For about a week now I have been humming, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” – the traditional hymn associated with Palm Sunday.  The hymn is usually sung after the distribution of palms and as the congregation enters into the church calling to mind our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. 

Since Ash Wednesday we as the Church have been preparing for the celebrations of the upcoming week. 

At the end of the Mass though I do share some words regarding what we as Church will be about this next week.

In our diocese, the Tuesday of Holy Week is when we celebrate the Chrism Mass at the cathedral in Knoxville.  At the Mass the whole diocese comes together under the unity of our bishop and the oils to be used in sacramental celebrations throughout the next year are blessed and distributed – the oil of the sick, the oil of the catechumens and the sacred chrism.  Also, at this Mass, both the priests of the diocese and the bishop recommit ourselves to service within the Church.

I also note that the season of Lent ends with the beginning of the celebration of the Lord’s supper on Holy Thursday.  (We fast and abstain on Good Friday because it is “Good Friday” not be because it is another Friday in Lent.)  Actually, with the beginning of the Holy Thursday Mass we enter not only into the shortest season of the year – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil – but also one celebration.  This is testified to by the fact that we as a community make the sign of the cross at the beginning of the Holy Thursday celebration and do not make it again until the conclusion of the Easter Vigil Mass.  As Catholics, we begin and end prayer with the sign of the cross.  The fact that we do not make the sign of the cross as church again until the end of the vigil demonstrates that these three days are to be seen as one celebration marking the life, suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord.

At the conclusion of the Holy Thurday celebration the sanctuary of the church is made bare and the Blessed Sacrament is removed in preparation for Good Friday when all creation is in hushed silence in remembrance of our Lord’s suffering, death and three days in the tomb. 

At sundown on Holy Saturday, the Easter fire is lit and the Easter Vigil begins.  The Church throughout the world gathers to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection!  The paschal candle (representing the light of Christ) is blessed and processed into a darkened church and as the procession makes it way along; all those who are present light their own candles from that of the paschal candle (the light of the resurrection grows).  Once gathered in the church the community of the faithful hear readings from all of Sacred Scripture, reflecting the whole scope of salvation history which proclaims God’s goodness and works; culminating in the resurrection of Christ by which death itself is vanquished!  Men and women who have been preparing for months to receive the sacraments and enter into the Catholic Church are welcomed into the fullness of the Body of Christ through sacramental ritual following the homily.  Communion is shared and the church once darkened is now fully lit, reflecting the splendor of the risen Christ in the lives of his people – the church gathered in worship!

At the conclusion of the Easter Vigil the community once again marks itself with the sign of the cross bringing an end to the celebration of the Triduum and a beginning to the celebration of the Easter season! 

The readings for this past Wednesday’s Mass have much to say about true freedom. 

The first reading (Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95) recounted the story of the three young men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) thrown into the furnace for refusing to bend their knees in homage to the false idol of the king.  “Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I have made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments…”  Yet, even though thrown into the furnace, the three youths were preserved by the grace of God and became a witness even unto the king.

The Gospel reading (John 8:31-42) also invites us into a reflection on true freedom.  It is important to note that our Lord does not locate freedom within our own narrow wills (doing whatever we want) but rather in a lived relationship to truth and obedience to God.  “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free … Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.  A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains.  So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.”

We might tend to think of the story of the three youths as a quaint story of the past, vivid in detail for children’s Bible study, but my experience has demonstrated that there are many “musical instruments” calling us in our day and age to bend the knee in homage to a whole host of false idols … and there are many people more than willing, it seems, to bend the knee.  My experience also has shown me that these people who so easily bend the knee tend to also be the ones who so vocally both proclaim and demand their freedom to do whatsoever they please.  Yet our Lord points out, “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin”.  Freedom is not gained when truth and God are abandoned, what is really attained is a mass conformity that lies under an illusion of freedom – it is, in fact, a form of slavery. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand out because they would not bend their knees.  They would not fall down in an automatic conditioned response to the powers of their time.  The truth had set them free and they were the only ones truly free enough to make a free choice.  We do not remember those who bend their knees to the powers of their time.  We remember those (free in relation to truth and obedience to God) who choose to not bend the knee and remain standing.  These are the ones who have fought the hard fought fight.  They cannot bend their knee because they have come to know their own and everyone else’s true worth.  They will not deny the truth and because of this they are truly free. 

