To Redeem the Age

The Bread come down from Heaven

The Second Reading for the 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ephesians 5:15-20 as rendered by the Jerusalem Bible and so presented in the Lectionary approved for use in England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland, caught my attention this morning because it represents a bit of a departure from the text in the New American or Catholic Revised Standard translations. For that matter, the Spanish text approved for Mexico doesn’t take that path either.

“This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.”

The reading in all of its various renditions is an exhortation to live morally, uprightly. None of the other lectionaries seem to put forward such a clear challenge or motivation to live uprightly, however. My life or better our lives should redeem this wicked age, by always and everywhere giving thanks to God who is our Father!

Fairy tales and comic book heroes don’t prepare us for this. The closest they come is to proffer something like the old Greek business about Prometheus (read in IRON MAN or whomever you favor). Even the great arc of the adventure in Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings tends to distract from the all important denouement at the end of volume three where the Hobbits take back their home country, casting out evil through concerted action.

“This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.”

As clearly stated as it is and as worthy of trust or confidence as the words of St. Paul, being God’s Word, should be for us, resignation and less than sober living may be the out we gravitate toward because of either self-doubt or lack of confidence in the Lord’s promised power to save. The costumed super hero is an alternative not without attraction for otherwise sane and serious adults. Empowerment would seem to have to be lacquered and shiny… bulletproof?

In conversation recently with a gentleman who has dedicated his life to sports promotion especially for the sake of character-building among our youth, he factored out as very small (by his calculation not even a tenth of 1%) the minority of corrupt individuals responsible for the woes of our present world financial crisis and more. Though not a Catholic himself, he was evidently ready to attribute to a much larger percentage of any given population (namely those who profess to be Catholic) the potential for healing or redeeming an age. He asked very simply and, I think, rightly what was wrong with the Catholic Church at this point in time that that job wasn’t getting done. In other words, from outside the Church and on the basis of his life experience this good man would certainly subscribe personally to St. Paul’s words and urge us on, the children of the Kingdom, to do the same:

“This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.”

I keep coming back to the figure of St. Jean Marie Vianney and the earthshaking impact he had on post-revolutionary France, starting from the long hours he spent in the confessional and himself giving catechism classes to the people of his tiny rural parish in Ars. LE MONDE just ran a commentary on trends over the last decades in the Catholic population of France toward non-practice of the faith and concluded that the Church in France again today is in a bad way. This time however the Catholic Church seems to be the only religious group in France losing ground to the “wickedness” of total secularization. France’s serious newspaper has us on the way out.

The lesson of St. Jean Marie Vianney holds hope not only for the Church in France. Join me in begging God for abundant fruits from this Year of the Priest! For changes of heart and lives in those all-important men who are the only ones capable of bringing us Jesus in the Eucharist! Would that our parish priests in particular would take on the age and lovingly call it to repentance through the regular practice of the sacrament of penance! Would that our parish priests would see to it that all the baptized receive the instruction in the faith which would empower us always and everywhere to give thanks to God who is our Father!

The bottom line is vitality or resilience. It’s as close and accessible as the wisdom which comes to us from on high. Feed us, Lord, with that Bread, that we might live forever! To live life to the full in Christ, not just to survive or languish for lack of a better idea, this we seek and for this we pray!

“This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.”

"Rubricism" is not in my dictionary...

Save the Liturgy, Save the World?

For some reason I have the impression that a number of my blogger friends have been upping the ante so to speak during this vacation period. Somebody’s demographic study in Europe has the Second Vatican Council relegated to the dustbin of history in about fifteen years time. It seems “everybody” in my blogosphere is toasting the victory and rattling sabers in hopes of hastening the “I told you so!” day and hour. What may or may not happen in fifteen years in Europe hardly seems relevant to the analysis of what the Council has left the rest of the Church and the World as a patrimony. Were the Council to fail to save the Old World from destruction it hardly seems appropriate to respond with an “I told you so!” The demographics of the restoration cannot promise a Christian or a Catholic Europe in the next less than a generation.

Personally, the whole business leaves me sad, yes, but more than sad, perplexed. When confronted by all the liturgical abuse of the period, it is easy to understand the title to Martin Mosebach’s book “The Heresy of Formlessness”. Chris Gillibrand, guest authoring in Ruth Gledhill’s TimesOnline column, makes an appeal which is more than understandable: “…it is time to close down every liturgical committee in the land, and produce proper rubrics for the new Mass, so that its dignity of celebration can approach that of the Latin Mass.”

