After breakfast one summer morning, Granddad had the old weathered red Farmall “M” headed back to the bluff, with his logging tools following along behind him in the home-made cart that Uncle Martin had made in Ag shop at the High School. Granddad always tried to harvest from the land as many things as possible, and on this morning he had started to build a free-stall loafing pen for 70 or so of the milk cows to rest in after milking, a place to chew the cud before heading to pasture. And he was hoping to harvest enough locust posts from the river bluff and save money from having to purchase these items from a lumber yard.
Some of the locust trees had grown fat and healthy, and could be split into many posts. As he fired up his ole blue Homelite chainsaw, the smell of gasoline fumes filled the air from that loud untamed beast, and you could almost feel the vibration of that old antique saw 20 foot away from the tree it was attacking. “Timber”, was the warning hollered over the sound of the saw and the first tree fell to the ground followed by several more. You could feel the quivering of the earth below your feet as each heavy monster smashed to the ground! My cousin and I, the young bucks, drug the branches away as Granddad delimbed the trees.
At midday, it was time to head back for lunch and we were instructed to grab the old heavy logging chain off the cart, and hook to the biggest log so we could drag it back to the construction site where we would split and debark it. The front end of the tractor bounced up off the ground from the weight of the locust log and we started up and over the bluff, and all of a sudden the front of the log found a rock or something, and one of the old forged chain links snapped into pieces and the chain was broken and unusable. The tree was left on the bluff where it had hung up on a rock and we continued to head back for lunch. A chain, even as big and old as this one, is no stronger than its weakest link! I know it had done a powerful amount of work in its life, but now it lie useless.
And as I read the Epistle for today, that ole logging chain came to mind. Some years later, I was happy to claim it before the farm was auctioned off, and I find occasion to use it to this very day. It is older than I am, and any busted links have been replaced or repaired! The Apostle Paul instructs us Christians: “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. For let each of us be pleasing his neighbor for the good, toward building up. For even Christ pleased not himself….Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” (Romans 15: 1-7}
Or with my train of thought today, perhaps our weakest links should never be left to pull the heavy loads of life without reinforcement. Back on the farm we never knew that one link had been weakened, it didn’t tell us or display a crack in its strong steel fabrication. And oft times here in our church family we also don’t see when one of our brothers or sisters needs reinforcement. Sometimes we wounded ones shelter our hurts and failures like a mother hen hiding her vulnerable chicks from the dark wolf circling the nest.
It is not a sign of weakness to let others know your struggles, but it is a sign of strength. This is because we all have one goal, to live a salvific life, and loving others even if it is uncomfortable and makes us vulnerable, more than an old mother hen guarding her precious chicks, is part of that. After all, the scripture records “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen”. (Matt 20:16)
And of course it takes patience and love to strengthen our chain, loving others as Christ loves us. And with this objective “That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God”, from the weakest to the strongest!! “For even Christ pleased not himself”, We are FAMILY!!!
Fr. Gabriel Weller 7-19-2026
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