All in the Family Business: The 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday's gospel is about cooperation. The setting is a family business (vineyard). The characters are 1) a father/owner/manager and 2) two sons/employees/slackards (one a true slackard, the other a wannbe).

I have numerous parishioners involved in family businesses. Sometimes, when I ask them how work's going, there seems to be a bit of pause. I think I know the reason: people in family businesses carry twice the amount of mental and emotional preoccupation as do folks in other types of enterprizes.

Consider the following information from "Getting Along in the Family Business" by Edwin Hoover and Colette Lombard Hoover (Routledge Press, 1999):

THE FAMILY BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MATRIX:

In the family, the measure of success is harmony, in the business it's production. Authority in the family is equal, in the business, unequal. Financial rewards in a family enterprise tend to be based on need, in a non-family business, they are based on productivity. Individual aspirations are the locus of importance in a family operation, in a non-family business, it's productivity. And who's "in" and who's "out?" In a family, the stress is on unconditional acceptance, in the non-family business it's dependent on one's contribution.

The authors go on to say that some people look at the complexitiy of relationships in a family business and conclude that they are designed not to work. Yet, the concept has existed and worked for centuries. The key is compromise.

When compromise is managed well, there is a great payoff. For example:
"The family sets expectations of each other that are very unfamily-like, but needed by the business. The result is tremendous, and otherwise unattainable, opportunities for the family members and extraordinary long-term loyalty by family employees to the business. Owners sacrifice some of their return on investment to provide key nonfamily managers with financial incentives that will keep them in the company since they will never achieve top executive spots. The result is a marvelous combination of family and non-family leadership talent all pulling together rather than in opposite directions." (p. 45)

Easier said than done! Yet it is possible. As I begin to reflect on this Sunday's gospel passage, I'm drawn to consider ways in which my listners might view the notion of compromise. I think there might be some insight to be gained from viewing it, not from a one-on-one stance (such as marriage), but from a "family business" stance where "getting along" requires a commitment to untying countless
"relationship knots" on a daily basis...for goals both tangible and intangible.

Readers, do any of you have stories or examples of modern-day "vineyards" with accompanying squabbles, solutions, reconciliations, etc.?

A SAMPLE HOMILY

[Note: I usually post a first draft of my Sunday homily on Thursday, seeking comments and suggestions. This week, however, a guest preacher is delivering the homily in my parish. Below is a sample homily from a Penance service that uses the example of a family in a family-business situation. As always, your constructive criticism is much appreciated. If you wish to post your comments to me directly, my e-mail address is jms48@fuse.net.]

HOMILY FOR AN ADVENT PENANCE SERVICE

I have a good friend name Jake who lives up north in Darke County.
He’s a dairy farmer and he and his wife have six children.

I visit Jake about every week.
We talk about politics.
We talk about the crops.
We talk about the price of milk
and I remember to inquire about the health of his cows
as well as the health of his family.

On my last visit to Jake’s house
the kids were home from school
and the usual conversations were interrupted.
In fact, Jake and I spent most of the time at the kitchen table
with our noses buried in a Highlights magazine.

His first-grader, Isaac, you see, enjoys picture puzzles;
the boy just loves to scrutinize those black and white sketches
featured in children’s magazines that have objects hidden within them.

I’m sure you parents are familiar with this sort of puzzle:
they’re drawings, for instance, of scarecrows in a field
or of a grandfather playing checkers with his granddaughter
that contain all sorts of incongruous objects—like muffins, candy canes and horses—
concealed within the leaves of a tree
or drawn into the shapes of clouds in the sky
or hidden within the ripples on a pond or a pattern on a table cloth.

Well, Isaac just loves these pictures.
After his dad and I helped him locate all the objects in the puzzles
in the current issue,
he ran to his room and brought out a stack of back issues!

I bring this up this evening because I sometimes wonder
if our personal experience of going to confession
is a bit like trying to find objects in a puzzle drawing…
In fact, I wonder if a lot of us adult Catholics, these days,
tend to view confession as “something good for our kids”
but not necessary for adults.

For some of us,
trying to locate sin in our life
can feel as foreign as
trying to find a duck among the leaves of a tree
or a candy-cane in the ripples of a pond.

Still, we don’t seem to mind bringing our children to Confession.
After all, our children our need to know the difference
between right and wrong.
And beside, the sins they discover are seldom more dangerous
than uncovering a duck hiding in a tree.

And so, we teach our children how to recognize sin
to help rid their lives of behavior
that is inconsiderate of others.
And this is all well and good,
but sometimes parents do not advance to a fuller appreciation
of what sin is
or what the Sacrament of Penance offers for the adult Catholic.

And we ignore the fact that,
in the grown-up world,
sin is a very serious matter…
much more serious
than a picture puzzle in a Highlights magazine.
And that brings us to this Penance Service tonight.

How do we start?
How do we go about looking
for the hidden sins in our life?

I can tell you this much, my friend Jake knows that the reality of sin
is a lot more complicated for him than for his son, Isaac.
Jake’s in business with his brothers, you see.
Occasionally he shares with me the strenuous effort needed
to rise above the tensions and arguments
that can bring division to a family business;
the struggle to avoid the misunderstandings
that can sink the most considerate of families
and the most well-intentioned of partnerships.

For him and his brothers,
the rooting out of sin is no child’s game, rather,
their financial livelihood depends on it.
So, here you can see how,
on the personal and family level,
the battle against sin is never easy
but is vitally necessary.

In other words, we are not dealing here
with discovering a few innocuous "childhood-level" sins
hidden with a picture puzzle.

No doubt, confession is good for our kids,
but sin remains a serious issue for us adults.

It is not a picture puzzle where candy canes
are concealed in the pattern of a table cloth…
rather, sin is a pervasive power concealed in every area of life…
a power that nurtures despair instead of hope,
a power that makes us want condemn rather than praise
a power that saps the joy of life and makes us focus on
human failures as opposed to the magic of God’s miracles.

And, in the final analysis,
that’s the truest and deepest injury that sin inflicts:
it prevents us from seeing God’s good grace;
and the longer we remain under the influence of the power called sin,
the harder it is to recognize the marvelous miracles of the Holy Spirit…
things like joy and forgiveness, trust and hope.

So, what really brings us to this church
on this Advent evening to confess our sins?
What draws us here to shake off the dampness
of the Devil’s cold rain?

Well, it seems to me that we are here
not so much to confess our sins
but to recapture the joy that God longs for us to have…
like the joy of that boy named Isaac
sitting on his dad’s lap
and searching the picture of a Highlights puzzle...
looking hard for the image of a candy cane in the ripples of a pond
and the profile of a horse in the shape of the clouds.

This, you see, is the heart of the Sacrament we celebrate tonight:
that childlike joy…
that sudden delight upon discovering that,
traced into the lines of our life…
is the hidden presence of God’s love and help…
as close by as a parent’s lap,
as real as a magazine on a kitchen table,
and, suddenly…unexpectedly, as obvious as a pony in the sky.