Excuse me the caricature but I feel caught in a shouting match across the picket fence involving folk on both sides with bulging neck veins and eyes bloodshot with rage. For the babe-in-the-woods or the average Catholic in the pew, perhaps, assisting at this scene and trying to comprehend the rage on either side would seem to be an exercise in futility. Who can get beyond the entrenched positions without resorting to caprice or another man’s aesthetic preferences? The whole controversy plays into the hands of the regime of relativism against which the Holy Father has been fighting for all his adult life. Where does the truth lie?

Although Fr. Z of WDTPRS is still plugging his “Say the Black, Do the Red” coffee mugs and bumper stickers, I see he has a new slogan on the market: “Save the Liturgy, Save the World”. I congratulate him on the first campaign and am glad to say that there’s no confusion or ambiguity in his rubrics slogan; its meaning is clear and the advice is sound. I cannot say the same about his new product. Rubrics are indeed the route to go; the books are there in black and red. The nihil obstats and the imprimaturs are in place and I can get a handle on what needs to be done and said. Campaign Two is not so eindeutig, as the Germans would say: “Save the Rainforest” takes me nowhere.

On vacation, I read a very well constructed book with a toned-down version of the more serious debate between the defenders of a restoration of the tradition and those of the so-called reform of the post-conciliar liturgical reform. The author also included a number of valuable monographs in his little volume. A first impression to be gleaned from this book and from the literature in general is that reforming the reform is more work than embracing the tradition. I get the distinct impression that embracing the tradition is considered by many to be the easier fix because they are unaware of the rubrics which are present in the liturgical books presently in force.

Be it noted that for us older folk what is touted as embracing the tradition really resembles novelty in many ways. As we assist at the liturgies celebrated in the usus antiquior on EWTN or on the training DVD’s, we are very much aware that this is something new, something we never experienced in our childhood or youth. Both for the manner of the priest celebrant and for the behavior of the faithful assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass it must be said that here too a rupture has taken place or that there has been an evolution with respect to the past. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I guess I’m not quite willing to give up on the rubrics of the Novus Ordo so easily, when in many cases they just haven’t been tried or applied. The daily Mass on EWTN, were it to be celebrated ad Orientem, could become for the English-speaking world an effective catalyst, like the Masses of the London Oratory, for providing the longed-for encounter with the unbloody renewal of the Lord’s Sacrifice on Calvary for our salvation.

“Save the Liturgy, Save the World”? OK, but let’s start with: “Say the Black, Do the Red”.

The Truth

Identifying Paganism

Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

“I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.”

The Second Reading for the 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time precipitated one of those series of thoughts which I feel urged to share with somebody. Let me say that another way: Today’s Second Reading from St. Paul gave me a handle to deal with some of the past week’s annoyances that I’d like to share with my readers.

Just the other day I ran across one of the blog entries I follow regularly where the author was terribly angry about the transformation of a seemingly attractive new church building in Austria into what looked like a staging area for training circus acrobats. I didn’t share the anger, which is pointless, but I certainly was scandalized thinking about Austrian Catholic “taxpayers” footing the bill for such folly, not to mention the liability insurance. Austrian Catholics must neither know nor care what is going on in their Church and how their money given to the Church is being spent. What parents in their right mind would sign the permission slips to allow their children to swing around in the rafters of the church building on a Sunday in place of going to Mass? We’ve obviously lost folks to something other than the faith if we need yellow crash helmets, harnesses and tons of block and tackle to get them into a church building.

Just as incongruous were two pieces of film I accidentally saw commented on TV: 1) a YouTube video of a Minnesota wedding where the whole bridal party danced and somersaulted down the church aisle to some disco song; 2) a “red carpet” celebrity sort of thing where some people jumped into a pool at a Los Angeles cocktail party and the commentator explained their silly behavior as something like a baptism experience. In 1), the small tube world witnessed the violation of a sacred space for the sake of the individualism of a couple who obviously wanted a church wedding on their terms and not God’s, and in 2) a TV commentator trying to mystify with the word “baptism” what was obviously “tomfoolery” probably inspired by an excess of alcohol.

“I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live.”

It’s no wonder that many serious folks not only get upset but they also seek to arm themselves and protect their children from such and similar folly. Years ago, as “first world” Catholics we were taught to disdain the syncretism of quaint Catholic expressions elsewhere, but from the looks of things we’re not too far ourselves from carrying some blue sea goddess into the water off the beach in Rio. Not syncretism, but paganism would seem to be alive and well not only in Brazil. The battle would seem far yet from won when it comes to a regular and serious practice of the faith, faithfulness to the truth and to the celebration of the sacraments, especially of the Sacrament of Penance:

“You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires.”