“If you remain in my word … you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.
It was not I that found, O Savior true;
No, I was found of thee.

Thou didst reach forth thy hand and mine enfold;
I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea.
‘Twas not so much that I on thee took hold,
As thou, dear Lord, on me.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee!
For thou wert long beforehand with my soul;
Always thou lovedst me.

It is interesting to note how in this gospel passage of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45) Jesus is met with confusion, contradiction, shock, grief, regret and fear (a whole gamut of reactions) as he journeys toward the tomb of his friend.  The disciples do not understand – thinking Lazarus was only asleep.  Both Martha and Mary at separate instances remark, “Lord, if you had been here…” voicing the regret so common at the death of a loved one.  The weeping of the crowd and the tears of the family giving expression to the death of hope when faced with the starkness of the tomb.  “Why roll back the stone?  It will be awful and certainly useless.”  Is all of this not the human condition as we stand before the tombs of our lives and all the tombs of our world?

But the gospel message is this: Christ enters into all of this.  Our Lord does not deny any of these reactions to death and to the tomb.  Neither does he ask us to pretend that these reactions on our part do not exist.  We are fearful before the tombs of our world!  We are lost and confused!  Death does not make sense!  We do know grief and regret!  Our Lord does not deny any of this but what he does do is that he comes to us in the very face of the tomb and all that it stirs up within us and asks, “Do you believe?”  Not, “Believe and you will never know hurt nor loss nor pain.” but “Even now when faced with the tomb, do you believe?”


Sr. Helen Prejean and members of the Catholic Center community


This last week Sr. Helen Prejean gave a lecture on the death penalty at ETSU.  Sr. Helen has devoted her life and energy to ministering to people on death row as well as the families of victims of unimaginably horrific crimes.  This little Cajun nun with a broad smile and an easy-going nature stands before the tombs of our world.  How does she do that?  Where does she find the strength?  As I listened to her talk I heard her say in her own way that she has met Christ on death row and that she as a disciple has given her own answer to his question, “Do you believe?”

Some have referred to religion as an “opiate for the masses” – a way to avoid the stark realities of existence.  True Christianity is not an opiate.  Are there false versions of Christianity?  Yes, it is easy to see them at work in our time.  In these false versions of Christianity true faith means worldly success, wealth, getting what you want and never knowing true suffering.  It promotes a praise/paid mentality – the more you praise, the more you get paid.  This false reading of the Scriptures does seek to reduce the Christian message to an opiate for the masses but it is not the true gospel.  (Also, in fairness, I would contend that there are also a plethora of secular “opiates for the masses” that are at work in our world.  Lets not fool ourselves – these secular opiates also, through their own mechanisms, seek to numb people to the stark realities of existence.)

True Christianity acknowledges the tombs of our lives and our world.  The disciple is able to go to the tomb and even there (in the very midst of all that the tomb stirs up within us) is able to live an answer to that fundamental question of our Lord, “Do you believe?”  And it is in the living of the mystery that the disciple is brought to an awareness that in our belief we will indeed see and know the glory of God. 

In our age of hyper-sexuality I would like to offer a few thoughts on celibacy and chastity.  I offer these thoughts as a publicly professed celibate of fifteen years and someone who has remained chaste throughout my life. 

We know the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church as of late and we hear from some corners the (seemingly) automatic and almost knee-jerk equating of celibacy with sex abuse. 

Also, there are many voices in our culture that promote sexual acting out before marriage as the healthy norm and any attempt to curtail, moderate or even abstain from this acting out as unhealthy, repressive and deviant. 

To the first concern (and as a way of entering into this discussion) I would like to share some thoughts taken from a recent article by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York City in which he shares an encounter in an airport.  (A link to the full article is found after the quote.)

As I (Archbiship Dolan) was waiting with the others for the electronic train to take me to the terminal, a man, maybe in his mid-forties, waiting as well, came closer to me.

“Are you a Catholic priest?” he kindly asked.

“Sure am. Nice to meet you,” says I, as I offered my hand.

He ignored it. “I was raised a Catholic,” he replied, almost always a hint of a cut to come, but I was not prepared for the razor sharpness of the stiletto, as he went on, “and now, as a father of two boys, I can’t look at you or any other priest without thinking of a sexual abuser.”

What to respond? Yell at him? Cuss him out? Apologize? Deck him? Express understanding? I must admit all such reactions came to mind as I staggered with shame and anger from the damage of the wound he had inflicted with those stinging words.

