Once when I was in leadership I contacted an organization to help us think about how to raise funds for our missions. Their questions were like this: “how many thousands of people…” “How big was the….” “How frequently did you…” I did not feel comfortable with that starting point. I thought of Fr. Bob faithfully caring for the native Choctaw people for many years but with little opportunity for growth. I thought of Fr. Luke shepherding a small group of African-American Catholics through racism both inside and outside the Church. It struck me that the proper “metric” is not numbers, success, achievements. Rather, we judge how faithful we have been in bringing good news to the poor and leave the rest in God’s hands.
