That I May See Life!

Mass of Thanksgiving

5 May 2011, 10^th Anniversary

of the Installation of His Grace

The Most Reverend Edward Gilbert

as Archbishop of Port of Spain

Thursday of the 2^nd Week of Easter

Acts 5:27-33

John 3:31-36

Already on Easter Monday I heard a rumor going around that this Mass would probably be the last big function for His Grace before his retirement… Who said that? As awkward as that sounds, the news kind of reassured me because I took it as a sign of confidence in the informative process to seek candidates for his successor. To all of you who possess such confidence: God bless you and keep praying! Really, I think the reason the Vicar General called to invite the Nuncio to preach at this 10^th anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving was so as not to put the Archbishop on the spot over what to say on a landmark anniversary (10 years) or concerning how he himself judges these past years he has served as your bishop. Whether that is what we should be doing beyond simply being thankful for a moment together on this 5^th of May and whether I am qualified for the task, I cannot say, but don’t forget: as an interested party I’ve been present here in the country for more than six of these years!

The last verse of the Gospel from St. John which we just heard proclaimed goes as follows:

“The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him. Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: the anger of God stays on him.”

According to the Gospel, Faith or Belief is that which makes the difference between whether you and I will “see life” or not, to use St. John’s words. What does that mean in the life and ministry of a bishop? How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”, that is, the only important life, eternal life? You may have always hoped it so and, believe it or not, in point of fact it is indeed so: faith is the heart of the matter, faith and not simply good intentions will be our judgment when some day, sooner perhaps for some, we stand before the Throne of God.

What does it mean to believe in the Son of God? What is Christian faith really? We know that faith or belief works out differently depending on your walk in life. A married woman or a married man gives evidence of being a believer within the context of that vocation to marriage and family life, by the grace of their special sacrament, Holy Matrimony. A religious sister or brother must live out the charism, the founding intuition of the institute of the consecrated life in which he or she has taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Children even at a very tender age are capable of believing in the Son of God and, as a result, have special duties within their state in life as well. How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”? How does he give evidence of Faith or Belief? How does he live out his calling? St. Augustine trembled a lot about the responsibility which was his as a bishop and hence his famous saying “with you I am a Christian and for you I am a bishop”. It is that “for you” part which can rightly get us bishops into a cold sweat.

When we read in the Acts of the Apostles about Peter and his companions standing before the Sanhedrin, we might have the impression that there was something foreign about the relationship between the apostles and the Sanhedrin, as if the chief priests, the elders and the scribes hadn’t always been a trusted almost intimate part of the lives of Jesus and His closest followers. If we thought more about that closeness or familiarity between them perhaps we would be even more shocked by the betrayal, the opposition, and all the calculating which went on for their part. Jesus, Peter and his companions were judged and condemned by people who dealt with them day in and day out. The “with” and “for” which St. Augustine talks about is very real: a successor of the apostles cannot ever really be foreign to the Church entrusted to his care; the estrangement comes from those who sit in judgment, whether they be elders or scribes.

What then is this faith in the Son of God and where does it lead us? What might we say is the principal defect of the faith life of people today, and I mean anywhere in the world not just here in the islands? What is it that bishops as watchdogs and as shepherds must take to heart, must face, must stand up against such that we can make our own the words of the priestly prayer of Jesus from Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel:

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

Bishops are ministers of word and sacrament; they are called by Christ to teach, to govern and to sanctify, but their work is first and foremost teaching.

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

We as bishops (and this is what made St. Augustine tremble), we have the particular responsibility as successors of the Apostles to make known to the world entrusted to our care Jesus, the only true God.

You know, I don’t think there is anything more important for any of us in our lives (no matter what our calling) than bringing others to know Jesus. Before the Throne of God, mothers and fathers, you are not going to be judged for failing to keep your children in the latest clothing styles or cell phones, no, you’ll simply be asked why you failed to bring them to know and love Jesus. You’ll have to explain why your partner in marriage, the love of your life, did not come to know the loving and compassionate Christ better through you. Members of teaching and preaching orders of men and women will no doubt be asked whether they fought hard enough to keep a hand in the schools, even with decreasing numbers and advancing age, whether they did all in their power to inspire youth. And bishops… well, St. Paul wrote in his 2^nd letter to Timothy about how that was supposed to go:

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. …always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:1-2;5)

Your Grace, I’m the last one who is going to pretend to take the Lord’s Throne and judge you before the final trumpet sounds. Even so, I wish to invite all who can hear me to join me in thanking God for ten years of good shepherding. Many have seen the Hand of God at work in the synodal process which has busied the archdiocese for most of these ten years; many, many have been nourished by your teaching and call-in programs each Thursday on TV; although I missed you at a lot of social events planned by civil authorities, I am thankful that you privileged confirmation celebrations and parish visitations, contact with the people especially in liturgy.

