On The Way To Church…

The following is a mediation by Henri Nouwen. The Friends of Henri Nouwen offers these free daily meditations. Check this website.

As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: “There’s not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency,” or “There’s not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I’d better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it” or “There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.” This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won’t have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

I invite all our bloggers “On the Way to Church” to check in with your observations, questions, and/or comments about any aspect of Pope Benedict’s visit. It is a tremendous “teachable moment” and should not be passed over.

So, folks, let’s have some dialogue among ourselves about this. Write in and I will do my best to respond to any questions or comments shared in good faith.

Thanks. Msgr. Gaston

The BBC has some interesting photos capturing various aspects of Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States that ended yesterday, Sunday. Check these out…..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7357095.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7353428.stm

As I mentioned in my homily this weekend, how much would it have cost the Catholic Church to cover the cost of just the media attention given to the Pope throughout the week? While we complain about the “junk” that we must often endure in the media, the very same media were instrumental in helping to disseminate the message of the Pope “Christ our Hope” in video coverage, text and images.

More on this as we are able to reflect on the meaning of this profound encounter of the Holy Father with the Catholic Church (and everyone else) in the United States.

It would be impossible for the Catholic Church to purchase the amount of media expertise, commentary,resources and time that are being given to the Pope’s visit to the United States and the United Nations this week. It is truly one of those teachable moments that should not be ignored. The many facets of this visit will afford Catholics and all Americans an opportunity to better understand the Catholic Church and the Catholic Faith.

For Catholic links on the Pope’s visit, check out the following:

USCCB Papal Visit website
EWTN
Archdiocese of Washington
Archdiocese of New York
Catholic Digest

And if you’re looking for some commentary, there’s always Rocco Palmo’s blog Whispers in the Loggia

That should be enough for starts. Let us pray that the Holy Father’s pastoral visit will be the occasion for a renewal of faith among Catholics — and all people of good will — in our country. May his conversations with President Bush and at the United Nations influence our desire for greater peacemaking in our war-torn world. May it also be an occasion of evangelization for those disenfranchised folks who may very well be looking for a family to call “Church.”

Father Bryan N. Massingale is an associate professor of theology at Marquette University. He wrote a timely piece which was posted on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online on March 23. Part of his thoughtful op-ed on the Jeremiah Wright controversy is quoted in an April 7 post in dotCommonweal by Grant Gallicho. Father Massingale is an African-American priest reflecting on perceptions and fears of black men in America. This issue is brought to light by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama and the controversy over his relationship with his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He writes:

I suspect that an underlying issue is this: Obama’s association with Wright raises in many whites an unarticulated fear that Obama may be an “angry black man.” They dread he may be a closet Al Sharpton, a secret Louis Farrakhan, a stealth advocate of racial hostility, an undercover agent for racial “payback.”

This sounds foolish, even preposterous, when put so directly. But race-based anxieties are not rational, and this would not be the first time that racial foolishness has affected the public discourse of Obama’s candidacy

How else would one characterize discussions such as “Is Obama black enough?” or “Is he too black?” or “Why are all the blacks voting for him?”

Because many whites know few (if any) black men in any depth, the Wright controversy makes them view Obama through the lens of “black men” that has been constructed for them. They see him through the filter of what they have heard - and perhaps fear - about black men. Obama becomes not a black individual but an entity based upon a composite of the few political black men whom whites “know” through the media - such as Sharpton, Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson. This is not rational, but it is real.

What is happening to Obama is a common experience for many black men. He has become a walking “ink blot,” a living Rorschach test, upon which is projected white fears, fantasies and anxieties.

As a black man who is also a Catholic priest, I am familiar with this dynamic. Over the years, many well-intentioned white parishioners have told me that I remind them of Denzel Washington (though I wish I were that handsome), Clarence Thomas (though I am a polar opposite of his political views) and Jackson (though I could never match his rhetorical riffs). I am seen through the prism of the only black men that they “know.”

I also have been told by well-meaning whites that I am “too soft on race” (i.e., not black enough) while others have written that I am nothing more than a “politically correct race hustler” (i.e., too black). I have had a white co-worker, a good friend, run from me in fear as I approached her at dusk, wearing a baseball cap and without my identifying collar. I have come to realize that for many, without their conscious awareness, I am a living “ink blot” upon which they read their own unexamined concerns, fears and anxieties.