In the couple verses from today’s reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians the word “truth” comes up twice. The question would seem to be: Why does falsehood or illusion hold such an attraction? If it didn’t, how else could you explain transforming a church building into a circus big top? Why else would someone deny the proper decorum owed, since time immemorial, to a church building and to a church wedding procession? Why attempt to explain or to excuse outrageous behavior in Los Angeles by throwing around references to the sacred ritual with water we call Baptism?

“Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.”

Just as I can’t share my blogger friend’s anger over folly in faraway Austria, so I can’t be indignant about the other two TV blips either. All three are no more than indications of the wayward heart of man and perhaps of my personal need to be even more watchful over my own heart, my personal need to clean up my act and set a better example for others.

I remember reading the account of the three little children from Fatima and being impressed by the little boy in particular and his desire to do reparation for the sins and failings of others. Big or small, we could do likewise and with profit for ourselves and for our world.

It would be great to get beyond appearances for once and I rather suspect no harder today than it was at any time in the past. Nearly two centuries ago, at the age of 17 Pauline Jaricot, the young woman who founded in France what became the Pontifical Mission Society for the Propagation of the Faith, heard a sermon from her parish priest that made a deep impression on her. His words helped her recognize in herself a disappointing and infinite vanity that she then abandoned forever! On Christmas night 1816 Pauline made a vow of chastity and discovered her reason to live in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and in reparation for the offences committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also insulted by the excesses of the French Revolution.

It’s the simplest, the most straightforward, the genuine kinds of things which hit young people, like Pauline’s parish priest’s sermon did back in the early 1800’s. Let’s face it. We’ll never be flashy enough, polished enough, or cool enough to compete for that share of the grass and the flowers, which bloom today and tomorrow fade and feed the furnace. No amount of block and tackle will bring us victory, no matter how much liability insurance and no matter what kind of popular, taped or live music we close a blind eye to for wedding ceremonies which promise nothing until death do us part. We need to be genuine; we need to cling to Christ.

Let us allow St. Paul’s exhortation to really sink in:

“Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.”

Our Holy Father speaks regularly of the truth as central or key and as a teacher of the faith has done so consistently throughout his adult life. He recognizes as should we that things get out of hand not for lack of absolutes but rather for lack of confidence or conviction in the existence of not just “a” truth but of “the” truth which comes to us from God. On the one hand, it’s easier not to have to deal with Pollyanna’s red face and stomping when you tell her that girls don’t somersault in their wedding dresses, at least not in church. On the other hand, we owe it to the Lord to whom we give witness by the grace of our Baptism, not to give our son a stone, when he asks for bread, nor a scorpion, when he asks for a fish.

What’s the title of the Holy Father’s most recent encyclical letter? CARITAS IN VERITATE: “Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity.”

The “devil’s advocate” might see no more than an appeal for sobriety in this little meditation. For who has a moment of “Sunday silence or rest”, I would hope these words would speak to the heart and perhaps offer a “handle” or a nudge to get on with the wonderful work together with Christ of casting out darkness and bringing light. CARITAS IN VERITATE!

New Beginnings - Every Reason to Hope

Ad Orientem:
Priest and people together praying
with their hearts and eyes lifted to Christ

Conscious decisions to change things in our lives, major decisions like a change of jobs for instance, are usually or preferably provoked not by necessity (unemployment) but by a) a developmental crisis in the good sense, which brings with it personal growth and the desire to change, or by b) an irresistible opportunity or by c) a combination of the two, neither of which was big enough on its own to have precipitated something that important. I think the third is probably the option which best describes my present decision (which has no reference to unemployment).

In a sense, you might say I am finally coming to grips with the invitation from people I respect, first and foremost from the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict XVI, to look again at certain aspects of the last forty years of liturgical reform and specifically for me as a priest and bishop to look at the question of the best stance for the priest when praying the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass.

This paper is intended only to deal with the orientation question; the other questions involving liturgical music, the worthy reception of Holy Communion and more are also profoundly important, but pamphlet size and context will limit us to the one question for now. Furthermore, the orientation question deserves separate treatment because it is the only matter regarding the reform which necessarily involves “moving furniture”.

Regardless of how seriously until now I might have taken the Holy Father’s call to return to sacred worship ad Orientem, I doubt, as a papal nuncio, if I would have had either the courage or the right to make structural changes in an established chapel or church without a directive or permission to do so from a higher authority (nuncios are accountable to the Holy See generally in terms of their behavior and cannot presume the authorization to make extraordinary expenditures or modifications in a building belonging to the Holy See). (Enter: b) the irresistible opportunity! And hence c) a little of both contributing to my choice) The need to remodel parts of the Apostolic Nunciature in Port of Spain early in 2005, to make convent space for the larger community of religious women arriving in September of that year, and from mid 2006 to mid 2007, major renovation following the authorization to replace an old leaky roof with a new one, and, at the same time, to rewire that part of the house while the roof was off, provided the opportunity to improve the utilization of available spaces in both houses and arrange a new chapel in the part of the house that would not be out of commission for months on end during the renovation of the old house.