“Well,” I recovered enough to remark, “I’m sure sorry you feel that way. But, let me ask you, do you automatically presume a sexual abuser when you see a Rabbi or Protestant minister?”

“Not at all,” he came back through gritted teeth as we both boarded the train.

“How about when you see a coach, or a boy scout leader, or a foster parent, or a counsellor, or physician?” I continued.

“Of course not!” he came back. “What’s all that got to do with it?”

“A lot,” I stayed with him, “because each of those professions have as high a percentage of sexual abuse, if not even higher, than that of priests.”

“Well, that may be,” he retorted. “But the Church is the only group that knew it was going on, did nothing about it, and kept transferring the perverts around.”

“You obviously never heard the stats on public school teachers,” I observed. “In my home town of New York City alone, experts say the rate of sexual abuse among public school teachers is ten times higher than that of priests, and these abusers just get transferred around.” (Had I known at that time the news in in last Sunday’s New York Times about the high rate of abuse of the most helpless in state supervised homes, with reported abusers simply transferred to another home, I would have mentioned that, too.)

To that he said nothing, so I went in for a further charge.

“Pardon me for being so blunt, but you sure were with me, so, let me ask: when you look at yourself in a mirror, do you see a sex abuser?”

Now he was as taken aback as I had been two-minutes before. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Sadly,” I answered, “studies tell us that most children sexually abused are victims of their own fathers or other family members.”

Enough of the debate, I concluded, as I saw him dazed. So I tried to calm it down.

“So, I tell you what: when I look at you, I won’t see a sex abuser, and I would appreciate the same consideration from you.”  (http://blog.archny.org/?p=1127)

The statistics are there for all to see, the percentage of sex abusers among celibate clergy is not any higher and in most cases is lower than other professions and lifestyles.  To automatically determine celibacy as the determining factor in a priest who is a sexual abuser is similar to automatically assuming marriage as the determining factor for a married man or woman who sexually abuses another.  If we cannot say that the whole institution of marriage is corrupt because of the sins of some married persons then we cannot say that celibacy is inherently corrupt or deviant either.  It is not the state of life that is at fault in these cases; it is the failure to live them out authentically and truthfully.  This is important precisely because this is an extremely sensitive issue that cuts across all gamuts of society and is causing great pain and suffering, so we must be precise in our determinations.  Generalizations do no good in this regard; they muddy the waters and in fact cause more harm than healing in this wound affecting all of society.

Many voices in our society claim that sexual activity before marriage is to be encouraged and seen as healthy (therefore promoted) where any attempt whatsoever to curtail or abstain from sexual activity is repressive, unhealthy and should be viewed with suspicion.  Often, proponents of this view will point to religion (specifically Christianity) and its guilt mechanism as the main culprit in an unhealthy and deviant denial of sexuality.

I agree that religion (here I will speak to Christianity, being that this is my own faith) has been used and continues to be used by some in an unhealthy repressive way in terms of sexuality.  But as a chaste and celibate person I believe this repressive use of Christianity vis-a-vis sexuality is in fact a misuse of the faith and demonstrates a profound misunderstanding in regards to what the Christian faith actually says regarding what sexuality is and also the truth of the human person. 

Christianity teaches abstinence before marriage for all persons precisely because it holds sexual intimacy as something profound and beautiful (not negative) – an utterly unique and intimate sharing of a man and woman that needs to be safeguarded, honored and protected.  Christianity also teaches abstinence before marriage because we deeply hold to the dignity of the human person.  To be very blunt in order to make an important contrast – we are not dogs in heat; we are human persons.  We are more than just pure instinctual and physical desire.  To recognize this does not deny the power or validity of these movements within our persons but locates them within a larger and needed context.  Further, because of the awareness of this larger context people are never to be used as mere objects for ones own pleasure.  Lets explore a recent occurance that I think demonstrates a breakdown of this larger context. 

Recently there has been a story (and video thanks to our digitalized age) of two college students having sex in public.  Now, are we made better by this or are we lessened?  Lets approach it this way and lets be honest, would we want our five year old niece or nephew watching this video or playing outside one day and seeing this?  If uninhibited sexual activity is the healthy norm then we should have no problem with a child seeing this type of activity.  But we do – our conscience reacts – now is that reaction repressive or is it an honest recognition that we human beings are made and meant for something more and better and that the context (or really lack of context) in which this activity occurred offends precisely because in fact it cheapens and makes squalid something meant to be beautiful?