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

We as bishops (and this is what made St. Augustine tremble), we have the particular responsibility as successors of the Apostles to make known to the world entrusted to our care Jesus, the only true God.

          Maybe the reason for the rumor about this being the last big celebration before your birthday takes into account the fact that there are no ordinations to the diaconate or priesthood foreseen in 2011. I cannot say that fact should be laid at anyone’s door. Port of Spain has always benefitted from the wealth and generosity of priestly vocations from elsewhere. As the region’s largest English speaking diocese, however, and the mother church for the south and east as well, it is time to expect more, to hope for more. Three men are supposed to be entering the seminary next semester. May they be followed by at least three more each year for forever and a day. Let the mother church of the Antilles begin to care for itself and return the debt of generosity it owes, you owe, by sending workers elsewhere into the harvest as well!

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

Where to go from here?

Words from the First Reading for Mass on this Thursday of the 7^th Week throughout the year (Ecclesiasticus 5:1ff.) urge me to attempt to channel my wonderment over a couple issues in life I am still striving to sort out:

“Do not give your heart to your money,

or say, ‘With this I am self-sufficient.’

Do not be led by your appetites and energy

to follow the passions of your heart.

And do not say, ‘Who has authority over me?’

for the Lord will certainly be avenged on you.”

Mine has to be an open-ended reflection because I doubt if a broad-based consensus could be reached, enabling choices and reforms, on the basis of my observations alone. My hope in sharing these thoughts is that they might inspire someone else to that bigger synthesis or creative initiative which could make a difference for the good or better in the life of the Church.

The dissatisfaction in the general populace, which brought about both the fall of the Berlin Wall and much of what we have seen in the last year for youthful protest against sitting governments somehow compromised by their involvement in the world economic crisis and against despotic regimes also compromised, finds its motor less in ideas and ideals and more (I believe) in the drive for self-sufficiency or material security (Ecclesiasticus!). Just as the economic bankruptcy of European Communism provided the broad-based support for rejection of a system which also came up short in areas less easy to quantify like respect for the dignity of persons and basic human rights, so for Greece or Spain or Egypt, the material sacrifices demanded of the youth tipped the scales of judgment where more fundamental issues were also at stake but alone and on principle could not have carried the day. When it comes to swaying voters people can be very jaded about calculating the weight of economics over enduring values and principle even in the most sophisticated of democracies (how far are we really from “bread and circus”?).

            World politics, however, is not my focus of the moment. Rather, the urgent need to deal adequately, if at all possible, with situations like that in Ireland, where foot washing in the Dublin Cathedral may be recognition of a fact, but resolves nothing. It does not really tackle the question of how child abuse and especially by priests came to be in Ireland. The grand jury in Philadelphia, too, has the archdiocese scrambling to deal with matters from the recent past which evidently still had not been faced by those in authority concerning allegations and possible priest perpetrators. I am not advocating that economics be used to topple the old regime and usher in better times. That is little more than a pipedream and smacks of little more than vindictiveness and rage. The number of bankrupt dioceses across the United States haven’t answered profound questions or given a clue as to what went wrong. Things from the past must be faced and resolved, but more importantly provision must be made for a future which, at least from the example of Philadelphia, does not seem yet to have been inaugurated. Principle should carry the day and not unruly popular groundswells.

I think it is important to focus on Western society as we know it today, after the two great World Wars of the 20^th Century. Prior to the wars, society must have had problems but it had certain priorities and restraints, which were lost in the war effort also in the every day lives of people far from the front lines. The almost solitary rebellions against the will of parents and family became the commonplace basically through world-wide upheaval. Ours became that willful world which is the only one you and I have ever known, represented in iconic fashion by the famous news photo of the young sailor giving a uniformed nurse a kiss on the open street in celebration of the end of the war. It’s a world which has not only defied social strictures (public displays of affection were once forbidden) but that has effectively overrated personal choice as the sine qua non for commitment.

Why has the institution of marriage fallen on such bad times and increasingly so in the last half century? Why so much resignation in the face of divorce? Among the factors involved is the prominence of an exaggerated form of personal choice as essential life component. Less than a century ago, families could still forbid children’s marriages and feel terribly responsible for the success of the marriages that parents had arranged for their children. Nowadays, well, it would seem that you are on your own and few are confident enough to face the challenge of going it alone no matter how much we think we love that person. There are lots of components to what we might describe as a healthy marriage culture, not the least of which is the insertion of marriage and family within a support system assured in the first place by the extended family, but no less as defended by a society espousing similar values.