As the family of the Nunciature and our friends know, the creation of this new worship space within an existing room has been an evolutionary process over the last couple of years, conditioned first by the need to move quickly so as to have a chapel in the new house and to have everything ready for roof work on the old house during the dry season of 2007.

Another factor which dictated the gradual approach to finishing the new chapel was what we’ll call simply “the sometimes availability of artists and craftsmen” to put the finishing touches on our somewhat hurriedly arranged new worship space. With really more success than most can boast in this lovely country, the project continues at a far better than average “Trini” pace and the bare essentials are gradually being embellished and some temporary appointments are finally giving way to what we hope will be their enduring form. Stained glass is taking the place of opaque white Plexiglas installed temporarily to eliminate distractions from windows which look out on the garage and the lane approaching the house. This was also a way to temper the morning rays of the sun since both windows face east. Temporarily too the beautiful poster reproduction of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Crucifix from the former chapel took their places, in about the only configuration possible given their size, in relationship to the Tabernacle, no longer at the side as in the former chapel but now centrally located on the south wall. With the installation of the new backdrop of paintings (altarpiece), consisting most notably in the center of the Crucifixion Scene with Adoring Angels in strict rapport with the Tabernacle flanked by Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Patroness for the chapel and the Patroness of the Americas, to one side and St. John the Evangelist to the other, the chapel is nearly complete.

The fixed furnishings in stone are those recommended by the relative instructions in the liturgical books approved by the Holy See: a free-standing Altar; a lectern; a seat, in our case a bench, for the priest and concelebrants from which he can preside over the Liturgy of the Word. In the land of termites, there is much to be said for the permanency of stone. With the Altar positioned front and center and with the new focal point provided by the altarpiece, the chapel invites not only to Eucharistic Adoration but also to the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with priest and people together lifting their eyes and hearts to the Lord: ad Orientem. Interestingly enough, the altarpiece has enhanced the appearance of the tiny Tabernacle, which was purchased years ago for a much smaller room.

In a sense, that says it all, but I want to take a little time to anticipate some legitimate questions and render what might appear to some as a radical change (namely, worshipping ad Orientem) understandable for what it really is, the deliberate choice of an option, one which the Holy Father and I believe is better for prayer and praise.

Let me first anticipate some of the spontaneous questions, which deal with the particular arrangement of the chapel in the Apostolic Nunciature of Port of Spain. Let it be said at the outset that much of what you see was conditioned by the available space (in what was designed as a formal room with adjoining guest bed rooms – hence the new wall to partition off the chapel) and by budgetary constraints (generous benefactors are always welcome and will never be discouraged). As the room itself runs north and south, facing east was never a serious consideration.

Why are there no steps up to the Altar?

Basically no platform for the lectern and priest’s bench and no steps up to the Altar and Tabernacle were foreseen for practical reasons. No theological statement of one kind or another was intended. The ceiling of the room, a given, is too low to admit of steps. Above the present plasterboard ceiling are only a couple handbreadths of space below the poured concrete base of the floor above (hiding water pipe and electrical conduit for the floor above) and so nothing would be gained by tearing it out. The existing wood parquet floor seems to be holding up nicely after more than two years of use. Use would seem to confirm the judgment that installing a stone floor was not urgent from a practical and economic standpoint.

Why isn’t the Altar longer?

The size of the Altar is dictated by the width of the room and the initial intention to accommodate the celebration of Mass with the priest facing the assembly. An Altar built against the back wall of the chapel could have been longer, perhaps even double its present length. Free-standing as it is in the room, there was a need to provide sufficient space to pass between Altar and lectern and to accommodate candlesticks and allow a reasonable space between the priest’s bench and the Altar on the other side. The present size of the Altar, both in terms of length and depth, generously accommodates the sacred vessels which are meant to stand upon it along with the sacramentary, the book containing all the Mass texts. Candlesticks set up on the Altar with any measure of height or dignity would have put the ceiling in danger from candle soot or fire/heat. To return for a moment to my introductory comments, if my a) “crisis” had come at the beginning of this process, the chapel might have been arranged differently. The present arrangement would allow a successor to return to celebrating the Eucharistic Prayer facing the assembly, if he were so to choose.

Why granite furnishings and not marble?

