Today I celebrate 15 years of ordination. I am celebrating it! As I look back on the last 15 years of being a Catholic priest, I look at one heck of a journey. There have been extraordinary highs and gut wrenching lows. The seminary did the best it could to prepare me with a base of knowledge, spirituality, and human formation to help me meet the road as it unfolded over the years. To be honest, I came out of the seminary all wild eyed and ready to proclaim, serve, and restore. I came in with a profound ( or so I thought at the time) desire to serve. I thought I knew it all and what the people wanted. I thought. It is not that I was horribly wrong or off base, it is just that I had no idea of the magnitude of what lay ahead. Thankfully, God has always moved my heart to engage Him and His people and to keep trying to adapt without losing anything of a true Catholic priestly identity. That openness has lead to a wealth of epiphany moments. I wish to share some of the bigger ones.
1: What I actually know about God, faith, and Catholicism is little. It is not through lack of trying. I am a rather well read person who always believes there is always more that I can and need to learn. Content wise, I probably do know more than the average person, but is like being a scientist, the more you study the more we know how little we know. It is a given that we simply cannot come to know everything about God; we struggle with just the tidbit He gives us through Divine Revelation. 15 years of preaching on the Scriptures almost everyday and I still am amazed at how many layers there are and how much more there is just on the surface. 15 years and I have yet to grow tired of preaching and studying the Scriptures because it is like a multi-faceted gem with an infinite numbers of sides; each begging to be examined and integrated. The depths and power of faith, I have come to find out, will go as deep as we allow them. Because it is based in God, the experience of faith and grace is boundless. The more I experience, the more I know that is still left unexamined. The depths of the theology, philosophy, logic, and wisdom present in Church teachings is profound. Some of the greatest minds of history help in reflecting upon Christ and what the Christ event fully means. I am a smart guy, but I am not St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Chrysostom, or any of the other great minds that have populated our teaching landscape. I read the writings of the great Fathers and mystics and realize just how little I know. I like to think that my desire to keep knowing and delving deeper into the mysteries of the faith is pleasing to God. It is a lifetime endeavor. It is a perpetual challenge.
2: The People of God don't need another Savior. We already have one. The Catholic Church existed long before I became a priest and will be here long after I depart from this life. My role is to point to THE Savior. I have found out that this is far from easy. It is more than using the right sequence of words, it is by living a correct example. That is difficult for me. I think the easiest trap for any cleric to fall into is that trap of hypocrisy. It is easy to preach love, mercy, forgiveness, patience, love of God and love of neighbor; it is much harder to live, especially knowing that my parishioners have the right to be able to see me living that example. It has meant that I have had to wildly reign in my temper, a temper that has gotten me into much trouble. The first time I lost my patience with a parishioner, it hit me after I was done of the potentially devastating effect of the Roman Collar. I became aware that when I lost my patience, it just wasn't me as a person, but it came across as the entirety of the Roman catholic Church, if not Christ Himself, coming down on the person. I shudder to think how many people I might well have driven away, how many vocations I might have crushed, how many good souls were rightfully scandalized. I look back at those 2 or 3 incidents and still feel deep regret and sorrow. As I have grown, my temperament has settled and my anger is usually saved for people who cut me off in traffic (and yes, I know I must work on that as well).
3: I am called 'Father' for a reason. This realization has grown so much stronger over the past few years. When we started Camp Maccabee some years back, it was with the understanding that all the same things needed to be a good dad and husband were also needed to be a good priest. Archbishop Flynn told me that in a one on one conference during a retreat my 1st year in theology. that conversation was probably one of the most significant of my life. It took me almost 20 years to unpack that. My role in a parish is that of a father. It is my duty to provide from the wealth of our faith and to lead others into a deeper relationship with the God who entrusted me with their care. The same can be said of dads and their children. It is my duty to nurture and maintain union built upon stewardship and selflessness, so that each member of the parish knows they are loved, wanted, and needed as part of this parish family. I use the term 'parish family' not in some sappy sense of forced fellowship of people who would otherwise have no connection, but in the same dynamic that Christ did when He used familial terms to describe the relationship He has with us, we have with the Father, and that we have with each other. It is not my job to dominate. It seems it would be easier if I tried that, but I know it would undo everything and drive off wide swaths of the family entrusted to my pastoral care. It is a constant source for internal dialogue and external whining. I know that I am far from being that ideal father.
4: The people don't need to know what I think, they need to know the truth. So many times people have been confused because clerics have come down like Moses from Mt Sinai with their own slant or opinion on the teachings of the Church. It creates great confusion and invites division. My opinion saves no one. My opinion is not synonymous with Divine Revelation. My opinion can dilute the Gospel. I will be held responsible for that. I am well aware of that. In fact, it frightens me. One of my pet peeves is being lied to because when I am lied to, I can not make reasonable or correct decisions; it is hard to build decisions on a lie. If I dilute the Gospel, I present a deceit and force other people who may not know better to build decisions on those deceits. The reason I read so much is because I want to be as sure as I can that I am presenting the truth and giving those entrusted to my care a solid foundation. Sometimes the truth can be challenging and provoking. In fact, the vast majority of the time it is. The truth always provokes us to a deeper and greater relationship with God and with one another. The truth challenges our bad habits and favorite sins. I cannot tell people a deceit in hopes of not hurting their feelings, or not making them angry with me, or in hopes of not losing money in the collection. It is hard and the temptation to take the easy road and say what people want to hear (or what I want to hear) it ever-present.
5: I wouldn't give this up for anything. Even in the incredibly dark days of 2002 when the sex scandals broke and priests that I not only knew, but admired as well, I had no intention of leaving. There were days when I was weary. There still are. There are still days of great frustration, but isn't that true for everyone? However, those days are greatly outnumbered by the great days, the powerful days, and the truly spiritual days. The schedule can be grueling. Being constantly in an unwanted spotlight is aggravating at times. I still get nervous preaching and teaching. I still feel somewhat inadequate in some of my pastoral duties. I am okay with that in that I have only been doing this for 15 years. I know that I am far from the perfect priest and perfect pastor; I still have much to learn and much to grow. I am not a finished product. That said, I can say I have tried my best most of the time. I sincerely hope that as time passes that I will progress deeper and become a better pastor. Despite every struggle that I have faced, am facing, and will face, I love the challenge that being a priest in this society. I love that I have to keep my own weaknesses in check with God's grace. I love that I have learned much and still have much to learn. I love that there will be never a reason for me to grow cold or apathetic. I am interested in what the next 15 years bring, what I will learn, how I will develop, and how I can better be what God has called and created me to be. I am okay with the fact that I will never grow wealthy by earthly standards. I am okay with the fact that this society will probably never respect me. I am okay with knowing that if I am a good priest there will be much sacrifice that lays ahead. I look forward to the future and I am happy in the present. the best thing that I have learned is that God is ever generous with His grace and mercy with anyone who willing to at least try to rise to the challenge of the Gospel. Here's to many more years of learning. growing, and deepening.