The truth that I have come to realize is that celibacy and chastity, when authentically and truthfully lived, are not denials of living but are in fact expressions of passionate and authentic living.  Celibacy and chastity do this by witnessing to a great truth regarding sexuality and the human person that a casual approach to sexual activity can never attain to.  The truth being this: we are body and spirit.  Why would we do with our body what we are not ready to do with our spirit?  It is a question of authenticity.  Further, if body and spirit are ready to unite with another person shouldn’t it be held within a context that honors and nourishes that union?  Don’t we protect our most valued possessions?  Chastity does not negate sexuality, the opposite is in fact the case – it upholds the dignity of sexuality by upholding the dignity of the human person. 

But sometimes we stumble.  The physical passions can be very strong and sometimes we can sin against chastity.  As a confessor I recognize this and also as a human man who also knows temptation.  Here, our honest guilt must come into an honest encounter with God’s grace and mercy.  Forgiveness and healing is possible.  But it is important to note here the same assertion made above – our stumbling and sometimes less than authentic living out of chastity reflects on our weakness rather than on any presumed unhealthiness or deviancy of the chaste state. 
                    
A further thought on celibacy. 

I have come to believe that celibacy scares the holy bejeebers out of some people.  Why?  In the Christian understanding celibacy makes absolutely no sense apart from an awareness of the dawning of the Kingdom of God. 

His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”  But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.  For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  Let anyone accept this who can.”  (Mt. 19:10-12) 

The celibate by his or her very life witnesses to something more than this world.  The celibate’s very life offered in this call of grace points to the dawning of God’s Kingdom where all sin, injustice, falsities, lies and oppression will be met and will be vanquished.  The Christian celibate foregoes marriage not because marriage and sexual activity are evil or of lesser value but because his or her very life is to be a witness to the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God in our world.  This is a frightening prospect for some people and some worldviews and well it should be.  For the believer it is the great hope and assurance.  Simply put, celibacy challenges worldly assumptions. 

I know that these are complicated issues and I know that we live in turbulent and confusing times.  I offer these thoughts in the humility of a disciple living his own life day by day calling upon God’s grace and mercy and also as a priest concerned for the true good of others and who grows weary of seeing others (especially our young people) sold a cheap bill of false goods that, in fact, end up hurting rather than liberating.     

St. Theophilus of Antioch offers these words for reflection:

If you say, “Show me your God,” I will say to you, “Show me what kind of person you are, and I will show you my God.”  Show me then whether the eyes of your mind can see, and the ears of your heart hear.

It is like this.  Those who can see with the eyes of their bodies are aware of what is happening in this life on earth.  They get to know things that are different from each other.  They distinguish light and darkness, black and white, ugliness and beauty, elegance and inelegance, proportion and lack of proportion, excess and defect.  The same is true of the sounds we hear: high or low or pleasant.  So it is with the ears of our heart and the eyes of our mind in their capacity to hear or see God.

God is seen by those who have the capacity to see him, provided that they keep the eyes of their mind open.  All have eyes, but some have eyes that are shrouded in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun.  Because the blind cannot see it, it does not follow that the sun does not shine.  The blind must trace the cause back to themselves and their eyes.  In the same way, you have eyes in your mind that are shrouded in darkness because of your sins and evil deeds.

A person’s soul should be clean, like a mirror reflecting light.  If there is rust on the mirror his face cannot by seen in it.  In the same way, no one who has sin within him can see God.

But if you will you can be healed.  Hand yourself over to the doctor, and he will open the eyes of your mind and heart.  Who is the doctor?  It is God, who heals and gives life through his Word and wisdom.

Today there is a “genie in the bottle” approach to God.  If God exists then God needs to reveal himself to me; according to my will and my expectations.  So we rub our bottle and when God does not pop out like an obedient little genie we conclude there is no God.

We are getting it wrong.  God is not a genie waiting and hoping to appear according to our wills and in our image.  God is God.  Further, God owes nothing to us.

The key to seeing and knowing God is not to have God appear according to our will but rather to submit our wills to God.  This is the truth that St. Theophilus recognizes.  God wants to be known by us, God yearns for relationship with us but the lack in this equation is not on God’s part.  The lack is on our part.  Just because a blind person cannot see the sun that does not mean that the sun does not exist. 