The marriage crisis also sheds light on the crisis of priestly and religious vocations.

            Following World War II lots of men went to the seminary; there was a real flowering of missionary institutes especially in Belgium, Holland and France. Even though these men had a classical seminary formation, it is also from their ranks that came forth the perpetrators of the abuse of young men and boys which has come to light in recent years. As one of my bishop friends told me, the issue is not as simple as formation. The regimentation of a bygone era seems not to have played a role in the lives at least of some of the men trained in traditional structures. The bulk of the perpetrators had classical seminary training. Subsequently, other factors worsened our lot (I’m thinking of the book exposé “Goodbye, Good Men”). It is indisputable that up until recently preference in some seminaries was given to promoting the wrong type of men toward priesthood, thus creating even within some presbyterates a homosexual subculture. Many of us are witness to the kind of “proselytizing” which went on in seminaries where such elements were allowed free rein.

Since then, much has taken place to assure healthy seminaries and better choices of candidates, but the problem remains. It resides within the culture of protagonism which had men in the 1970’s seeking ministry to further the cause of justice and peace. The kind of self-seeking perhaps which describes certain men today is equivalent but without such a social activist veneer. Talk of narcissism, however, may actually distract from a challenge which is not only and not primarily personal but social and has not only debilitated the institution of marriage but thwarted considerably the possibility of distinguishing between a vocation and a career choice.

God does indeed call men through the Church to priesthood. I don’t really think I chose the priesthood, I was called to it and never experienced sleepless nights trying to figure out if I or the world would be happier were I a rocket scientist. The kind of personal protagonism which makes it my choice alone is not real. A couple generations of vocation promoters and directors seem to have missed that point. There is a school of thought, all too prominent, which swings incense in the direction of a new generation of young mystics whose journey to priesthood has an interior dimension mine and many others never had. I’m thinking about a very telling book Archbishop Timothy Dolan produced as rector of the North American College, describing a world of very intense adult interior struggles in the process of discerning a vocation to the priesthood. It may be the reality, but it is not what earlier generations contended with, thanks to the sort of accompaniment they had from childhood on. God surely calls men to priesthood; it is not a job description or lifestyle I choose for myself.

One of the phenomena which confirms me in my analysis is the perhaps formerly unheard of case of the guy who goes smiling right up through ordination and in less than a year afterward, well, is gone and gone without a trace. It has been happening for some years and continues to happen. The parallels to a failed marriage are there, the key would seem to be the fact that it was “my choice” and I’m gone.

Much has been done in our day to provide good seminaries. Just as the perpetrators of nearly a half century ago were the product of good seminaries, however, I don’t think that’s enough in a willful culture where young people have the impression that it’s always up to them to choose and on their own. We need to come to believe once again that God calls, for His own reasons, which have nothing to do with my merits or talents. He asks me in ways that respect my nature over the course of a life of experience and development to simply say yes and keep up the good fight.

Ecclesiasticus says: “Do not be led by your appetites and energy to follow the passions of your heart.” I’d like to think that the “kindly light” is always there to lead, “the encircling gloom” notwithstanding. The little boy Samuel’s vocation was not tended by his own anguished introspection but by simple obedience to the wise old words of Eli: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”.

Reverence

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
3-4 February 2007
Holy Cross Parish – Hutchinson, KS
Homily

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him…
I saw the Lord seated on a high throne… I said: “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the Lord of hosts.”