Showing posts with label evangelization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evangelization. Show all posts
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
It is only just religion
The above statement is one that we hear too many times in society. It is the times that it goes left unsaid but is acted upon that is really disheartening. “It’s just religion, or faith, or church” is born from an understanding that matters of spirituality are to be easy, enabling, and unobtrusive in our lives. Faith, especially the study and practice thereof, are regulated to a low priority. It is a co-opting of the culture in which we live that marginalizes faith altogether; a culture that Dr. Stephen Carter called “The Culture of Disbelief” . This culture has thrown God out of our public institutions. God is not allowed in our public schools. He is not allowed in the public square. This has gone on for so long that most Americans have also pushed Him out of their lives. What happens? We get the gratingly inane “I am not religious, I’m spiritual” (aka : “I do what I want and God will have to just rubber stamp it…I don’t take orders from God or some church…I give them“) Take a look at what is happening in our country. Watch it crumbling. It is nothing new. In the Old Testament, Israel rotted from within as it pushed God to the periphery. They relied on their wealth and power (sound familiar?) and pushed God’s protecting hand aside. Without that protection, they fell apart, were crushed by their enemies, and all the power and wealth in the world could not save them. We are on that same path. Did our power and military might spare us 9/11 or the two subsequent wars that happened as a result? Did our wealth stave off this prolonged recession? Push God away and we push His protection away!
What is true in the macrocosm of society is equally as true in the microcosm of our parish and our families. Our pursuit of the secular has practically wiped out the pursuit of the eternal. All too often the pursuit of the eternal is regulated to one hour (or shorter) on Sunday. That is only if something else doesn’t crowd it out. Education? That’s another subject altogether. If we think that 4-5 hours of religion class, IF the child goes to Catholic school, and 1 hour if they don’t, suffices for their training, then we are fooling ourselves and essentially answering a good part of the reason why our youth lose interest and wander away in disturbingly large numbers. It’s hard to have a deep abiding relationship with someone you barely know. Is there any parent who believes 1 hour of science a week suffices to help their child? How about 1 hour of math? How about one hour of spelling? Or English? Or History? How then, is one hour in class enough when it comes to the teachings of our faith? Of course not! Let me go one step further. Religion ’class’ is not like other classes. In the other classes, we are not giving them information so that they can have a personal relationship with math, science, or any of the other disciplines. In religion class, or PSR, or confirmation ‘class’ we are more about telling them how God has revealed Himself over the ages so that He might be known, served, and loved at least to some degree to which He knows, serves, and loves us. In all of these ‘classes’ we are dispensing knowledge so as to lead to a relationship with God. Just because ‘it’s only religion’ does not mean we can give it a minimal effort.
Our Christian development and education do not end once we have ceased ‘classes’. If they do, then we can expect nothing but a minimalist attitude towards faith and the application of faith to our daily lives and on how we set priorities in our lives. “It’s only religion”. whether spoken or unspoken, will lead to an eventual turning away from the faith. We cannot reject that relationship with God here and now and expect that somehow all will be just peachy in the afterlife.
So what does this mean? Let us start with what is the parish’s responsibility. The parish has a responsibility to provide the material, the teachers, the time, the space to help parents teach their children how to develop that relationship with God. The parish has a responsibility to make sure the materials and solid and truthful. It is our job to provide opportunities. However, as I said during the homily on Good Shepherd Sunday , while it is my responsibility to make sure that the fields the flock are nourishing from are the fields of the Lord, I cannot make anyone attend anything. You have to want it because you recognize the necessity for a deep abiding relationship with God and the equally pressing need to pass on that same fire to your children. We have provided classes for our youth in both the parochial and public schools (in which under the best of circumstances we can only show them the tip of the iceberg), for our high school students in confirmation.
We tried to provide classes for our Freshman and Seniors. Both failed because of lack of participation from the youth who had other things to do. I have provided most Wednesdays to have adult education. I used top notch programs and books. I am no slouch as a teacher. The response was minimal at best. I am offering a bible study using, again, top notch material. 21 people out of 400+ families we have this parish signed up. Am I to believe that the other 400+ families are biblical experts who know the Bible so well and are able to defend their faith so well that they do not need help? We brought in one of the foremost speakers on evangelization this Spring when Patrick Madrid came in. Fewer than 80 parishioners showed. Am I to believe that all the others know their faith so well and are so practiced at evangelization that they didn’t need help? We have a well stocked parish library by the women’s restroom in the back of Church, it has been there for over a year. I have stocked it with solid materials, surrendering hundreds of books from my private library, all in the hopes of providing educational resources for my parishioners. I have repeatedly spoke about the opportunities we have in the diocese for our youth to spend a week coming to know that relationship with God better. The same goes for the Mission trip. The response has been underwhelming. If it seems I am complaining a bit, I am. It seems like there is always something else to do…some class…some sport…some practice…some game…something else that is more important on the food chain of our lives. We are trying to live up to our responsibilities to provide both material and opportunity. This is a common problem in all parishes!
What is your responsibility? To respond positively. To admit that we need help in understanding. To purge this horrid ‘it’s just religion’ when it comes to how we respond, how our youth respond, and each sets their hierarchy of priorities. After all, it isn’t just religion, it’s our eternal relationship with God in the balance. Relationships take time and effort, they challenge to change for the better. If God doesn’t say ‘it’s only humanity’ when it comes to us, how can we say ‘it’s only religion’ when it comes to Him
What is true in the macrocosm of society is equally as true in the microcosm of our parish and our families. Our pursuit of the secular has practically wiped out the pursuit of the eternal. All too often the pursuit of the eternal is regulated to one hour (or shorter) on Sunday. That is only if something else doesn’t crowd it out. Education? That’s another subject altogether. If we think that 4-5 hours of religion class, IF the child goes to Catholic school, and 1 hour if they don’t, suffices for their training, then we are fooling ourselves and essentially answering a good part of the reason why our youth lose interest and wander away in disturbingly large numbers. It’s hard to have a deep abiding relationship with someone you barely know. Is there any parent who believes 1 hour of science a week suffices to help their child? How about 1 hour of math? How about one hour of spelling? Or English? Or History? How then, is one hour in class enough when it comes to the teachings of our faith? Of course not! Let me go one step further. Religion ’class’ is not like other classes. In the other classes, we are not giving them information so that they can have a personal relationship with math, science, or any of the other disciplines. In religion class, or PSR, or confirmation ‘class’ we are more about telling them how God has revealed Himself over the ages so that He might be known, served, and loved at least to some degree to which He knows, serves, and loves us. In all of these ‘classes’ we are dispensing knowledge so as to lead to a relationship with God. Just because ‘it’s only religion’ does not mean we can give it a minimal effort.
Our Christian development and education do not end once we have ceased ‘classes’. If they do, then we can expect nothing but a minimalist attitude towards faith and the application of faith to our daily lives and on how we set priorities in our lives. “It’s only religion”. whether spoken or unspoken, will lead to an eventual turning away from the faith. We cannot reject that relationship with God here and now and expect that somehow all will be just peachy in the afterlife.
So what does this mean? Let us start with what is the parish’s responsibility. The parish has a responsibility to provide the material, the teachers, the time, the space to help parents teach their children how to develop that relationship with God. The parish has a responsibility to make sure the materials and solid and truthful. It is our job to provide opportunities. However, as I said during the homily on Good Shepherd Sunday , while it is my responsibility to make sure that the fields the flock are nourishing from are the fields of the Lord, I cannot make anyone attend anything. You have to want it because you recognize the necessity for a deep abiding relationship with God and the equally pressing need to pass on that same fire to your children. We have provided classes for our youth in both the parochial and public schools (in which under the best of circumstances we can only show them the tip of the iceberg), for our high school students in confirmation.
