Last year I had an offer from a purebred producer that he'd give me 10% commission to sell some bulls private treaty. I felt bad for all the contacts in my phone that used that color of bulls in their herd! I called and text everyone I knew. Later that spring I had the opportunity to auctioneer a couple smaller bull sales. Again the poor people I knew got solicited to the point that I felt like a Jehovah's Witness pulling in their yard; you know when that happened we use to hide and shut off all the lights like we weren't home but that's a whole different story. Anyway I noticed this spring that I now have some sales to auctioneer and in a down trending market I'm thinking of everyone I can think of to send a catalog or call. I even noticed that one close friend of mine was only contacted me for like a month straight when I was trying to sell him a bull.
This industry we are in revolves around relationships. I call these purebred guys to sell advertisement, if they like me they'll do it. They sell bulls to other guys who in turn like them. If there is any break in the chain of these relationships, deal is off. If I upset a customer they might not run ads with me again. Likewise if a producer upsets his customers, they might not come back and buy bulls from him. You know (side-note) this spring calling people I noticed not a lot of people wanted to visit about running ads or even about the bulls they had. But everyone wanted to visit about their hardships with the winter. They just wanted me to care about them more than caring about the money they'll spend with me.
Moses, St. Paul, and Jesus all preach the same message this Sunday "Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy" "for the temple of God, which you are, is holy" "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect". Sounds like mission impossible? It is. By ourselves, we cannot be holy. It is God that dwells inside of us that makes us holy. By receiving the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, God gives us HIS power so we can begin to move towards holiness and perfection. It is not a once and done thing, we need to take action once we have this grace (God's divine life) inside of us. We can't act like one person on Sunday and then on Monday go back to a money hungry, bad mouthing, obsessive person. Like Moses and St. Paul and Jesus all are saying: you need to be holy, live holy, live perfectly. When you fall, go to Confession and Mass, get up and keep running the race.
To live perfectly can be overwhelming. Where do I start? (I asked God this AM) And all 3 readings give us the answers. I'd like to share the fruit of my prayer this morning:
I realize that most of the relationships I have with my customers is strictly professional. I see that relationship as a benefit because I can gain commission off their need to run ads. So I pursue a relationship with these people and when they do not run as large of a budget as they did last year or decide not to run any budget (which means no money for me) I must treat them as "Temples to the Holy Spirit" and not as a lost opportunity.
Jesus says "For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?" as in, you are holy (set apart) and if you don't act differently than the tax collectors and sinners how is He to change your heart? So even if at first my heart is hard towards these people, I must treat them respectfully, not bad mouth them later, and God will change my heart so that I mean what I say no matter if I gain from that relationship or not. This is what sets us Catholic Christians apart.
Like I said, whether I'm an auctioneer or your local TSLN paper-pusher, I've fallen into contacting some of my BEST friends only when I needed them to buy a bull. This is exactly opposite of the teaching of Jesus. Yes, I still sell stuff to friends and neighbors alike (it's my job) but I don't let the relationship end there. I still need to treat them like my friends no matter if I gain or not.
So What? What's the big deal? How can we begin to live holy? I challenge you this week to think of all those people that you gain by being in a relationship with; and think of all those you do not gain by treating them nice. Now meditate on these words from Jesus:
"And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?"
And go out and love your neighbor as yourself.
Peace.
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