You almost have to be a little older than I am to remember a time when the experience of Simon Peter before Jesus and the fear which filled Isaiah the Prophet in his vision of the Lord Almighty were the common experience of good Catholic people. A good half century and more ago people approached the Lord with fear and trembling. Altar servers never touched sacred vessels, like the chalice or paten, with their bare hands. Daily Communion was something extraordinary and most people, who received Communion on Sunday morning, did so after having fasted from midnight and only if they had gone to confession on Saturday afternoon or evening or maybe that same Sunday morning.
Fear and trembling: are they part of the Catholic experience, yes or no? Or maybe it would be better to put it in other terms and to ask: Isn’t honest soul-searching something believers must do? And what man or woman, who knows himself or herself deep down inside, does not hesitate to approach God in Jesus Christ?
Don’t get me wrong! The fear and trembling we are talking about here is not born of dread but of love. Its corollary would be the radical sort of respect which should reign among the members of a truly loving family.
“What a wretched state I am in!” “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
I’m making a plea today for more reverence in the house of God, when receiving Him in Holy Communion and in living out each day, in the only place where we can possibly live it out, namely before His Face. More reverence: you and I cannot hide from God or escape His glance any more than Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they had sinned. The Psalmist sings: “where can I hide from your face, from your presence where can I flee?” A lack of reverence, turning our backs, well, how can we? How can we ignore the Lord of Life, who loves us and redeemed us in Christ?
I haven’t reached the end of my thought development here and there are, I suspect, some grown-ups in particular out there, who are nervous or upset or maybe even objecting to what I am saying, thinking to themselves: well, that can’t be right! Why aren’t things today the way they were over 50 years ago if not because we know better today and have a better handle on things than our parents, grandparents and great grandparents? Progress is progress, right? It’s not that we have gone astray as a Church or fallen into some kind of error, is it? No, but the point is that there are at least two extremes which can take us off the beam when we interpret or apply in our own lives the words “Oh Lord, I am not worthy”.
a) The one extreme, if you’d believe the media, is represented by those folks out there who are looking for the “ultimate rush”: bungee jumping, skydiving, flat lining, substance abuse, intimacy with another person without any commitment and without any respect for what God has decreed in terms of the proper use of our sexuality… and so it goes.
The chase after the ultimate anything other than God and fulfilling His will in our lives is an illusion. St. Paul would say, don’t kid yourself, let the truth, which or who is God living and true, take your breath away and be happy. As odd and silly as it may sound, be lifted up, be entertained, if you will, by God! Evel Knevel, Houdini and all their modern day daredevil and magician counterparts, Las Vegas and the Cirque du Soleil may entertain and even sometimes mystify, but they have no more to offer us ultimately than the old Romans’ “bread and circus” which had the advantage of being offered free of charge. Too often today we pay for entertainment or pleasures which don’t satisfy for long and may even leave a hang-over. All such comes home to roost when we walk through the doors of God’s house and speak an “Oh Lord, I am not worthy”, which has suffered all sorts of collateral damage all week long.
b) While such a chase is darkness, so also is the other extreme, where we find ourselves sitting in the shadow of death and not even trying, cold or lukewarm you might say, rationalizing away our sins and failings. How many folks are there who excuse themselves from confession on a regular basis (in some cases on any basis at all!) claiming that since they are bound to fall again, it’s better not to be hypocritical? Such are the folks, who have thrown in the towel in a sense, making it clear enough by their words and actions to both God and neighbor, that you’ve got to take me as I am – love me or leave me in my mediocrity.
So far, I guess, what I’ve said could have been preached 50 years ago too. I say this full well knowing that back then church-going and faith life were more regimented and there was less room maybe for stepping openly out of line. The temptation, the sin or failing back then however was essentially the same: no reverence, no awe, no awareness to compare with that of Isaiah, in his vision of the Lord Almighty, or with that of Peter, down on his knees in the boat, recognizing Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed, the Holy One of God. In case my clarification didn’t register the first time, I’ll repeat myself: The fear and trembling we are talking about here is not born of dread but of love.
If we were to live every waking and sleeping moment in the presence of the Living God, what a difference it would make! The ultimate discourse about quality of life is not about giving up because it’s a hopeless chase, nor about contenting ourselves (brainlessly, godlessly, really) with appearances and moments. The bottom line of a message to be taken home for further reflection on this our day of rest is a foundational one, one which makes all the difference in the world. If you place yourself in God’s presence, really, you are going to be awed. The message is an exhortation: Don’t run away! Finding yourself before the King, the Lord of Hosts, finding yourself before Jesus, true God and true Man, cry out for help! Let an angel purify your lips with a burning coal from the altar, as Isaiah did, and then respond to God’s call.
What I am saying applies to the life of every Christian, but it is at the heart of the whole vocational crisis in many parts of our world today as well. Why aren’t there more young women entering the convent today? Why aren’t more young men going to the seminary? Because they’re off to the circus, so to speak, they’re chasing after passing pleasures, or with a very sad face, they say they’re “not worthy”. They continue to sit in the darkness instead of crying for help. Worse, in some cases, they come and challenge the Lord and His Church to take them as they are, not admitting that they themselves are unworthy and in need of change.
I ask you to take time today to reflect on the “Lord, I am not worthy” and its meaning for you in your life. I ask you to pray for the continued renewal of the Sacrament of Penance in the life of the Church. I ask you to pray for vocations. The Lord does not leave his flock untended. He called Isaiah and he called Peter. They responded turning their lives over to Him completely. Good Catholic families, happy Catholic marriages (until death do us part) are carried by this sense of devotion, wonder and awe: husband or wife for each other, parents for their children, children for their parents.