We tried to provide classes for our Freshman and Seniors. Both failed because of lack of participation from the youth who had other things to do. I have provided most Wednesdays to have adult education. I used top notch programs and books. I am no slouch as a teacher. The response was minimal at best. I am offering a bible study using, again, top notch material. 21 people out of 400+ families we have this parish signed up. Am I to believe that the other 400+ families are biblical experts who know the Bible so well and are able to defend their faith so well that they do not need help? We brought in one of the foremost speakers on evangelization this Spring when Patrick Madrid came in. Fewer than 80 parishioners showed. Am I to believe that all the others know their faith so well and are so practiced at evangelization that they didn’t need help? We have a well stocked parish library by the women’s restroom in the back of Church, it has been there for over a year. I have stocked it with solid materials, surrendering hundreds of books from my private library, all in the hopes of providing educational resources for my parishioners. I have repeatedly spoke about the opportunities we have in the diocese for our youth to spend a week coming to know that relationship with God better. The same goes for the Mission trip. The response has been underwhelming. If it seems I am complaining a bit, I am. It seems like there is always something else to do…some class…some sport…some practice…some game…something else that is more important on the food chain of our lives. We are trying to live up to our responsibilities to provide both material and opportunity. This is a common problem in all parishes!
What is your responsibility? To respond positively. To admit that we need help in understanding. To purge this horrid ‘it’s just religion’ when it comes to how we respond, how our youth respond, and each sets their hierarchy of priorities. After all, it isn’t just religion, it’s our eternal relationship with God in the balance. Relationships take time and effort, they challenge to change for the better. If God doesn’t say ‘it’s only humanity’ when it comes to us, how can we say ‘it’s only religion’ when it comes to Him
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
You Like Me, You Really Like Me!...or maybe not
Then, just off the heels of this epiphany came the sexual revolution. We might have had problems with this or that teaching of the Church, but now we were free to just let loose. What better way than to fornicate like bunnies and feel no tinge to that nasty old conscience! We could contracept our way into a new and freeing existence of all the benefits of marriage without having to marry. Women were told that marriage and family life weighed them down anyway, but why chuck that ball and chain and have to miss sex?! When that stodgy old Pope Paul VI put out Humanae Vitae..well we just had in black and white just how out of it the Church was. It wasn't just lay people either. Many of those priests and sisters who stayed, after so many left, adopted this new 'freeing' mentality and , well, woo-hoo, just went to town. In fact the less that you could act or even look like one of those nasty old relics, the better. Sure, some people got bent out of shape, but they were humorless puritans.
So we bolted from our faith, dumbed down...I'm sorry...breathed new life into the practices, and acculturated so much worldly wisdom, that assuredly now they would like us! 65% quit going to Church much at all or completely. It became fashionable to be a cafeteria Catholic, picking and choosing what teachings we liked or didn't challenge our favored sins. Surely, the world would love us now! Of course, the clergy decided that this would be a wonderful time to hand our detractors boatloads of ammunition (not to mention boatloads of money as well) and break their vows of celibacy with children, women, and men. Okay, it was a small percentage of the clergy...a really small percent...but we bought the narrative that most priests had all the sexual restraint of a teenage boy in a brothel with his dad's credit card. We bought the premise that most priests were gay or just really weird. Surely, the world will like us now! Our convents emptied out! Our seminaries emptied out! Surely the world would like as now! Yeah, not so much.
Catholics are learning that you never negotiate with someone who wants you dead. While those who abandoned their faith were lauded and gave themselves such non-offensive names like 'recovering Catholic" (get it? Like a recovering alcoholic? because Catholicism is a disease? Funny ! Oh never mind) and some became official spokesmen for the Church in the mainstream media and were trotted out like prize turkeys whenever a pope dared cross the pond and drop in. All the better if a former priest of sister..better yet if a current one who just show how worldly they were in trashing the pope. But for those who decided to stick it out, the attacks have been relentless. The more faithful we are, the more they hate us, and we have to happy with this. Really...happy?! The entertainment industry will continue to portray all clergy and religious as either dolts, Huns, gay, or criminals. The media will continue to portray faithful Catholics as insipid, ignorant, intolerant, hate filled, half breeds, hypocrites, and nitwits. The oh-so-smart academic types will continue to doubt our intelligence, our teachings, our rituals, and our faithful with little more than derision and scorn. Maybe even the government will continue to try to strip away our rights. SO WHAT!? My attitude is : BRING IT!
History shows that whenever we are persecuted is when we grow. When we take the moral high ground and stand our ground without returning their attacks with equal aggression, we prevail. When we are forced to defend our ground, we have risen time and again to the occasion. If this sounds defiant..well, that is the point! Truth be told, I don't want the world to like me and approve of me. I don't need their stamp of approval. I don't want to be the shape-shifting insecure about who I am person that allows the cool kids to dictate their likes and actions. In Luke, the Beatitudes bless those who are persecuted and curses those who are liked and approved of by the world. The Catholic who doesn't see their faith as something worth dying for is the Catholic who doesn't see their faith worth living for. So to Hollywood...bring it on! Music industry...bring it! Government officials...hit us with your best shot! Media...we're not scared of you! We came before you, we'll be here long after you. We have outlasted every kingdom, empire, and trend that has tried to destroy us. We have survived every foolish self-inflicted wound with which we have struck ourselves. That is because we have Christ promise that you would never prevail and crush us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. We know already who wins the war...and it isn't you! So bring it...by the grace of God, we're ready!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Why is the Church sticking to her guns? Behind the reason to fight the HHS mandate.
editor's note: This fight with HHS and the Administration is beyond mere politics or even mere religious freedom...it strikes at the heart of our beliefs. Hence, the beliefs themselves must be addressed.
Over the past year or so, I have studied more and more the teachings of Blessed John Paul II concerning love, marriage, and human sexuality. They flow from the book “Love and Responsibility’ he wrote long before becoming the pope. The teachings that flowed from this revolutionary book designed to explain Catholic moral teaching on human sexuality and marriage, was an answer to the common acceptance of most Catholics to artificial contraception, and the lesser acceptance of abortion, divorce, and such. These teachings are the basis of a program called Theology of the Body. Whereas most Catholics and non-Catholics would characterize incorrectly Catholic sexual moral teachings as a litany of ‘that shall nots’ and a belief that women should be baby factories, Blessed John Paul II comes from a different angle; an angle that wants to see the creative and inherent beauty of human sexuality as something to be treasured and respected as a part of the respect owed to the individual as whole. For Blessed John Paul II, the mystery of God is written into our very bodies and into the totality of our entire being. He points out how all Church teaching on sexuality flows from this positive vision of the inherent dignity and integrity of the human person. Hence, the Church’s teaching on sexuality, now under incredibly heavy fire, flow entirely from the complete respect for the integrity and dignity of each human person; a person to be respected on all levels of their beings, including their sexuality.
