Fr Carl Kabat OMI
When I was a youth minister I saw how interested teens were in rap music. So going with the flow I decided, jokily, to become a rap artist. My first choice for a rap name was ‘outcast’, thinking how Jesus preferred being with the outcast and marginalized. However, the youth informed me that there was already a rap group named ‘outcast.’ So I decided on the name ‘reject’ which held some of the same flavor as ‘outcast’.
Of course, after created a rap persona, I had to rap. So I did raps at some special events and even at a middle school dances. My raps were not very good, actually rather terrible, but they were funny and drew the interest of youth.
Everyone wants to be accepted and liked but sometimes we need to do or say something that means we will be rejected by some. Actually being rejected is not as bad as being ignored—- which really hurts.
All this is to say how I felt today when I read an email about a celebration at the Kabat Catholic Worker House of Hospitality in St. Louis. The house is name for Fr. Carl Kabat, a resident and 75 year old Oblate who has spend about 16 years of his life in prison for acts of civil disobedience, particularly against nuclear weapons. The celebration, a pot luck dinner, is for Father Kabat’s 50th year as an Oblate priest.
Although I do not know Father Kabat personally I had a relationship. Like my friend and his good friend Lorenzo Rosebaugh he is an Oblate priest who preached by his actions not his words. In fact Lorenzo was planning to leave Guatemala this fall and live at the Kabat Catholic Worker in St. Louis. With the announcement of the celebration came an article about Carl Kabat in 2000 called “Fr. Carl Kabat faces prison, ouster from order”.
Father Kabat, like many other men and women, has faced rejection for acting on his belief. Many of these “rejects” like Jesus, Gandhi or King, were famous persons. But many more “rejects” are just ordinary persons who live out in daily life what they believe to be the right thing; even if it means they are rejected.
When I retired as a youth minister I retired my rap persona “reject.” A true reject does not brag about it or make light of it. She or he just “do the right thing” and do not care if they are accepted or rejected. Rejects, like my 5 year old granddaughter said about worms: “… just do a good job in doing what they do.”
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