I was in a small town today where everybody knows everybody else and complaining to your councilman is as easy as walking into his neighborhood store. This particular councilman is a former mayor (and he’s running for election again!). He’s also a pastor of an evangelical church in town and owner of the local radio station.
It’s hard for him and me to conduct our business because of all the city business he has to perform and the feathers he has to soothe to keep his constituents happy. I don’t really mind, but it brought us to a conversation about civil service and intercession. I didn’t bring the word “intercession” up, but I couldn’t help but smile when I heard this Protestant minister use the word in exactly the context I would have used in describing our mother Mary’s role in our salvation.
After one interruption too many today, he apologized and said, “My constituents have tried to go to the different department heads and even the Mayor himself to get their concerns worked out, but when things don’t happen the way they want it, they know I have a little more “juice” when it comes to dealing with those in power, so they ask me to intercede on their behalf.”
Because of some of our earlier conversations about faith and morals, he knows I am Catholic to the core, so when I smiled that “Mary does the same thing for me!” smile, he just smiled back as if to say, “It’s NOT the same thing!” Even though we both know that it is the same thing, it was too hot and I was too tired today to charitably persuade him that it is. Maybe next time—I think the smile was enough evangelizing for today. There are still plenty of things we do agree on. Evangelization takes time. Stay tuned.
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