We Are Prophets of a Future Not Our Own, Bishop Ken Untener

Contemporary Catholic Belief and Action

We Are Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

Bishop Ken Untener

  

  

It helps, now and then,  to step back and take the long view.  

  

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,  it is even beyond our vision. 

  

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction    

of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.    

  

Nothing we do is complete,  which is another way of saying  

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.    

         No statement says all that could be said.    

         No prayer fully expresses our faith.    

         No confession brings perfection.      

         No pastoral visit brings wholeness.    

         No program accomplishes the church's mission.   

         No set of goals and objectives includes everything.   

  

This is what we are about.    

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

    

We water seeds already planted,  

knowing that they hold future promise. 

We lay foundations that will need further development.  

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. 

  

We cannot do everything,  

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. 

This enables us to do something,  and to do it very well.    

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,  a step along the way,  

an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. 

  

We may never see the end results,  

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. 

  

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.  

We are prophets of a future not our own.  Amen.     

Kenneth Edward Untener was bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw from 1980 until his death in 2004. He penned a homily for John Cardinal Dearden, Archbishop of Detroit, which included this reflection. Pope Francis quoted it 

 verbatim in his remarks to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2015.