ADMINISTERING OLD AGE [F, 3-18-22]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

This column starts out like it’s irrelevant to anyone but professional pastors, but be patient. After the first two paragraphs, it’s relevant to everybody…

Our son-in-law, Bill, is a Roman Catholic eucharistic deacon. He says that priests these days are so busy with administrative duties that they have little time for actual pastoral work. Recently, he saw a priest defy the tyranny of administration. People were chatting and drinking coffee in the parish hall when a man went up to the priest and asked him if he had time to hear his confession. The priest said, “Of course,” and took the man off to the side of the room for an impromptu confessional. Bill was pleased for the priest. “He got to do what he was called to do by God, instead of all the administrative stuff he has to do.”

I understand that priest. As a pastor, I was never able to put administration ahead of a personal need. That is one reason that denominational administrators didn’t trust me. It wasn’t that I thought administrative stuff was unimportant. Cars don’t run well if the oil isn’t changed once in a while. But an oil change can be put off. A crying child or a hurting person needs attention right now.

Even in old age, we are still faced with the person/administration dilemma.

I have the good fortune to be married to a home management [administration] specialist. She has two degrees in the subject, has taught it in universities and high schools, and has practiced it for 63 years. She was practicing the principles of Attila the Hun, such as charging with extra horses to make the army look bigger, long before his principles were enshrined in current business management books. She knows how to maintain what I call personal infrastructure—finances, records, storage, appliances, deliveries, groceries, clothing, etc.

I still have problems with personal infrastructure, though. I just don’t like to have an infrastructure need hanging around in the back of my brain. I’m uneasy all day on Wednesday, until it’s time to put the garbage can out on the curb for the early Thursday morning pickup.

So, if Helen asks what I want for supper, I always say “spaghetti,” because I don’t have to think about it. But that is unfair to her. Cooking is her creative outlet. She wants to talk about new stuff to eat, like baked emu. I need to learn to put the personal needs ahead of the infrastructure needs, because they’re just more important.

Administration of our personal lives is a necessary reality. We need to get food and wash clothes and use the remote control for the TV. First, though, we need to listen to those who want us to hear their confession, however they say it.

Even in old age, when, yes, it takes a lot of time and energy just to get our shoes tied, the personal still comes first.

John Robert McFarland