peter, you cannot possibly imagine the devastation." I thought to my self as he said that, "What do you do when your whole world turns up side down? What do you do when you have only questions and no answers? What do you say?" Fr. John must have anticipated my question because he said, "Peter, do you know what they are doing? They get together in groups and sing hymns."

I may not understand at times, I may not even agree, but I know one thing: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and I am listening to Him.

Fr. Peter

February 28, 2010 | Second Sunday of Lent