A lovely white marble Altar or a sculpted Altar in a warm Travertine would have been nice, but Europe is far away and transportation costs are prohibitive. More often than not New World Altars are stone facing on a support structure of less noble material. This is what we have done in the chapel as well.

The two colors of granite (both from Brazil, I believe) were chosen to harmonize with the woods of the floor and other furnishings, which have a reddish cast. I can imagine embellishing both the lectern and the Altar with metal sculptures. For the moment, any ideas I might have are still waiting for the artist to come on the scene who could interpret them.

The granite priest’s bench with the chromed steel back (chroming is readily available because of the steel pan, the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago) behind the presider’s place was chosen as opposed to chairs. It was set to the side at a right angle to the rest of the room so as to respect the overall symmetry of the presbyterium and the chapel. The granite is more substantial than wood and the bench is cleaner cut and takes up less space than a set of chairs. Even though the Nuncio is named as Ordinary in the Eucharistic Prayer in the chapel of the Nunciature, his chapel is not a cathedral and as such does not have a cathedra where only the local bishop can be seated.

Where is the Communion rail?

A small private chapel or oratory might well have a Communion rail but this one does not. If a proper rail were added the overall space available for special occasions where chairs are added to accommodate about 60 people would be lost. Neither consideration really excludes the addition of a Communion rail or kneeler at some future date.

What changes with a celebration ad Orientem?

In a sense, nothing changes because this option has always been foreseen in the liturgical books of the last forty years. Nothing changes for the assembly in any case; only the priest’s stance changes according to the option used to celebrate. The Liturgy of the Word should be celebrated from the priest’s bench no matter on which side of the Altar he may stand for the rest of the Mass.

The expression ad Orientem refers specifically to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The priest goes to the Altar to prepare the gifts and then prays the Eucharistic Prayer at the head of the people, all focused together with him on Christ. You will notice even celebrating ad Orientem, that on a couple occasions when the priest speaks to the people during the Liturgy of the Eucharist he does so by turning to address them.

When oriented everything makes more sense, you might say, as the Eucharistic Prayer and the Communion Prayers are addressed to God. When facing the assembly across the Altar at this time the priest normally isn’t looking at the people anyway. He is looking at what he is reading from the sacramentary; otherwise his gaze should be lifted to heaven, to the Crucifix or focused on the Sacred Gifts upon the Altar. This explains the legitimacy, also as a preferred arrangement, of the one used by the Holy Father for the main Altar of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, where there is a lovely big Crucifix centered between six candles to provide the visual focus for the Eucharistic Prayer (I excluded this arrangement for the chapel of the Nunciature because of the ceiling height. Furthermore, it would still leave the priest with his back to the Tabernacle during the Eucharistic Prayer. St. Peter’s is big enough for a Blessed Sacrament Chapel).

Doesn’t the ad Orientem arrangement exclude people from what is going on at the Altar?

I don’t know how it could. The only real difference is that the priest needs to elevate the Host and Chalice over his head so that they can be seen after the words of consecration, but basically when oriented, the Eucharistic Prayer should be more meaningful or make better sense to all involved, because the focus of the action is more natural.

Will you be celebrating from both sides of the Altar?

No, I really am convinced that praying the Eucharistic Prayer ad Orientem makes more sense and is therefore better. I will celebrate that way in my chapel. In other chapels and churches, when I am invited, I will celebrate as is the custom there. Remember, the Holy Father has decided to teach by example in this case. I can find no evidence that things are otherwise. The liturgical books foresee both options. To date, no new rubrics have been issued on how to celebrate and no new directives given for the renovation of churches or the construction of new ones which require one arrangement to the exclusion of the other.

* * *

Appendix

Here are some quotes (borrowed from another author’s collection) from the Holy Father’s past writings on the issue of the proper orientation for worship:

[T]he positive content of the old eastward-facing direction lay not in its orientation to the tabernacle.... The original meaning of what nowadays is called "the priest turning his back on the people" is, in fact--as J.A. Jungmann has consistently shown--the priest and people together facing the same way in a common act of trinitarian worship.... Where priest and people together face the same way, what we have is a cosmic orientation and also an interpretation of the Eucharist in terms of resurrection and trinitarian theology. Hence it is also an interpretation in terms of Parousia, a theology of hope, in which every Mass is an approach to the return of Christ.

-- The Feast of Faith (Ignatius Press, 1986), pg. 140

Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning.

-- The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2000), pg. 75.

The common turning toward the east was not a "celebration toward the wall"; it did not mean that the priest "had his back to the people": the priest himself was not regarded as so important. For just as the congregation in the synagogue looked together toward Jerusalem, so in the Christian liturgy the congregation looked together "toward the Lord".... They did not close themselves into a circle; they did not gaze at one another; but as the pilgrim People of God they set off for the Oriens, for the Christ who comes to meet us.... [A] common turning to the east during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of something accidental, but of what is essential. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord.