We fool ourselves into thinking that we can hold on to our little sins and know God at the same time!  In this case we might have an “idea” of “a God” somewhere out there but we do not know God.

In the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy we hear Moses speaking to the people of Israel,

Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.  Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the Lord, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.  Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.”  For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?

True knowledge of God is not a headtrip.  Knowledge of God does not consist in saying the right and accepted thing in a religious studies class on a university campus on a weekday (nothing against religious studies per se) and then acting as if God does not exist over the weekend.  We darken our own vision, we limit our own capacity to see and then we get offended when God does not appear to our liking!  How dare He!  Who does He think He is?! 

Knowledge of God is true knowledge which means that all of ones life, all of who one is, must be involved in the encounter with God.  To know God means we have to look inward and at ourselves and at our actions and be willing to bring it all before God – the good, the bad and the ugly.  The blind must trace the cause back to themselves and their eyes.

We are not good at this depth of knowledge in our day and age and frankly we are not encouraged in it.  (People who are not “conscience aware” are more easily controlled and manipulated.  They also make for great consumers!)  We are getting to a point where the blind are happily leading the blind – who are happily led – while all concerned are resentful of God because God will not play along.  Again, how dare He!  Who does He think He is?!

But God is God and we are not and I am convinced that we keep God continually amused.

God is nobody’s genie.  If we want to know God, which is another way of saying if we want to know true joy and fulfillment in life rather than frustration and despair, then we must play by God’s rules.  Not because God is some spoiled overgrown kid demanding his way or no way but because God is the source of all that is good, true and beautiful and God cannot deny himself.  When we come to know God we come to know and experience all of this.

“This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.”  For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?

The below article is taken from Zenit.org.  Check out the referenced email site at the end of the article. 

Families Urged to Adopt a “Media Policy”

Parents Encouraged to Use Reason in Setting Rules

ROME, MARCH 28, 2011 (Zenit.org).- An international university research group is encouraging families to establish their own media policy regarding the use of technology in their homes.

The Rome-based Family and Media Group, which was established in 2005, studies how the family is presented in the media and how the institutions that promote the family communicate their message and help present a better portrayal of the family in the public space. Last month, the organization launched their English-language Web site.

The project coordinator, Norberto González Gaitano, a professor of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, told ZENIT that one of the things the group emphasizes is the habits of media use by the family.

He said, “We are telling parents and families: You are the protagonist of your family life, and since the media is already there — yourselves, your children, your family lives are already in a media environment — so you have to have a ‘family media policy.'”

Gaitano explained that this means “applying practical reason to the use of media.”

He continued: “For example, no parent in their right mind would put a refrigerator in their child’s bedroom so that they could manage their own diet.

“Many parents nevertheless delegate the decision regarding their ‘media diet’ to their children. A television or a computer connected to the Internet is to be found in their room at their command.”

Research

Gaitano noted that there has been a lot of research on media effects, “but mainly pointing at the influence on children, especially regarding the amount of violence portrayed in media.”

“As far as I know,” he said, “no research considers the family as a whole; very few studies lay down the basis of what the family is all about.”

“Above all,” the professor noted, “most of the research leaves parents confused, discouraged or helpless.”

He affirmed, “If ever they come to know the results of most researches, they become satiated with data, about media consumption by children for example, and then are asking themselves, so what should we do?”

“You can, and should take advice from experts,” Gaitano said, “but you mustn’t delegate the decisions to the experts. Everybody can instruct your children; only you can educate them.”

He added, “We aim to be a think tank mainly for family associations and ultimately a help for families.”

On the Net: Family and Media: www.familyandmedia.eu/en.html

There is much to this Sunday’s gospel reading (John 4:5-42) but one component, I believe, is that in the passage we get to watch Jesus the Divine Physician at work. Certainly, this passage is given in order that we might come to know more deeply who Christ is for us but also in order that we, ourselves, might learn how to help bring his love and healing to our world. The passage is truly worthy of reflection for the disciple who wants to help in bringing God’s love to the lives of people.

The first lesson offered in this encounter is an awareness of the basic need for healing. The woman is broken and our Lord sees this. She has had five husbands and the man she now lives with is not her husband. This deep brokenness and pain that this woman carries is demonstrated in the fact that she comes to the well at noon – in the heat of the day – to draw water. The custom of the time was to get the day’s needed water in the morning when it is cool. In the morning was when the people of the town would have come to get water and also to see one another. But, when you are broken, hurt and ashamed you avoid others. The woman comes at noon.