When God commands humanity upon its creation to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, it is a command flowing from the fact that God wants us to participate in His power to create new life born from love. The tools of that power are holy and special and to be treated as such. However, over time two camps developed that got this wrong. One was a type of puritanical misunderstanding which saw the human body and sexuality as evil, lesser, and ugly…something to be ashamed of and avoided. The other was one that saw human body and sexuality as a mere means to an end where the individual was served to self-seeking ends. Both reduced this great and wonderful gift of God to something tawdry and shameful, as if the divine gift to create new life born from mutual self-giving love was a divine mistake. It is about the nature of love, particularly marital love, that the Bl. John Paul II wanted to recapture. For him, the body was not an ugly and shameful thing, nor was human sexuality. Both are gifts from God to be respected and loved.
Catholic teachings on human sexuality flow from the use of that sexuality in the manner for which it was given; to be an act that is mutually self-giving (not self-taking) love and from which will naturally flow a stronger union and the possibility of new life. The Church does not believe that sex is solely for ‘baby-making’ but neither is it only for pleasure. The church sees the human person as an integrated whole: mind, soul, and body. Anything that takes away from the dignity of that integrated whole is seen as problematic if not outright dangerous. From this understanding flows our teachings on artificial birth control (which does not respect the integrity of the body, mind, or soul), pre-marital sexuality (which simulates an act for a reason for which it wasn’t given), pornography ( a complete breakdown of any respect for any part of the human person)and the other teachings about the correct use of human sexuality. These flow from high ideals to be sure, but does not all of our teachings? Self-giving love is the very foundation of all actions, words, motivations, teachings, and actions found in our Scriptural teachings and in the teachings that flow with and from them. The same foundation must be present for all. This is why the Church cannot back away from her teachings on birth control and other sexual teachings; to do so is to strike at the very foundation of that self-giving love of God from which our common lives flow! Self- giving love (aka agape) is the rock upon which our faith is built, it is the very nature of God, and hence to be the very foundation of our own human lives.
This stands in stark contrast to how the world views the human person. History over the millennia shows that humanity has viewed itself more as a herd animal (albeit a highly developed one) that operates on little more than instinct. Our culture, especially from the 1960’s and on, has seen sexual expression as a basic right to be followed without any real sense of respect for others and as a function of animal instinct. This was an over reaction to the equally wrong ‘shame and angst’ version of human sexuality. We went from ‘if it feels good it must be bad’ to ‘if it feels good, do it’ without stopping anywhere in the sane middle to ask what are the deeper issues. When the sexual revolution of the 1960’s broke wide open, it brought startling repercussions: an increase in unwed pregnancies (in some communities the norm), abortion, abortafacients (the pill, the morning after pill, RU-486, IUD), a myriad on new and fatal STD’s (HIV-AIDS being the scariest of these), and helped to contribute to the assault and destruction of the family unit in this country. This was as Pope Paul VI wrote in his letter on human sexuality, “Humanae Vitae” which was widely panned by secular leaders and even some religious leaders but was all too correct on what would happen if the contraceptive mentality were to take hold. Both Paul VI and Bl. John Paul II knew that God wanted so much more for His people. The Church, in her teachings, knows that God does want what is the absolute best for us because of His self-giving love for us! That does not mean it will be easy.
Catholic teaching always wants to flow from the self-giving love of God and challenge us to make that love our own way of doing things. This is why the Church will not back down from this fight with the administration even if 100% of Catholics disregard the teachings on contraception. We hold to those high ideals and challenge ourselves to reach them through God’s grace. I know not all that have used contraception did so with expressed evil in mind, but as a practical solution to a problem they have. Most people think the church teaches what she does about sexuality because it views sexuality as shameful. Quite the opposite is true. Because we view human sexuality as so precious and special, we want to protect its integrity as we would any other part of the human person. When we fail to treat that sexuality with respect, as happened in the clerical sexual scandals of the last 50 years or so, it brings confusion and pain. We are capable of better all around!
For this reason, we have been using the Theology of the Body series in our Middle School, Confirmation Class, and marriage preparation classes. Because this teaching wants to appeal to our higher, stronger, and better selves, we are using it extensively. Items on this are also available in our parish library. Remember, as Catholics we always strive through the grace of God to be the best version of ourselves. That includes the use of our sexuality as well.
Over the past year or so, I have studied more and more the teachings of Blessed John Paul II concerning love, marriage, and human sexuality. They flow from the book “Love and Responsibility’ he wrote long before becoming the pope. The teachings that flowed from this revolutionary book designed to explain Catholic moral teaching on human sexuality and marriage, was an answer to the common acceptance of most Catholics to artificial contraception, and the lesser acceptance of abortion, divorce, and such. These teachings are the basis of a program called Theology of the Body. Whereas most Catholics and non-Catholics would characterize incorrectly Catholic sexual moral teachings as a litany of ‘that shall nots’ and a belief that women should be baby factories, Blessed John Paul II comes from a different angle; an angle that wants to see the creative and inherent beauty of human sexuality as something to be treasured and respected as a part of the respect owed to the individual as whole. For Blessed John Paul II, the mystery of God is written into our very bodies and into the totality of our entire being. He points out how all Church teaching on sexuality flows from this positive vision of the inherent dignity and integrity of the human person. Hence, the Church’s teaching on sexuality, now under incredibly heavy fire, flow entirely from the complete respect for the integrity and dignity of each human person; a person to be respected on all levels of their beings, including their sexuality.
When God commands humanity upon its creation to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, it is a command flowing from the fact that God wants us to participate in His power to create new life born from love. The tools of that power are holy and special and to be treated as such. However, over time two camps developed that got this wrong. One was a type of puritanical misunderstanding which saw the human body and sexuality as evil, lesser, and ugly…something to be ashamed of and avoided. The other was one that saw human body and sexuality as a mere means to an end where the individual was served to self-seeking ends. Both reduced this great and wonderful gift of God to something tawdry and shameful, as if the divine gift to create new life born from mutual self-giving love was a divine mistake. It is about the nature of love, particularly marital love, that the Bl. John Paul II wanted to recapture. For him, the body was not an ugly and shameful thing, nor was human sexuality. Both are gifts from God to be respected and loved.
Catholic teachings on human sexuality flow from the use of that sexuality in the manner for which it was given; to be an act that is mutually self-giving (not self-taking) love and from which will naturally flow a stronger union and the possibility of new life. The Church does not believe that sex is solely for ‘baby-making’ but neither is it only for pleasure. The church sees the human person as an integrated whole: mind, soul, and body. Anything that takes away from the dignity of that integrated whole is seen as problematic if not outright dangerous. From this understanding flows our teachings on artificial birth control (which does not respect the integrity of the body, mind, or soul), pre-marital sexuality (which simulates an act for a reason for which it wasn’t given), pornography ( a complete breakdown of any respect for any part of the human person)and the other teachings about the correct use of human sexuality. These flow from high ideals to be sure, but does not all of our teachings? Self-giving love is the very foundation of all actions, words, motivations, teachings, and actions found in our Scriptural teachings and in the teachings that flow with and from them. The same foundation must be present for all. This is why the Church cannot back away from her teachings on birth control and other sexual teachings; to do so is to strike at the very foundation of that self-giving love of God from which our common lives flow! Self- giving love (aka agape) is the rock upon which our faith is built, it is the very nature of God, and hence to be the very foundation of our own human lives.