-- The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 80-81.

As I have written in my books, I think that celebration turned towards the east, towards the Christ who is coming, is an apostolic tradition.

-- Looking Again at the Question of Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger, ed. Alcuin Reid (St. Michael's Abbey, 2003), pg. 151.

[A]mong the faithful there is an increasing sense of the problems inherent in an arrangement that hardly shows the liturgy to be open to the things that are above and to the world to come.

-- Foreword to U.M. Lang's Turning towards the Lord (Ignatius Press, 2004), pg. 11

Respond and Be Happy!

AEC Youth Assembly 2009

14 July, Kingston, Jamaica

“If you only knew what God is offering you” (John 4:10)

Evangelizing youth for a fuller life in Christ

What would you say the theme of the AEC Youth Assembly 2009 is all about? “If you only knew what God is offering you” (John 4:10) “If you only knew…” sounds almost pessimistic, but it would be a mistake to take John 4:10 that way, because it would be reading this passage out of context. The whole of John Chapter 4 is far from desperate or pessimistic; it is a real success story. Here in the Gospel Jesus is speaking to a complete stranger, the Samaritan woman, a woman who had come to draw water from Jacob’s Well and from whom He, Jesus, asked a drink. Jesus engaged her in conversation and lost no time in refreshing her not with well water but with the pure and sparkling water of the Truth. This woman and through her the people of that town were refreshed and changed by their encounter with God’s promised Messiah, Jesus the Anointed, the Chosen, the Christ.

The subtitle to the theme of this assembly reads: Evangelizing youth for a fuller life in Christ. What does that mean? In Catholic circles at least, I have to tell you that the word “evangelize” is generational and specialized vocabulary. It’s not a word commonly used by my mother’s generation and maybe not even by yours. Professional church folk use the word all the time. How do you evangelize somebody? I might rightly ask some of those here present if there is a Creole word for “to evangelize”. I am not rejecting the word “evangelize”, but I do wish to say that to my mind we’ll need to go easy with the emphasis on that big 5 syllable word “e-van-ge-liz-ing” and place our accent on the second part of the phrase: “for a fuller life in Christ”. This is what Mother Church wants for you; this is God’s Will, His plan for you: “a fuller life in Christ”. To explain what I mean by fuller, let me use a familiar example. Parents want the very best for their children. Future parents even dream about making life absolutely fantastic for their not yet born son or daughter. We want everything and to the full for those whom we love. There is nobody who wants that full better or more for their children than nurturing parents. It’s the same for the Church with regard to its children. The hope and the dream of the Church is that you, our sons and daughters through Baptism might have, might know “a fuller life in Christ”.

The Planning Committee asked me to present today a “Charge to the Youths”. I think “giving a charge” is the same as “assigning a task” while at the same time challenging you or motivating you to do something. To the extent that someone speaking to a large group can even do it, I would like above all else to empower you, to point you in a direction and give you a little push to start you on your way. I’d like to convince you that full, as in full of life and happiness, can be fuller if you are built on that solid rock which is Christ. There is and can be more to you and to your life if you are bound closely to Jesus.

We always know when a child is on the way to growing up; growing up is marked by some crisis or even crises of greater or smaller proportion. That moment of crisis comes already in our young lives when all of a sudden we become aware in grown-up fashion of what is going on around us; we become thankful for all that has been given to us. It is a moment of crisis in the sense that we feel as though our really being blessed or happy requires a response on our part; we have to do something in return for all the good which has been done to us. The problem is or the crisis is: what to do? I don’t know how old I was but I still clearly remember my moment of crisis as a young person, being struck by this new awareness one night after supper and feeling I just had to do something immediately for my parents in return for all they had done for me up until that point in my life. For lack of a better idea, I just went out into the kitchen and did the dishes. It may not have been a totally adequate way to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all I had received up until that point in my life, but it was my moment of recognition toward all others for what they had done for me, even if at the time my reaction was a bit awkward and adolescent. “If you only knew what God is offering you” (John 4:10)… I have no way of knowing whether folks at home caught the meaning of my gesture of washing the supper dishes without being asked or ordered to, but it must have had some importance for them too. I say that because even now, if I try to beat Mom to the supper dishes, she won’t chase me out of the kitchen, but she won’t let me to do the dishes alone either.

