November 2002

“When I joined we were told about Charity, Unity, Fraternity, and Patriotism. But where is all of that now that I am a member?”

Lately I have been realizing that a large number of Knights of Columbus have questions regarding the principles of the order and what we are (or are not) doing as a group. One of the most popular phrases is what I have written above. I have heard this from new members, old members, active and inactive, as well as members of almost every other council that I have been lucky enough to be involved with in one way or another.

I never have really known how to respond to this and at the same time I can’t say that it is all wrong either. I also have been faced with that feeling more than once, as I am sure many of you have been from time to time.

There are a number of things at work here and so there will not be a one-fix solution to it. What I feel is a prime reason for this is the lack of interest. To help explain what I am talking about lets take the new Beaumont council as a matter of example. This is a group of forty guys that have the drive in them to get together for the good of the community, the church, and themselves. They currently do not have a major source of income like regular Bingos, or anything like that. They don’t currently have their own chambers, and everything that they do have has been donated by other councils or by their own members contributing to the effort. They don’t have a lot, but what they do have they value due to the effort and appreciation that is involved.

Now lets look at our council as another example. We are 25 years a council this Columbian year and we have accomplished great things in that time without question. We have established ourselves as a charitable presence in the community. We have acquired regular Bingos to create a regular source of funding to go through to the work and help we provide the community. We have built our membership beyond 150 members and many of those have represented our council and the communities that we encompass, at other levels of the Knights of Columbus and Catholic or Christian groups with honor and dignity during their duties outside our group. We have become a healthy and vibrant group of Catholic men.

Subsequent to that comes the fact that we have become comfortable in our efforts to maintain the principles of the order. There are still a great many things that we offer and are required to accomplish on behalf of the order. But what I suspect is that for a long time the entire order has been slowly letting go of the thought that goes into what we are doing. As Grand Knight, as an executive officer, and simply as a member of this council, it seems to me that we should revisit the question of WHY we make these efforts long before we approach the HOW, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, or WHO. Why do we have goals to achieve? Why do we work Bingos? Why do we put on a pancake breakfast? Why do we recruit new members? Why?

I would like to share a hypothetical story with you. It involves a young Catholic man who seemingly by circumstance was asked to join our order, and eventually did. The whole thing was very strange and confusing to him at first, not to mention as far from what he had expected to be faced with when he was told about the four principles upon joining. It wasn’t long before a jolly rolly polly old man in the council he had joined began to make him feel welcome. It was the first meeting in fact and he wasn’t the only one to do so. But the old man stood out a little because he never let up on the young man. They shared a few fun experiences over time and began to forge a trust and warmth. The young man

had never experienced anything quite like this in his life before but loved every minute of it. He then began to find that the old man wasn’t alone in his efforts to make the young man feel like a member and a friend. The young man started to get more and more involved with the council as a result. Then one day the old man died. Almost before it began, the relation that had been building for the young man was over. This was devastating for the young man and he wondered about what was in store for him now.

At the old man’s funeral he witnessed something that he hadn’t quite expected. The building was packed full of people of every age, shape, gender, and faith. It was difficult to find a seat but in time he did. As the funeral commenced he looked around trying to absorb and understand just what he was witnessing. Off to his left he heard tears. Out of curiosity he looked over and saw another older man crying to himself. This was someone who only weeks before had been sitting with the old man at a party telling jokes and laughing together with him. Obviously they had been good friends. Obviously all of these mixed people had been friends of his. The old man had made a huge impact of love on the entire attendance.

It was clear to the young man that God had given the old man a job which he seemed to have done brilliantly. At least it worked on the young man. He took the lesson that was being laid out for him and felt that God was trying to say that the old man had done his job. All of these people, himself included, were a testament to that. It was now up to all of them to pick up and carry on with the good work of the Lord that had been left them by the old man.

Years go by and the young man looked back on that difficult time in many peoples lives. He could see that as a result of the loss of the old man, many other things had taken place to help them all carry on and grow in faith that may not have had the opportunity to happen if the old man had still been around. To him being a member of the order meant being a family member to all of the people he dealt with. It meant being a friend to anyone he hadn’t yet met. It meant being the support of the community and the church. It meant being someone who had been loved by an old man who obviously had no need to do it, other than that is what God asked of him. Now to him the order is basically the user-interface for what he should have been doing all along.

With or without goals, quotas, guidelines, and awards, we have the responsibility to apply the principles ourselves. We each are on the hook for this. We each need to be Christian in the things we do for the order, which in turn is for our brothers and sisters in life under God. The apparent lack of principles in what we do is not the fault of the order. We each can take the blame for our own lack of effort there, but we each can instead take it as a challenge to step up and apply our Catholic principles to the things we do.

The Knights of Columbus isn’t a be-all end-all. It is a tool for God, and understandably he has many different tools to work with. Think of the Knights of Columbus as a socket wrench set. As a group we try to accomplish many things. I may be a 7/32 socket. You may be a 5/8. I could not do the work you were given by God. And vice versa, you couldn’t do mine. But the engine that we work together on will run better and get us all further if we stick to what God gives us and help when we can.

The tools don’t always work, sometimes the bolt gets stripped, and sometimes we need to change a bulb. Sockets don’t work well for that. So we stick to our principles within the order to make the best effort possible for what we can do.

I heard a little story the other day at the Alpha Bible study course, which I would highly recommend no matter how good or bad you are at the Bible. We were talking about the rules that God gives us to live and learn with. Some people think that living with rules like these put a damper on their fun. One fellow told of a study done on school kids with different playgrounds. One playground had fences and gates. Large barriers that appeared to be like a prison. The other group had a playground without a fence. No barriers. It was discovered that the group with no fence clung together in the center and played as close to the safety in the center as possible, while the other group with the fence spread out and played hard. They were able to utilize the full extent of the playground given to them without fear or risk. It was suggested that this is how the rules set out for us by God act as our fence for the playground. We don’t feel penned up or restrained. It is actually the opposite.

Here is another one. They spoke about visiting the Soviet Union and traveling through. The people who had done this were told that they were not allowed to bring Bibles into the country. It was an offence against the government and you just could never tell what would come of something like that back then. But then they would be given a package of Bibles secretly before the journey, to take and hand out in the country. One Russian man received a Bible and danced up and down the street with his newfound gift. They were hard to come by, illegal and sought by the KGB, but loved and cherished without fear by those who possessed one.

Now the Bible is consistently the bestseller of all time every year in every shape and form. And yet someone asked at Alpha why we don’t see them around. Why don’t people carry them around in the open? Where are they all? Apparently we as a religion are too shy or worse yet, too ashamed to show our faith. While the book is just a tool for us to use and has no physical value, it carries the word and the things we generally need to get some of the help we need. The great Don Marchand always has little quotes and tidbits that make us think a little at the Alpha class. He said to us this week that he was reading an author that had asked himself “If I were ever accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me?”

If you were accused of being a Knight of Columbus, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Are you helping to eliminate the shame of carrying the faith in the open? Do you live in the fence or outside it? Have you learned the lesson taught us by the loss of your loved one? Has the path that you leave behind you been one that you feel helps others that may cross it too?

I told you all of this to help illustrate my point. We don’t have to rely on the order to bring the value to us. We shouldn’t be doing that and we can’t promote it that way to the new members. It is in fact us who brings the value to the order. Where are the principles we were taught when we joined the order? Well where did you leave them? I’ve got mine still and they only fit a 7/32 socket. Can we all help each other to find them?

Vivat Jesus
The young man

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