This stands in stark contrast to how the world views the human person. History over the millennia shows that humanity has viewed itself more as a herd animal (albeit a highly developed one) that operates on little more than instinct. Our culture, especially from the 1960’s and on, has seen sexual expression as a basic right to be followed without any real sense of respect for others and as a function of animal instinct. This was an over reaction to the equally wrong ‘shame and angst’ version of human sexuality. We went from ‘if it feels good it must be bad’ to ‘if it feels good, do it’ without stopping anywhere in the sane middle to ask what are the deeper issues. When the sexual revolution of the 1960’s broke wide open, it brought startling repercussions: an increase in unwed pregnancies (in some communities the norm), abortion, abortafacients (the pill, the morning after pill, RU-486, IUD), a myriad on new and fatal STD’s (HIV-AIDS being the scariest of these), and helped to contribute to the assault and destruction of the family unit in this country. This was as Pope Paul VI wrote in his letter on human sexuality, “Humanae Vitae” which was widely panned by secular leaders and even some religious leaders but was all too correct on what would happen if the contraceptive mentality were to take hold. Both Paul VI and Bl. John Paul II knew that God wanted so much more for His people. The Church, in her teachings, knows that God does want what is the absolute best for us because of His self-giving love for us! That does not mean it will be easy.
Catholic teaching always wants to flow from the self-giving love of God and challenge us to make that love our own way of doing things. This is why the Church will not back down from this fight with the administration even if 100% of Catholics disregard the teachings on contraception. We hold to those high ideals and challenge ourselves to reach them through God’s grace. I know not all that have used contraception did so with expressed evil in mind, but as a practical solution to a problem they have. Most people think the church teaches what she does about sexuality because it views sexuality as shameful. Quite the opposite is true. Because we view human sexuality as so precious and special, we want to protect its integrity as we would any other part of the human person. When we fail to treat that sexuality with respect, as happened in the clerical sexual scandals of the last 50 years or so, it brings confusion and pain. We are capable of better all around!
For this reason, we have been using the Theology of the Body series in our Middle School, Confirmation Class, and marriage preparation classes. Because this teaching wants to appeal to our higher, stronger, and better selves, we are using it extensively. Items on this are also available in our parish library. Remember, as Catholics we always strive through the grace of God to be the best version of ourselves. That includes the use of our sexuality as well.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Why have Catholic Schools? Thoughts on Catholic Schools Week
This week is Catholic Schools Week in this country, a time when we celebrate the Catholic parochial school system, interparochial schools and High Schools, and other Catholic Institutions of learning. The teaching of our youth in both the ways of the faith and in the other areas of education have long been an important part of our Mission as a church. Parochial schools in this country have been in the forefront in many ways. We established schools among the Native American peoples when most others were disinterested. We had the first desegregated schools system in this country when the St Louis Catholic School system ended segregation in its school system, almost decade before segregation was struck down by the US Supreme Court. We can look at great saints in this country such as St Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Nuemann who were champions of the early parochial schools in this country. These schools grew despite the bias and prejudice leveled against Catholics. These schools help to provide Catholic identity for generations of students through the American centuries. We have a great legacy in our possession.
There has been much criticism leveled at Catholic Schools. Some say they are a hiding place for the wealthy and elite who want their children away from the riff raff of public schools even though Catholic schools will bring in such students in an effort to help. The popular media likes to portray the nuns who staffed schools for many decades as humorless witches who took delight in tormenting children even though many nuns happily served for most of their life in the education of our youth and most were good people. Some say our schools have lost their Catholic identity and look and act no different than their public counterparts. In some respects this has happened, but it is my experience that this is easily remedied and I have found both my teachers and administrators in the 4 Catholic schools over which I have been pastor most amendable to suggestions I have mad to bolster Catholic identity and change over catachetical programs. In fact, I found our teachers and administrators to be overall good people, very active in other aspects of the parish other than the school, and dedicated to the Catholic mission even though teaching at a Catholic School means a substantial lessening of salary as compared to what they could get for the same position in a public school.
In my homily this evening, I reminded the congregants who were there for the Mass opening the Catholic School week, that we as a Church, are in, for lack of a better phrase, the business of the salvation of souls. Our Mission is the Mission of Jesus Christ, through and through. Any program or thing that is done in a parish is to be about the salvation of souls (as we see in this weekend's Gospel) and thus to share in prophetic role of Jesus Christ to announce and exemplify the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our schools must be connected entirely in the proclamation of the Gospel and model themselves exclusively after Christ.
I also remarked that the message we hear in our education (which had better be the Gospel...otherwise great harm is inflicted) and in our Church's teachings are not the only message vying for the ears of our children. Between basketball games this afternoon, I watched a selection of shows on channels who aim at our children. I was appalled at the messages and models regularly presented as normative behavior. Adult authority figures (parents & teachers) were portrayed as self-involved, distant, clueless, cruel, easily dismissible characters made to be circumvented or ignored. Kids were precocious know-it-alls. Teen boys were either betrayed as hopelessly insecure and nerdy or as suave users with the moral compass of a tapeworm. Teen girls were portrayed as hopelessly insecure or so absolutely mean and manipulative as to be outright demonic. I will not even get into the hedonistic lyrics set to awful tunes that most music is. The point is that parents need to be vigilant that the message consumed by their children at home and in how they entertain themselves does not undo what we teach them as matters of faith and morals. There must be a consistent message or the purpose for having Catholic schools becomes undone. Now, undoubtedly, some will read this and remark that we can't hide this stuff from children. My answer is to ask whether you allow your children to eat from a garbage can or swim in a sewer lagoon? Of course not, you protect your children from such things because of the adverse effect it has and explain how these things are dangerous and harmful. That would be part of the parents' duty of being the primary teacher of their children. If we wouldn't allow them to partake in things that would actively destroy their bodies which will eventually die many decades form now, why on earth would we allow them to engage in activities that will destroy their souls that are eternal? The Catholic education given in our schools cannot end once the student leaves the school building...it must continue throughout the rest of the day! This is why I politely remind our parents (okay..not always so politely) that when the absent themselves from Mass on the weekends, they are undoing one of the core reasons we have Catholic Schools. There can be no mixed message.
I, as a pastor, have absolutely no interest in running a private school. None. I am very interested in running a Catholic School. Catholicism as we rightly teach it is not a light switch we turn on and off as a matter of convenience. It is meant to inform and effect everything about us. This is the foremost mission of the Church and any institution that calls itself Catholic. As Catholics, we must remember, it is not our job to make the the faith more like the world, but to make the world more like our faith. To do that, we must be armed with truth and not allow ourselves or our children to be influenced by worldly wisdom with its tales of violence, hedonism, materialistic attitudes driven by greed and envy, selfishness, revenge, and its cheap and disposable attitude about the value of life. We, as adults in the Church, both parents, educators, and clergy are to be the watchmen at the gates and those who train our children when it becomes their turns to be those sentinels. We have seen what happens when the aforementioned groups fail in these responsibilities, or worse yet, act in union with the enemy and prey upon our youth...we must want what is good and that which faithfully passes on our Catholic faith to the next generation. That is why we have Catholic schools.
