Why do you have to move my cheese?

by Rev. Jerry Meidl

Diocesan Personnel Board member

There is a book entitled "Who Moved My Cheese?" It is a book about change. Change is inevitable. All of us have to endure it. Most of us don’t like it....at least initially.

This summer the diocese is moving a lot of cheese (figuratively). This summer a large number of priests are receiving new assignments, not to mention our bishop, and many people feel like or will feel like someone is moving their cheese....things are going to change. All of us will endure it and most of us aren’t going to like it....at least not until we get used to it.

Change is difficult for everyone.....for the priests who are transferred and all the parishioners who are involved. So why do it? Because it is good for us, good for the priest, and good for the people.

There are many advantages to changing priests and pastors. It is a time of transition for sure, but it can be a tremendous time of transforma-tion for the priests and the people they are called to serve. All of us are different and have different gifts and abilities. If a priest is in a parish 20 or 30 years, what he is good at gets done. What he is not good at doesn’t get done. For example, if he is good with the aging population, they will be well served. If he is not good with teenagers, teenagers would be neglected. Again, some priests are good at keeping up the physical plant (the buildings), while others tend to be unable to generate the interest to keep the buildings in good repair. The priest who follows has to make up for what should have been happening all along.

Depending on one’s tone of voice this next statement may sound good or bad: "The priests are a bunch of characters." That is, we are all unique human beings, imperfect human beings, called to serve God’s people.

Priest or lay person, we are all called to be Christ to the world. We are all called to let Christ’s goodness shine through us. I like to think of it like this: We are all unique filters of Christ’s presence. None of us are perfect filters but all of us have something unique to offer. For example, I am the Jerry Meidl filter of Jesus. It’s not a bad filter but it’s also not a complete perfect filter of Jesus, either. Like the sun shining through different colored glass producing its own unique goodness and beauty, each one of us reveals Christ’s goodness in our own unique way as we allow His light to filter through us.

After having the same priest (or filter) for a number of years a new priest (filter) can help us see something new and move our spiritual journey along the path of growth and transformation.

Is this time of transition going to have its moments of difficulty? You bet! However, if we are open to all the good that is meant to happen in these changes, it will be a time of transformation and growth, not unlike the early Church being transformed into the body of Christ here on earth.