Keep Things Simple
K.I.S.S.
Reflection for the 17th Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A Deacon Anthony Cioe
When I was growing up my dad worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. He was a blue-collar worker, a machinist by trade, and as best as I can recall he worked mostly on LPH helicopter ships and aircraft carriers. One of the lessons that my dad always emphasized was to keep things simple. His actual words were, “Keep it simple son.” I learned later that his philosophy was forged from the design principle “KISS” which was articulated by the U.S. Navy in the 1960’s. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and any
unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
That lesson of keeping it simple has had a lasting impact on me. In my work career, I often found people overthinking their actions and making things harder than they needed to be. As I trained or coached coworkers I stressed the need to keep it simple; state the facts; don't overcomplicate the message.
My wife thinks the same way as I do and together we’ve incorporated that philosophy in our marriage, and into the way we raised our children. These days we have the pleasure of spending lots of time with our grandson Erik who is 5-years old. We can play for hours and hours with simple things; building an office out of cardboard boxes, playing imaginary games, doing simple crafts. This simple form of play brings him, and us, great pleasure.
It occurs to me that Jesus is consistently urging us to do the same; to keep our lives, our needs, and our faith simple. The Gospel readings for this week and last week are filled with parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like. And it doesn't talk in lofty or difficult to understand terms. Jesus speaks to us in simple terms. He tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a small mustard seed, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, it’s like yeast, like a small pearl, or like something one finds that is so valuable that they give up everything else once they found it. We do not need to overcomplicate our faith, or His love for us, or His expectation from us. When Jesus tells us that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor, He’s essentially telling us to Keep It Simple. To avoid being distracted by those things in the world that draw our attention away from Him.
It pleased Our Lord greatly when Solomon, who could have asked for anything, simply asks for an understanding heart. Let us in the same way please Our Lord by keeping simple our faith in Him and our love for others.
God bless you
Deacon Anthony Cioe