Truth to be told: we’re always on the receiving end and thankfulness should be primary in our lives, but happiness is increased by our responding and doing something. Happiness is magnified when we become active, when we take life on for ourselves. We cannot live without goals that we act upon; real people do not live virtually; you cannot expect to live life to the full by wielding the TV remote or by mouse-click. We need to respond personally and as best we can; the words “anonymous” or “vicarious” have nothing to do with full or fuller. They do not and cannot satisfy.

“If you only knew what God is offering you” (John 4:10)! One time here in Kingston, riding in the car with Archbishop Reece, a young man came up to the car window at a stop light to ask for something and the Archbishop asked him what he wanted to be in life and he said a popular singer. He sang for us a little something which wasn’t bad but probably would never make it to anybody’s top ten hits list. I hope he has a “plan B” or has other things he’s striving for in life. I hope Jesus and life with Jesus is central to his plan. What does it mean to strive “for a fuller life in Christ”? If you don’t know, take advantage of this Youth Assembly to listen hard and don’t hesitate to ask for light in prayer and to ask persons who seem to know something to share with you the reason for their hope and happiness. Above all don’t limit yourself to seeking just entertainment or adventure in life! Choose life to the full in Christ and be really happy always!

Do you know enough about your faith? Do you know enough about Jesus, Who has loved you even unto death, death on a cross? Jesus invited the Samaritan woman to ask Him for living water; she did and He simply told her the truth about herself and about God. Chapter 4 of John’s Gospel goes on: “So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ They went out of the city and were coming to him… Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.’” (John 4:28-30; 39-42) It is my hope that the AEC Youth Assembly 2009 might work for you as the encounter with Jesus did for the Samaritans. May this week be the push you need to make a real life choice and come to know the fullness of life in Christ!

If I look back on my youth and the people my same age I knew from childhood and grew up with, I’d have to say that to my knowledge there aren’t any women whom I went to school with who have become nuns, religious sisters. That is out of over a hundred girls in my high school class. In the past, that thought made me quite sad until I met a number of those women five years ago for the first time again and could see what great wives and mothers some of them had become. Three of my high school friends plus me out of 100 boys became priests. That is indeed something, but I have also had the honor of getting reacquainted with a number of the rest of those 100 boys who were with me in school and who are fine men, fathers and husbands, and now even grandfathers. Some of my class are not happy or were not happy: sadly enough I found one of those boys who had been in and out of jail, not a bad person at all, who had hung himself from the rafters in the janitor’s room of the same elementary school we had both attended. Choose life for yourself, life in Christ!

Be grateful for all you have received and seek to respond even if your response does not quite seem to measure up to what you have received. I am sure that here among you today there are potentially some very great, loving husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. I’d bet that if you took Him on, Jesus would probably call forth from this group some of the excellent religious women that our region so desperately needs for the future. I am fully confident that there are goodly young men among you who have a call from God to become priests. Respond now, without waiting another day! Don’t wait! Get to work studying Latin and philosophy, start now to build yourself up for the call to the priesthood which will come through the Church from your bishop! Respond! Don’t do nothing! Do something even if it might seem inadequate to you! Ask Jesus for living water, give Him your heart, soul, mind and strength, and be happy! “If you only knew what God is offering you” (John 4:10)!

Your life not only can but will be fuller in Christ if you answer His call and ask Him for the living water He is ready to give you. Pray about your future and open your heart to know what God wants for you! Use these days for a profitable exchange with others here in Kingston! Don’t sit back! If you decide to act, I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

Like Amos, be Prophets!

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
– for the Intention of Archbishop Paul Tabet –
Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature
Port of Spain, T&T

“Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help”.

There are times when I wonder whether some of the people I meet are clear about what it means to be a Catholic. I say that in the sense that I at least, maybe you too, commonly run into people who are very shy about sharing their faith; it is not just that respect and reserve we owe to sacred things, rather faith seems almost to be such a private or personal thing for them that they dare not share even with people they love and respect what the Gospel refers to as hidden treasure or the pearl of great price.

There are two problems with this: one, it doesn’t make sense not to share the joy of your life with other good people and two, this private approach is hard to reconcile with the mission Jesus gave to the Twelve as reported in today’s Gospel. Maybe it’s just the fact that sharing the faith is not as simple as showing a friend our pictures of the children or grandchildren. Sharing the faith means inviting others to change. The Twelve understood very clearly their mission from Christ:

“So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them”.

In the Church, we cannot leave this work which is really what is meant by prophecy or a prophetic mission to the professionals (the priests and sisters). Today’s Old Testament prophet Amos, a farmer really whom God had called to preach repentance to Israel, is the foreshadowing of the calling all of us share as a result of our baptism, no matter what our walk in life. We’re called not only to save our own souls, but to save others by sharing the faith with them, which basically involves inviting them to change their lives to conform to the law of the Lord.

