Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Readings for Thursday of the 4th Week of Easter

First Published: Thursday, May 11, 2006

Seperate three eggs

Reflection:

The Acts of the Apostles shows us a picture of the newly converted Paul who, as we saw before his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, was not only a Jew, but a member of the inner circle. He demonstrates his understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures by recounting the prophecies about the Birth of the Messiah who would come from the house of David. I have not read ahead (in other words I have not read tomorrows installment of this story) but my guess is, his next words are going to scandalize this temple by letting them know how this scripture was fulfilled.

Remember now, these Apostles are not close to Jerusalem so the news of Jesus coming will be new to these people. Paul, who must have come with significant credibility, is in a position to explain that that event they (the Jews) have been waiting for has occurred. Can you imagine the awe that must accompany that kind of news when delivered by a credible source and backed up by his friends with him. (I would not be surprised if the first response was; This guy must be some sort of a crack pot. Think about people you have seen who go around saying that the end is near. Do you take them seriously? But some have in the past and some probably are now.)

This was different. This was truth delivered and supported by all of the Prophets and the truth has one unique characteristic it is true for all time. That is why scripture has endured in the face of trials and persecutions. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that whoever receives me receives the one who sent me The only Son of God asks us to accept him and the truth he contains because he is God (He uses the Hebrew formula here; so you know I AM.).

If that is our belief, if we accept that somehow the God of Isaac and Jacob has placed his only Begotten Son in front of us, then we must do as he asks. He tells us to take the truth to all peoples in all nations. But, we also must remain apart from the world if we do not want to be contaminated by its excesses and the evil of secular values. This is so hard. This puts us all in an uncomfortable situation. Let me give you a little example.

I received a call a few days ago from a friend (who, by the way, is not Catholic but proudly Christian). He is intensely involved in his faith community and as it turns out a single man. I met him professionally and have always admired him. He is very smart and quite successful. He was, until a few years ago, a rising star at one of the auto companies. He was told that, at 37 he would be a plant manager for one of the big plants within 3 years. He decided not to follow that path. He wanted a wife, a family and his faith and did not feel the passion needed to take on the job of plant manager would allow him time to have the family and faith life he wanted.

He left his job and started a consulting practice where again he was very successful and he could, within reason set his own hours. He became even more active in his church and as frequently happens, developed some strong friendships with like minded people. Now, two of his friends had recently become unemployed due to the work situation in our region of the country. While riding bikes one day one of them mentioned this great energy bar he had discovered and shared samples with the others. They all agreed it was the best thing they had ever tried. One thing led to another and the decided to contact the people who made it, a small family owned company in Canada, to see if they could perhaps sell them in this country. (My friend, lets call him Dave for the sake of the story, was very excited about the idea).

The three friends, one a sales person from the construction industry and the other a social worker along with Dave went to see the family that made these bars in Canada. They agreed to see if there was a market in the US before making any commitments and took a large quantity on consignment as samples for their market. The three informally agreed to share any prophet made from this venture equally. They also agreed not to sell these bars to any of the big chains in the event that the chain would go right to the family in Canada and they would be out.

Dave figured it was supper and with his usual enthusiasm set about meeting with as many people as he could who had clientele who would be customers. These included gyms, health clubs, and coffee shops around the area. Some were privately run others franchises of larger organizations. The bottom line was his efforts paid off. He had a number of major commitments to purchase these bars and enough data to support not only bringing them in from the Canadian parent but licensing the recipe and producing them locally, something Dave, with his manufacturing background was very capable of doing.

Ah, here comes the rub. When he checked in with his friends / partners, neither one had made any progress. One friend, the social worker, had not known were to start and had made no contacts. His other friend, the sales professional, had made two calls and simply handed them the literature but made no attempt at follow-up.

Dave told them what he had done and they were elated. They told Dave they wanted to press full speed ahead with licensing the recipe. After all, when the cost of the ingredients was subtracted from the price of the power bar, there was an 80 rofit (not prophet) to be made. They could make a bunch of money and went so far as to tell Dave that in a couple years they only really wanted to work around 30 hours a week, not even full time. Yet for this they expected to share equally.

This is the point were Dave called me. He was very torn about what to do. He did not want to go into business with these friends (Oh, and the friendship had become very strained.) He did not believe they had even earned the portion of their meager to date profits (about $6,000). But he had agreed to one third shares. Nothing was on paper. These were friends and, more than that, brothers in the faith. How could he back out of what amounted to a promise to them? What should he do? He was sure he could make a very profitable business out of this enterprise. He has other friends (he calls them his Wharton buddies) who are willing to buy into the project as well. But he cant go forward until he figures out what to do.

Given your understanding of what Christ asks of us, what would you advise? How should Dave proceed given his commitment to walk in Christs shoes?

After much conversation and clarification, this was my advice to Dave: First, I told him, you need to apologize to your friends. You need to apologize because you launched into this venture on a lark and did not set down mutual expectations about the level of effort to be applied. I dont think this was something Dave wanted to hear. (He told me his two friends were already talking about him behind his back.)

The second thing I advised was that commitments had been made in good faith. It was not their fault that he had assumed a level of professionalism that they had not. Going forward, it was imperative that expectations be set and written down as is done in the secular world because this relationship had moved beyond "brothers in the faith" and into potential business partners. I went further to say that this did not mean that Gods principles of love and charity no longer applied. Rather now they must be incorporated into the agreement going forward. Fairness and honesty must be the glue that holds this together.

I dont know how this will end up. I have changed the names to protect the innocent and unlike my story yesterday, this one is true and a lesson to all of us. We are to be Christ to the world but apart from the world see how quickly greed steps in, even with the best of intentions and among the best of friends? Pax