There has been much criticism leveled at Catholic Schools. Some say they are a hiding place for the wealthy and elite who want their children away from the riff raff of public schools even though Catholic schools will bring in such students in an effort to help. The popular media likes to portray the nuns who staffed schools for many decades as humorless witches who took delight in tormenting children even though many nuns happily served for most of their life in the education of our youth and most were good people. Some say our schools have lost their Catholic identity and look and act no different than their public counterparts. In some respects this has happened, but it is my experience that this is easily remedied and I have found both my teachers and administrators in the 4 Catholic schools over which I have been pastor most amendable to suggestions I have mad to bolster Catholic identity and change over catachetical programs. In fact, I found our teachers and administrators to be overall good people, very active in other aspects of the parish other than the school, and dedicated to the Catholic mission even though teaching at a Catholic School means a substantial lessening of salary as compared to what they could get for the same position in a public school.
In my homily this evening, I reminded the congregants who were there for the Mass opening the Catholic School week, that we as a Church, are in, for lack of a better phrase, the business of the salvation of souls. Our Mission is the Mission of Jesus Christ, through and through. Any program or thing that is done in a parish is to be about the salvation of souls (as we see in this weekend's Gospel) and thus to share in prophetic role of Jesus Christ to announce and exemplify the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our schools must be connected entirely in the proclamation of the Gospel and model themselves exclusively after Christ.
I also remarked that the message we hear in our education (which had better be the Gospel...otherwise great harm is inflicted) and in our Church's teachings are not the only message vying for the ears of our children. Between basketball games this afternoon, I watched a selection of shows on channels who aim at our children. I was appalled at the messages and models regularly presented as normative behavior. Adult authority figures (parents & teachers) were portrayed as self-involved, distant, clueless, cruel, easily dismissible characters made to be circumvented or ignored. Kids were precocious know-it-alls. Teen boys were either betrayed as hopelessly insecure and nerdy or as suave users with the moral compass of a tapeworm. Teen girls were portrayed as hopelessly insecure or so absolutely mean and manipulative as to be outright demonic. I will not even get into the hedonistic lyrics set to awful tunes that most music is. The point is that parents need to be vigilant that the message consumed by their children at home and in how they entertain themselves does not undo what we teach them as matters of faith and morals. There must be a consistent message or the purpose for having Catholic schools becomes undone. Now, undoubtedly, some will read this and remark that we can't hide this stuff from children. My answer is to ask whether you allow your children to eat from a garbage can or swim in a sewer lagoon? Of course not, you protect your children from such things because of the adverse effect it has and explain how these things are dangerous and harmful. That would be part of the parents' duty of being the primary teacher of their children. If we wouldn't allow them to partake in things that would actively destroy their bodies which will eventually die many decades form now, why on earth would we allow them to engage in activities that will destroy their souls that are eternal? The Catholic education given in our schools cannot end once the student leaves the school building...it must continue throughout the rest of the day! This is why I politely remind our parents (okay..not always so politely) that when the absent themselves from Mass on the weekends, they are undoing one of the core reasons we have Catholic Schools. There can be no mixed message.
I, as a pastor, have absolutely no interest in running a private school. None. I am very interested in running a Catholic School. Catholicism as we rightly teach it is not a light switch we turn on and off as a matter of convenience. It is meant to inform and effect everything about us. This is the foremost mission of the Church and any institution that calls itself Catholic. As Catholics, we must remember, it is not our job to make the the faith more like the world, but to make the world more like our faith. To do that, we must be armed with truth and not allow ourselves or our children to be influenced by worldly wisdom with its tales of violence, hedonism, materialistic attitudes driven by greed and envy, selfishness, revenge, and its cheap and disposable attitude about the value of life. We, as adults in the Church, both parents, educators, and clergy are to be the watchmen at the gates and those who train our children when it becomes their turns to be those sentinels. We have seen what happens when the aforementioned groups fail in these responsibilities, or worse yet, act in union with the enemy and prey upon our youth...we must want what is good and that which faithfully passes on our Catholic faith to the next generation. That is why we have Catholic schools.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Transference, Barney, and Rebellion: Things to avoid in following God's will
The readings for this week have been so wonderfully apropos for this week where we as a Church remember vocations and pray for them during Vocations Awareness Week. Hopefully this isn't news to you. The first reading are from I Samuel, with yesterday's being the call of Samuel. This reading happens to be the 1st reading for this weekend. While the young Samuel is mistaking the call of God for the voice of the priest, Eli, finally Eli understands that God is calling the boy and tells Samuel to respond with "speak, Lord, you servant is listening." What a bold statement! This statement is supposed to be at the heart of every Christian every day. The responsorial psalm for that day (and coincidentally this weekend as well) has the response of "Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will." Again, another simple statement that should be at the center of how we live. Were every Catholic to really capture this, all of the problems we experience within the Church would simply dry up. Vocation crisis? Gone! Scandals within the Church? Never would have happened? Numbers of practicing Catholics dwindling? Not any more? I could go on and on with this list, the upshot is that if we were to live out these two simple sentences, there would profound change and great good. So why isn't it happening?
My first guess is a what I would call a simple case of transference. We become suspect when we hear that we are called to do God's will. We transfer onto God what He means by that with what we mean by that. We know that our wills can be awful self-centered. We know that we can want other people to do our will because it suits us to have them to do so. In this light, God comes across as a eternal me-monkey with a colossal ego that needs to be stroked lest He go all Rambo on you. We assume that God is every bit as self-centered as humanity and bristle at the idea of having to serve such a megalomaniac! However, God is not such. Instead of being self-centered, He is other centered, that is, he loves us and wants what is best for us now and for all eternity. He watches out for us and want to protect us. When He asks us to do His will, He asks us to be other-centered (that is to be truly loving) as He is and thus to watch out for the true good around us.
My second guess would be what I call the "Barney Syndrome". In this scenario we accept that God loves us. We even believe that God unconditionally loves us and wants what is best. Where the breakdown starts is that in believing these things we fail to make the jump that we are called to model out behavior on His. God becomes the Great Enabler. Instead of "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will", the response becomes "Turn the other way God, I want to do my will!" God's job is to rubber stamp whatever I want to do. Furthermore He is suppose to bless it as if I were doing His will! This God doesn't have a hell because everybody gets into heaven, unless, like, you know, you're like Adolf Hitler and stuff. The morality bar is set as low as needed to accommodate whatever it is I want to do. The problem here is that if we enter into a relationship with God, a relationship necessary for heaven, then the love goes both ways. As with a good marriage where the two spouses are actively concerned with the other person's needs , our relationship with God is bound on our looking out for God's will (which as above said, looks out for our good) as He looks out for what we need. God blesses this. God, however, is not one to taunted, ignored, or dismissed. He is not the great enabler. He allows us to make our choice about whose will we follow and then bear out the consequences of those choices.
My third guess is outright rebellion. In the story of Samuel, Samuel is given to the High Priest, Eli, because Samuel is called to serve the Lord. Eli has to sons who are priests as well: Phineas and Hophni. They were self-centered men who has the audacity to steal from God what was His during the sacrifices. Not only were they indifferent to God, they were outright hostile. Their response to God wasn't "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" it was "Go away God, I am going to do my will." Phineas and Hophni push away the hand of God because they have no desire for a relationship with God, especially a relationship that will require them to change. Without God's hand, they are destroyed. This story is repeated over and over again. God does not want such things to happen, but He allows the consequences of our choices to happen if we are insistent upon it. On a slightly separate note: why we think as Americans, that we can push God out of the public sphere, routinely mock Him and those in relationship with Him, replace Him with materialism, lust for power, hedonism, and materialism, how we can surgically excise from any avenue of our school children's life, mock His existence, pile corpse upon corpse with our violence, abortion, and disregard for the basic needs of other and then have the audacity to demand that His only job, if He exists at all, is to make happy and bless whatever it is I want...just baffles me!