That may be a problem in and of itself, but Amos’ life points to a second part of the experience, which verifies itself time and again in the lives of all those who seek to share their faith with others. Very simply put, the prophet Amos rubbed the people of Israel the wrong way:

“Go away seer… We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple”.

While I was home in the States this year on vacation, I had a visit with a friend of some years, a woman who shared with me her perplexity over the situation in her parish. In the last year both her parish priest and the associate priest had been changed. The old ones were fine to her mind and parish life had been OK. You could say, however, that nobody had really “rocked the boat” much in the past. The new priests had a different approach even though they were very popular and obviously worked hard for all aspects of parish life. You see, they also preached on some very difficult and controversial topics, moral issues, which some of my friend’s fellow parishioners took as a “punch in the face” of sorts. The new priests, like the Twelve whom Jesus sent out two by two in the Gospel or like Amos, were preaching repentance.

My friend told me there had even been cases of people getting up during the homily and stomping out of church in a rage. However, for everyone whom the two priests angered, she told me, there were other people, the vast majority, who rejoiced in sound teaching and the priests’ courage in facing squarely some very hard issues. People were coming from other parishes in town of a Sunday to be able to listen to them and worship together with them. These men were successfully fulfilling the mission given to them by Christ.

Some people would argue that religion does not necessarily have to be so “in your face” and they’ll point to some of the preachers on TV. I asked a bishop friend of mine, whom I respect very much, what he thought of the mega-church phenomenon, which still seems to be attracting many people not by calling them to repentance or change of life, but by providing a comfortable, even beautiful place of a Sunday, with great music and a simple message not unlike the old “power of positive thinking” business of years ago. The bishop observed that for many people the mega-church experience was only a passing thing. They would try it for a while and in the case of many fallen-away Catholics he had met, the mega-church experience was a little nudge to bring them back to the Catholic Church. My bishop friend told me that it may not be the full Gospel, but sometimes it can help people on the pathway to fullness of life and faith in Christ’s Holy Church.

Conclusion number one: Sunday worship should challenge us to be renewed in the faith of our Baptism; it should be a call to repent. Catholic worship of a Sunday cannot be jumping up and shouting. It’s not meant to be a diversion or a festival of song and dance. It’s a time to lift our face to Jesus. It’s coming to that “out of the way place” with Him to draw strength for the week ahead. It is as much standing at the foot of the Cross as it is anything else and coming to understand how our whole life cannot really be lived anywhere else but in the presence of the Crucified and Risen One.

In a sense, Sunday Mass is Viaticum for the living. Viaticum, as you know, is Holy Communion under that special form which the Church gives to the dying. As believing people, we seek to call the priest when someone is near death; we want him to hear that person’s confession if he or she is still conscious; we want the priest to give that person the Anointing of the Sick and to bring that person Viaticum: Viaticum is a Latin word meaning basically “with you on your way” and means Jesus with you on your way to the Heavenly Father. For us the living, Sunday Mass could be called Viaticum, because it puts us back in touch with the loving Jesus, with the teaching Jesus, Who demands of us change. We take Him with us (Viaticum) from Mass on Sunday to be with us hopefully all week long.

We were washed clean on the day of our Baptism and then challenged with the bestowal of the white baptismal garment and the baptismal candle to keep our new dignity unstained and with the light of faith burning brightly in our hearts to go to meet the Lord when He comes again. Seeing as how none of us is perfect, a prophetic word from Father of a Sunday would seem to be an important part of that experience, really the only way to go for the Lord’s companions, for you and for me.

Back to our starting point and that part which is ours, as non-professionals, in the work of preaching repentance, just like the Twelve did at Jesus’ command, just like Amos did even if people did not appreciate his message in the name of the Lord! We all know that being preachy or nagging is counterproductive; it can drive our children away from the faith. Nonetheless, we have to realize that there are countless opportunities, some each day, not to get up on our soapbox but rather to share with others the reason for our hope both by word and good example. Yes, this Sunday’s message sheds light on how tough it can be to be a follower of Christ, but by the same token how necessary it is that we embrace that cross and share our faith with others.

Today’s Second Reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is a bit longish but oh so important in reaching an understanding of who we are in Christ and what we have to share with the world. I am sure that many of you have a Sunday Missal at home or perhaps subscribe to Magnificat. I hope the rest of your Sunday is restful enough to give you a moment to pick that reading up again, read it over and savor it. It speaks eloquently about the nature of our adoption in Christ, about who we are, about our destiny from before time began.

Radiate Christ’s love at home, at work, and wherever you may be! Be prophets for our day and time!

“May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us”.