The second lesson is that Jesus the Divine Physician approaches her in the commonality of their shared humanity. Jesus does not view himself as superior nor does he condescend toward her. The gospel very specifically says that Jesus is tired and thirsty and it is in this need that he begins his encounter with her by asking for a drink of water. This seemingly so-simple request speaks to an awareness on Jesus’ part of their common humanity. The simple request for a drink witnesses to the love and respect Jesus holds for this woman and it is a critical key in the opening of the woman’s heart to the possibility of healing and awareness that life, can indeed, be lived differently. The request and what underlies it is so striking that in fact, at first the woman is taken aback, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

Then, step by step, Jesus meets the woman where she is at in her questions and he brings her to greater truth and fuller healing. But, it is extremely important to note that in their exchange the giving of truth is never divorced from the greater context of the tender healing of her heart. (This is the skill of a master physician and how so sadly, we disciples can often fall short in this regard.) Truth and healing care must be held together! Truth is given but it is done in the context of an awareness of the truly deep wounds and deep yearning of the woman’s heart. The surgeon must sometimes use the scalpel but always, always, always in the greater context of healing and care.

I must admit that I have not been too focused on this upcoming change.  My attention has been more devoted to my vocation and college campus ministry.  I have known that the change is coming but I have figured that I would cross that bridge when the time comes … well, I guess the time is here.

Why is the Church doing this and why now?  This is a fair question, I believe.  There is so much going on in our world.  In light of the struggles for justice and peace and natural disasters that are occurring why is the Catholic Church seemingly so focused on this “in-house” issue?  Couldn’t its immense energies be better directed elsewhere?  Well, first of all, the Church’s witness to the world remains the same and consistent even as we address and are being attentive to our own celebration of worship.  The truth is that the worship of the Church and its mission are inextricably linked.  As our worship is clarified and focused anew so will our mission in the world.  The two are not separate and any temptation to separate the two is both a grave error and a danger.

I have recently come across three different reflections on worship and liturgy that I have found helpful in my own process of considering why we as Church are doing this and why now.



Pope Benedict XVI

The first comes from an answer offered by Pope Benedict to a question regarding renewal in the Church and the importance of the liturgy as the heart of renewal (taken from “The Light of the World”).  The Holy Father offers these thoughts for consideration:

The Church becomes visible for people in many ways, in charitable activity or in missionary projects, but the place where the Church is actually experienced most of all as Church is the liturgy.  And that is also as it should be.  At the end of the day, the point of the Church is to turn us toward God and to enable God to enter into the world.  The liturgy is the act in which we believe that he enters our lives and that we touch him.  It is the act in which what is really essential takes place: We come into contact with God.  He comes to us – and we are illumined by him…

So liturgy is something that is given in advance?  Yes, it is not about our doing something, about our demonstrating our creativity, in other words, about displaying everything we can do.  Liturgy is precisely not a show, a piece of theater, a spectacle.  Rather, it gets its life from the Other.  This has to become evident, too.  This is why the fact that the ecclesial form has been given in advance is so important.  It can be reformed in matters of detail, but it cannot be reinvented every time by the community.  It is not a question, as I said, of self-production.  The point is to go out of and beyond ourselves, to give ourselves to him, and to let ourselves be touched by him. 

Pope Benedict is rightly highlighting the importance of the liturgical act and its true nature.  True worship is not theater nor is it entertainment and it is not of our creation and effort.  The true origin of worship of the Church is deeper; it originates not from us but from God.  God establishes the sabbath and at the last supper Jesus gives the instruction, “do this in memory of me”.  This being the case, our attentiveness to the act of worship and liturgy is of utmost importance because in liturgy we are brought into contact with God.



Bishop Vincenzo Paglia

 The second reflection I would like to share comes from Bishop Vincenzo Paglia and the words he offered in a homily for the second Sunday of Lent and the gospel passage of the Transfiguration.  Here, Bishop Paglia highlights how the liturgy, in fact, transforms us.

The Gospel of the Transfiguration describes what occurs during every Sunday’s Eucharistic Liturgy.  After six weekdays, Jesus gathers us and takes us aside, to a “high” place.  We need to go up a bit, but not in order to flee or evade, so that everything remains the same afterwards as before.  In the Liturgy we look upon a different way to live, to feel, to behave.  And while we behold heavenly things, we are drawn and transformed within.  Here we become what we behold…

It is the same for us and the Gospel.  If we accept it (the call of the Father to listen to Christ, the Son) we shall be drawn into a new adventure, greater and more beautiful than we could have imagined.