The point is that we are called to rise above transference, Barney, and rebellion and follow God in our lives knowing that His will is always oriented towards our collective best interest. There is no reason to be afraid. If we want the vocations we collectively need, it will be in having the faith to say "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will." If we want true peace in our parishes and to be free from scandals of all sort, then again, we will have to conform our will to God's. If we want true unity and peace in our country, it will come from living, actually living, the Gospel which calls us for defer to each other in imitation of Christ. If we want strong marriages and family life, then it will only be through this mutual submission of will for the good of others. God is not a rubber stamp to approve of a life divorced from His will, nor is he a giant purple doofus who enables reckless and selfish behavior, nor is He one who is to mocked. He wants what is truly good for us and leads us to peace. We have to want that to! How will you, the reader, live up to "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" today? How will your life reflect that?
My first guess is a what I would call a simple case of transference. We become suspect when we hear that we are called to do God's will. We transfer onto God what He means by that with what we mean by that. We know that our wills can be awful self-centered. We know that we can want other people to do our will because it suits us to have them to do so. In this light, God comes across as a eternal me-monkey with a colossal ego that needs to be stroked lest He go all Rambo on you. We assume that God is every bit as self-centered as humanity and bristle at the idea of having to serve such a megalomaniac! However, God is not such. Instead of being self-centered, He is other centered, that is, he loves us and wants what is best for us now and for all eternity. He watches out for us and want to protect us. When He asks us to do His will, He asks us to be other-centered (that is to be truly loving) as He is and thus to watch out for the true good around us.
My second guess would be what I call the "Barney Syndrome". In this scenario we accept that God loves us. We even believe that God unconditionally loves us and wants what is best. Where the breakdown starts is that in believing these things we fail to make the jump that we are called to model out behavior on His. God becomes the Great Enabler. Instead of "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will", the response becomes "Turn the other way God, I want to do my will!" God's job is to rubber stamp whatever I want to do. Furthermore He is suppose to bless it as if I were doing His will! This God doesn't have a hell because everybody gets into heaven, unless, like, you know, you're like Adolf Hitler and stuff. The morality bar is set as low as needed to accommodate whatever it is I want to do. The problem here is that if we enter into a relationship with God, a relationship necessary for heaven, then the love goes both ways. As with a good marriage where the two spouses are actively concerned with the other person's needs , our relationship with God is bound on our looking out for God's will (which as above said, looks out for our good) as He looks out for what we need. God blesses this. God, however, is not one to taunted, ignored, or dismissed. He is not the great enabler. He allows us to make our choice about whose will we follow and then bear out the consequences of those choices.
My third guess is outright rebellion. In the story of Samuel, Samuel is given to the High Priest, Eli, because Samuel is called to serve the Lord. Eli has to sons who are priests as well: Phineas and Hophni. They were self-centered men who has the audacity to steal from God what was His during the sacrifices. Not only were they indifferent to God, they were outright hostile. Their response to God wasn't "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" it was "Go away God, I am going to do my will." Phineas and Hophni push away the hand of God because they have no desire for a relationship with God, especially a relationship that will require them to change. Without God's hand, they are destroyed. This story is repeated over and over again. God does not want such things to happen, but He allows the consequences of our choices to happen if we are insistent upon it. On a slightly separate note: why we think as Americans, that we can push God out of the public sphere, routinely mock Him and those in relationship with Him, replace Him with materialism, lust for power, hedonism, and materialism, how we can surgically excise from any avenue of our school children's life, mock His existence, pile corpse upon corpse with our violence, abortion, and disregard for the basic needs of other and then have the audacity to demand that His only job, if He exists at all, is to make happy and bless whatever it is I want...just baffles me!
The point is that we are called to rise above transference, Barney, and rebellion and follow God in our lives knowing that His will is always oriented towards our collective best interest. There is no reason to be afraid. If we want the vocations we collectively need, it will be in having the faith to say "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will." If we want true peace in our parishes and to be free from scandals of all sort, then again, we will have to conform our will to God's. If we want true unity and peace in our country, it will come from living, actually living, the Gospel which calls us for defer to each other in imitation of Christ. If we want strong marriages and family life, then it will only be through this mutual submission of will for the good of others. God is not a rubber stamp to approve of a life divorced from His will, nor is he a giant purple doofus who enables reckless and selfish behavior, nor is He one who is to mocked. He wants what is truly good for us and leads us to peace. We have to want that to! How will you, the reader, live up to "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" today? How will your life reflect that?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
A Vision to the future
The following is my pastor's pen for this upcoming weekend:
The direction of a successful person’s life is determined by the vision they have or the goals they set for themselves. Having set goals, the person will have to adjust their actions, redetermine their priorities, figure out how these goals can be paid for or achieved, and make the sacrifices necessary to make these goals a reality. The successful person also knows that these goals cannot be reached without the help of others.
Keep this all in mind when we speak of the Church at large and the parish more locally. What is a parish to be? What is its reason for existence? Jesus, Himself, set THE goal for the Church. From the Pope to the local parishioner, the goal is exactly the same: “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit., teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)That is THE goal of every person who has ever passed through the waters of baptism. Our participation in this mission is the standard by which we will be judged. The Church is the ground upon which and from which this mission springs; this is true for the universal, the diocesan, the parochial, and the domestic Church.
The point of setting goals or having a vision is that we want something that can be measured in concrete terms of results, actions, and , ultimately, success. Christ set the goal, He gives us the grace and the tools to make that goal come to fruition. He instructs each of us, regardless of whether we happen to be lay or clergy, to the same end. How do we engage ourselves in this and encourage others to do so as well?
This is what 2020 is about. It is an internally created and driven set of concrete goals by which we live out the command of Christ. It is driven by 4 question: in the year 2020 1) what do we wish to see when we evaluate our parish of St. Clement?, 2) How do we get there?, 3) How do we pay for it? and, 4) Who does it? There are elements of our call that we need to cooperate with God’s grace so as to advance. For example: Only about 45-50% of our registered parishioners come to Mass at all. How do we get that percentage up? We continuously either squeak by or fall short financially, something that makes some goals we might set as undoable. How do we rectify this situation so that money does not become an excuse why we do not forge in a particular area that we need to engage? Can we make fledgling programs like our new youth ministry and Friends of St. Martha not merely survive, but thrive? How do we recruit and support the next priest and religious from among our own? Between our school and PSR program, we have only a percentage of our children in any form of faith formation. How do we up those percentages as well? This is, by no means, a exhaustive list of questions or potential goals. This is why more than merely pastor has to set a vision for how we carry out our call.
