One of the sayings I have picked up in life is “What you do says more than what you say.” Often the structure says more than we teach.

An example came to my attention today. The Catholic Church has declared eight days of the year as “Holy Days of Obligation”, days that Catholics should attend Mass, a worship service. Tomorrow is one of these days, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. However, there are very few extra special Masses scheduled in Catholic Churches for tomorrow. When I was a child, a Holy Day was a big thing, like a Sunday, and everyone was expected to attend one of the many Masses at each church. Now Christmas seems to be the only day with extra Masses to accommodate all the Catholics, many who only come to Church on Christmas.

Recently I have been trying to change the structure of how conference members make home visits in the north side of Milwaukee. We say we serve the poor but we based our service on outdated boundaries of churches that no longer exist.

Another example of what you do, the structure you create, speaking louder than any words occurred in 1968 when a few of us were protesting against what we called “institutional racism” at Marquette University. Marquette said they were open to all, yet, outside of the basketball team, there were only about a dozen African American students. Marquette after protests and nonviolent actions changed. Now it says it believes in peacemaking the ‘priority of conscience’ and Christian values yet host military science department that teach killing and values contrary to the Gospel.

When I was a youth minister I learned soon this lesson. Many parents and religious educators said how important and valuable it was to learn about your faith yet religious educations were only once or twice a month for about 7 months to year. The structure said more to youth of the significance of religious education than anything parents or teachers said. When our few classes or retreats were in conflict with a sports event, basketball, football or volleyball many parents were the first to complain and encourage the youth to choose the sporting event over the religious education event. When the Churches in recent years had to make financial decisions often the youth minister or director of religious education were the first to go.

There are so many more examples in all our lives, what is done matters more than what is said. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits, in talking about love said it this way: “Love ought to show itself in deeds over and above words. Structure, like deeds, speaks louder than any words.

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