We need to go up a bit…  I find this simple phrase to be very compelling and also very telling of a deep truth within the human condition.  At the core of who we are is a deep yearning for something more than the narrow and limiting confines of our world and its assumptions.  We yearn because we are indeed made for this “more”.  We do, indeed, need to go up a bit.  St. Augustine likewise realized this truth of the human condition and therefore stated, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”  Liturgy answers this need to go up, this deep restlessness of the human heart, in the fact that in and through it we are brought into contact with God.

The final reflection is from a book by Philip Rieff entitled “Charisma: The Gift of Grace, and How it Has Been Taken Away from Us”.  I have just begun reading this book and am thoroughly enjoying it and finding it to be very thought provoking.  (I have also read Rieff’s “The Triumph of the Therapeutic”, which I highly recommend.)



Philip Rieff

I will not pretend to do justice to the depth of Rieff’s insight here in this post but I would like to to share two quotes that speak to the power and necessity of ritual in our world.

 First quote – In his unusual depth of intuition, Buber verged upon what I consider the correct interpretation of ritual as a defense against the destructive-ness of power, so far as power is a kind of demand that pulverizes, whether in sexual or religious acts, human personality and subordinates the self to another…

Second quote – Far from being an enlightening process, the destruction of ritual in Western culture is a major symptom of its demonic character, opening up the possibility of some persons feeding upon the destruction of others.  Here, indeed, sex and politics converge in anti-credal movement, a convulsive fury of systematic destruction at once sexual and technological.   

True and authentic ritual protects and just as it brings the worshipper into contact with God it also, by necessity, stands in witness against the powers of the world that deny God and his sovereignty and that feed upon the negation and destruction of others.  Liturgy and worship is a very courageous act and, it might be said, a very subversive act against all that would deny the truth of God and the truth of the human person.

Liturgy matters, as the above three reflections demonstrate.  What we say and what we do when we gather for worship on Sunday is important – for ourselves, for the Church and for our world. 
 

In a reflection on the Gospel scene of the transfiguration (Mt. 17:1-9), Bishop Vincenzo Paglia remarks that this passage reflects what occurs in every Eucharistic liturgy.  Like Jesus taking the three disciples up the mountain, Jesus also gathers us in the liturgy and takes us to a “high” place.  “We need to go up a bit, but not in order to flee or to evade, so that everything remains the same afterwards as before.  In the liturgy we look upon a different way to live, to feel, to behave.  And while we behold heavenly things, we are drawn and transformed within … (In the liturgy) an event out of the ordinary is presented, far removed from the usual scenarios” and narrow limits of our world. 

“We need to go up a bit…”  “In the liturgy we look upon a different way to live, to feel, to believe.”  In the transfiguration the glory of the Lord is revealed to his disciples but it must be noted that the three men originally taken up the mountain by our Lord are not the same when they come down.  The glory they witnesses in the Lord without is a glory that transforms them within. 

In a reflection on psalm 33, St. Augustine offers these words, “Let us love beauty, but let it be beauty that appeals to the eye of the heart.  Let us love beauty, but let it be worthwhile, praiseworthy loveliness.”  Praiseworthy beauty kindles our minds, enlarges our hearts, strengthens our wills and awakens true life and creativity within us. 

We do indeed need to “go up a bit.”  We need to be taken by our Lord to the high place where we can recognize that there is a different way to live, to feel and to behave.  It is easy to remain in this world, in the narrow limits, in the narrow thoughts – in worldly thoughts, worldly perceptions and worldly beauty – but this does not feed the soul and although it may entice for a moment it does not last.  In fact it leaves us both a little less and more empty. 

We need to go up a bit.  Let us love beauty, but let it be beauty that appeals to the eyes of the heart.  The three disciples taken by our Lord up the mountain are not the same when they come down.  In the glory of our Lord’s transfiguration they, themselves, were transformed.  Similarly, when we leave the liturgy (when the eyes of our hearts have been open), we are not the same as when we came in. 

It is a truth of the human condition – we need to go up a bit and we need to see and recognize that yes, there is a different way to live, to feel and to behave.