The vision we set must be in union with Christ. Any other vision is doomed to failure. Too many times we approach ‘setting a vision’ in the parish or diocese as an exercise of fantasizing about reshaping the Church into what I personally feel it should be or come up with a crop of excuses as to why nothing can be done or at least why I should not have to be a part of it. 2020 is not about rescinding Vatican II, nor is it about holding our breath till Vatican III or until the church ‘wises up’ and sees some it teaches are inconvenient. 2020 is about seeing how we as fellow members of St Clement parish can cooperate with God’s grace and do our best to wildly thrive at doing that for which we receive any of the Sacraments at all.
Some , no doubt, will wonder why we have to do this all. We didn’t do it in the past. Why is it so urgent that we do it now? I would wager that because we didn’t do this in the past, it has led to most of the problems we have in the present. There was time when 90-95% of our parishioners went to Mass, Sure, it was decades ago, but it still happened. Our school had a much bigger student body. We used to have more registered families. We used to have active youth programs. I am sure if we looked at the parish in former days, we will find that we used to do and be more. No doubt a litany of excuses that prove ourselves helpless to stem the tide will gush forth. How bad do things need to get, though, before we are finally provoked into engaging ourselves in the mission of Jesus Christ? Holding our breath and waiting for what I feel are the ideal conditions (example: all the Masses go back to Latin, we ordain married men and women, the church changes its teachings on_______) only ensures our continued downslide. No excuses! No complaining and whining from the sidelines! It is time to engage!
On Thursday, November 3rd, those who volunteered for the steering committee will meet. What we are wanting to do is neither simple or easy. This steering committee is always open to new members. We will eventually move to town halls to further set concrete goals and a path to get to these goals. The more involved, the better.
We will meet in the parish youth room.
Let me be blunt: Indifference and apathy do not help, in fact, they are our major foes. The idea of ‘let someone else do it’ has been the major reason we are experiencing our problems. Each of us has a simple choice: We can be part of the problem or part of the solution: Which of the two do you want to be able tell Jesus you were on the day of judgment…He’ll be asking. This has to be embraced by the parishioners and lived there first and foremost; pastors come and pastors go, we can not tie a vision to any pastor; vision cannot be a result of a cult of personality. Parishes cannot simply rise and fall by whoever happens to be living (or if we do nothing) or not living in the rectory. If we pull this off ( and I believe if we are in union with Christ, we will), St. Clement can become a prototype for other parishes and a sign of hope that cooperating with Christ bears concrete rewards. It is our decision, though, to engage or go on with business as usual. All things must start with prayer if we are authentic to our call as Christians. I ask you to pray not only for the wisdom and guidance we will need to do this correctly, but to pray earnestly in how you and you family should be involved.
The direction of a successful person’s life is determined by the vision they have or the goals they set for themselves. Having set goals, the person will have to adjust their actions, redetermine their priorities, figure out how these goals can be paid for or achieved, and make the sacrifices necessary to make these goals a reality. The successful person also knows that these goals cannot be reached without the help of others.
Keep this all in mind when we speak of the Church at large and the parish more locally. What is a parish to be? What is its reason for existence? Jesus, Himself, set THE goal for the Church. From the Pope to the local parishioner, the goal is exactly the same: “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit., teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)That is THE goal of every person who has ever passed through the waters of baptism. Our participation in this mission is the standard by which we will be judged. The Church is the ground upon which and from which this mission springs; this is true for the universal, the diocesan, the parochial, and the domestic Church.
The point of setting goals or having a vision is that we want something that can be measured in concrete terms of results, actions, and , ultimately, success. Christ set the goal, He gives us the grace and the tools to make that goal come to fruition. He instructs each of us, regardless of whether we happen to be lay or clergy, to the same end. How do we engage ourselves in this and encourage others to do so as well?
This is what 2020 is about. It is an internally created and driven set of concrete goals by which we live out the command of Christ. It is driven by 4 question: in the year 2020 1) what do we wish to see when we evaluate our parish of St. Clement?, 2) How do we get there?, 3) How do we pay for it? and, 4) Who does it? There are elements of our call that we need to cooperate with God’s grace so as to advance. For example: Only about 45-50% of our registered parishioners come to Mass at all. How do we get that percentage up? We continuously either squeak by or fall short financially, something that makes some goals we might set as undoable. How do we rectify this situation so that money does not become an excuse why we do not forge in a particular area that we need to engage? Can we make fledgling programs like our new youth ministry and Friends of St. Martha not merely survive, but thrive? How do we recruit and support the next priest and religious from among our own? Between our school and PSR program, we have only a percentage of our children in any form of faith formation. How do we up those percentages as well? This is, by no means, a exhaustive list of questions or potential goals. This is why more than merely pastor has to set a vision for how we carry out our call.
The vision we set must be in union with Christ. Any other vision is doomed to failure. Too many times we approach ‘setting a vision’ in the parish or diocese as an exercise of fantasizing about reshaping the Church into what I personally feel it should be or come up with a crop of excuses as to why nothing can be done or at least why I should not have to be a part of it. 2020 is not about rescinding Vatican II, nor is it about holding our breath till Vatican III or until the church ‘wises up’ and sees some it teaches are inconvenient. 2020 is about seeing how we as fellow members of St Clement parish can cooperate with God’s grace and do our best to wildly thrive at doing that for which we receive any of the Sacraments at all.
Some , no doubt, will wonder why we have to do this all. We didn’t do it in the past. Why is it so urgent that we do it now? I would wager that because we didn’t do this in the past, it has led to most of the problems we have in the present. There was time when 90-95% of our parishioners went to Mass, Sure, it was decades ago, but it still happened. Our school had a much bigger student body. We used to have more registered families. We used to have active youth programs. I am sure if we looked at the parish in former days, we will find that we used to do and be more. No doubt a litany of excuses that prove ourselves helpless to stem the tide will gush forth. How bad do things need to get, though, before we are finally provoked into engaging ourselves in the mission of Jesus Christ? Holding our breath and waiting for what I feel are the ideal conditions (example: all the Masses go back to Latin, we ordain married men and women, the church changes its teachings on_______) only ensures our continued downslide. No excuses! No complaining and whining from the sidelines! It is time to engage!
On Thursday, November 3rd, those who volunteered for the steering committee will meet. What we are wanting to do is neither simple or easy. This steering committee is always open to new members. We will eventually move to town halls to further set concrete goals and a path to get to these goals. The more involved, the better.
We will meet in the parish youth room.
Let me be blunt: Indifference and apathy do not help, in fact, they are our major foes. The idea of ‘let someone else do it’ has been the major reason we are experiencing our problems. Each of us has a simple choice: We can be part of the problem or part of the solution: Which of the two do you want to be able tell Jesus you were on the day of judgment…He’ll be asking. This has to be embraced by the parishioners and lived there first and foremost; pastors come and pastors go, we can not tie a vision to any pastor; vision cannot be a result of a cult of personality. Parishes cannot simply rise and fall by whoever happens to be living (or if we do nothing) or not living in the rectory. If we pull this off ( and I believe if we are in union with Christ, we will), St. Clement can become a prototype for other parishes and a sign of hope that cooperating with Christ bears concrete rewards. It is our decision, though, to engage or go on with business as usual. All things must start with prayer if we are authentic to our call as Christians. I ask you to pray not only for the wisdom and guidance we will need to do this correctly, but to pray earnestly in how you and you family should be involved.
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