This is one of the deepest tragedies of racism or any social prejudice: It robs one of the freedom to be an individual, to be “me” rather than a “category.”

This reflection gives us pause to reflect on our attitudes about race in America. The more poignant question is whether we are growing in our ability as Catholic Christians to understand how our faith challenges the fear that underlies racism and prejudice. Is it still possible to live in the cocoons that have shaped our racial fears and prejudice over the years?

We live in a fast-paced world today that is driven by technology. We spend more and more time in front of one or another “screen” — usually to be entertained. We expect new and endless opportunities to be get some kind of “adrenalin rush” by the media, by music, by sports, etc. With this kind of constant stimulation, is it any wonder that we often feel shortchanged when we come to Church? Shouldn’t our experience in Church be equally exciting? Over the years I cannot count the times I have heard the words “I don’t get anything out of it….” therefore, I don’t participate and/or haven’t gone to Church for a long time! It’s boring!

I recently read the following in a brochure published by Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Why do we ‘have to’ go to Mass?”

When entertainment is the model for church worship services, the leaders try to induce particular feelings in the audience. The Mass, however, is just the opposite. It is a ritual in which people bring their own feelings and incorporate them into the liturgy. That’s why it is possible for two people to attend Mass, one grieving a death and the other celebrating a birth, yet both feel connected. The whole point is to go beyond feelings into authentic prayer, which is the offering of oneself to God in Jesus Christ.

Those gathered to worship at the Sunday liturgy are not an “audience.” They are officially called an “Assembly.” Christ is present in several ways, including in the group gathered for worship. That means that we are not merely there as passive recipients or consumers of a spiritual sensation, but active participants in meeting Christ in the gathering, in the Scriptures, the Holy Eucharist (and in the priest who presides at the liturgy). Everyone has a role to play in this action (participants, priest, music ministers, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, ushers, greeters, etc.) No one is an audience, unless you’re watching the liturgy in your home on TV. And even there you’re an extension of the worshipping Assembly.

I believe, too, that the Christ we do NOT encounter in the Sunday liturgy is the same Christ we do NOT encounter in each other every day. What do I “get out of” trying to be a decent human being, and to live with others in a peaceful and respectful way each day? I want to be treated well by others, but am I not also obliged to return the compliment? If the emphasis is only on what “I get out of it” what does this say about my obligations to others? Is it really all about me only?

Liturgy and life challenge us in the same say: It’s not simply what I am to receive, but what I am to give. On Sunday, this involves giving/sharing myself in many ways: being attentive, greeting people, responding to the prayers, singing the songs, coming forward to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, and taking what has been given to me home for the coming week. The rest of the week, I am involved in a great deal of “give and take”–i.e. responding — to others. In neither realm am I merely a passive observer/consumer. I am a participant. There is much more involved in daily life beyond merely “getting something out of it.”

There are many factors today that interfere with authentic worship, which is the centerpiece of the practice of our religion. What I don’t give and receive at Mass is probably what I don’t give and receive to God and others in my life each day. When the attitude of “what’s in it for me” begins to become the attitude of “what do I have/need to share with you” my life–and my worship–will begin to look much more interesting!

P.S. Someday, when I get enough courage, I will do a blog on the clergy, many of whom seem to have a very difficult time giving meaningful homilies at the Sunday liturgy! What is applies to the laity also applies to the clergy!

As we continue unpacking the mystery of Easter in the liturgy this weekend, we encounter the famous doubter…Thomas. I suspect this apostle has a lot to say to this generation who are bored or who easily fall victim to cynicism about religion, goodness or faith. This is a real challenge to the young and to those of every age who have endured significant suffering.

No one, hurt once, wants to be hurt again. There is fear. Boredom itself is a fear of stepping out out of one’s comfort zone. Thomas’ conditions for meeting Christ should not surprise us. We are not that different, although we might put it in other words like “No one has ever come back from the dead to tell us…!” It is certainly a challenge to maintain faith or to take the risk of belief in a pessimistic and cynical world. We don’t want to be accused of being naive or overly pious! But the Lord meets us, somehow, where we are, as he did Thomas. Are we ready for the surprise?

For more on this, check here

Easter Blessings to all “On the Way to Church.”

We probably have an easier time understanding Good Friday than we do Easter Sunday. We can all show the scars of the crosses life has dealt us or the ones we have created for ourselves and each other! But Easter is about unimaginable euphoria and triumph! At Easter (and repeated in every Eucharistic celebration) we commemorate the one event that has revealed God’s final power over evil, sin, suffering, pain and death — in the Resurrection of Christ from the tomb, from death itself!

This is our hope as we seek to live better each day; it is the hope that sustains us as we journey toward the end of our earthly existence. Our bodies, our total human identities, will be transformed in glory patterned on the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus. We are destined to dwell in the euphoric goodness of God as this was intended from the very beginning.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! And don’t fall into the trap of repeating that trite saying that “Nobody has ever come back from the dead to tell us about it!” That would be a denial of everything Christians believe.

For a more poetic, prayerful expression of our Easter faith, check here.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

A funny thing happened on the way to the Chrism Mass in Greensburg today! I happened to turn on Marty Griffin who has the a.m. talk show on KDKA Radio, Pittsburgh. He was decrying the way the Easter Bunny has coopted the Christian celebration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ (similar to what happens with Santa at Christmas). A professed Catholic himself, I heard him saying things I have been “feeling” and even dared mention to parishioners on Palm Sunday.

The argument goes something like this:

With the continuing erosion of religious practice, knowledge and worship, many people — certainly many of our children — have no idea about the deepest meaning of the Feast of Easter and Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead. This is nothing new, of course. (Songs about Easter bonnets and Peter Cottontail are ingrained in my memory from childhood and I can plunk out these tunes on the piano. However, in those days we also fasted for religious reasons until Easter — it was “Tradition” — and spent a great deal of time in Church during Holy Week!)

How are we to communicate the central tenets of the Christian Faith in the vastly changed world of today? Jesus Christ, God’s Son and one of us was raised from the death and has won for the human family salvation from the effects of evil, sin and ultimately death itself! The salvation of the world was NOT achieved by a cute hare and is not experienced by coloring eggs or overindulging on an overstuffed Easter basket!

Unless I dwell in another universe, I don’t see the commercialization of the celebrations of Jewish Passover or of Muslim Ramadan in the same the way the Christian celebration of Easter has been trivialized and overtaken by secularity (largely driven by economics). They may be in for a similar fate, unfortunately. With the continued “disconnect” between families and the practice of any form of religion, religious illiteracy and relativism is commonplace in our time. Is Easter a religious feast or not?

I don’t like to villainize or scapegoat contemporary people or culture, but I do take exception to the inability of our Christian rituals and symbols to communicate effectively to the folks today. Each generation runs the risk of drifting farther and farther from its roots in Catholic/Christian soil, culture, and awareness. We have some serious work to do to reclaim the sacred mysteries of our life with God in Christ and to discover the road that leads to a more meaningful life in this world and eternal life in the next!

Here’s a suggestion: Perhaps we could take some time to worship during these days…the time we might otherwise stand in line with our children at the mall waiting to sit on the Easter Bunny’s lap!

Happy Easter….i.e. Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

We enter “The Triduum” — the Three Days — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday — and join the Universal Church in celebrating the saving acts of Jesus Christ: his passion, death and glorious resurrection. For those wanting some background and help in meditating on and celebrating these sacred events, please check Creighton University’s website. It is a wonderful resource and great background for the unique liturgies that we celebrate this week on the way to Easter Sunday!

I don’t believe we can truly imagine the euphoric joy of Easter and Resurrection without also journeying through the painful darkness of sufferings, rejections and deaths that are a part of our lives every day.

Christ’s experience can become the lens through which we discover divine grace to endure and interpret the meaning of our own passion…in the hope of a triumphant victory that only God can bring about.

Easter is not only about transformed life beyond the grave. It is also about the innumerable ways in which love triumphs over evil, death and destruction in large and small ways every day!