It is almost 9AM on Wednesday (my day away) here in Akron,
OH and black smoke is still coming out of the famed chimney at the Vatican
telling us that we are still without pope.
To that end here are a couple more thoughts on items that have been
circulating in the news recently.
This pose should
relate better to today’s Catholics.
I would challenge that position.
I think it wiser to say that today’s Catholic should become more in
touch with today’s Church. We look in
the mirror and think, “Here is the Church.”
We are surrounded by people just like us, perhaps with similar issues
and we think, “The pope should pay more attention to us! We are the Church! These are our issues. If he wants to be effective and (forgive me) relevant he needs take action on these
items.
But today’s Catholic is more than a suburban, minivan
driving, smart phone owning, T.V. watching westerner.
As a matter of fact, we make up a much
smaller portion of the Church than one might think.
A popular topic bandied around is women’s ordination. Many think the Church will fall apart unless
the new pope addresses this issue. It is
not as big an issue in the overall Church as one might think. One time I was privileged to travel to
Zimbabwe and talk with Catholics there.
We brought up western issues and were mostly met with blank and puzzled
stares. “Women priests? You are worried about women priests when we
are worried about food, equality, safety, AIDS, freedom, sanitary conditions,
oppressive governments . . .” We were
quite laughed at.
Now we might say the pope needs to pay more attention to
first world Catholics and I would agree.
There is a lot of work to be done here.
But whenever one speaks of today’s Catholic, keep in mind the family
living in a mud hut with a thatch roof, who goes to Mass on Sunday, has only
one change of clothes, and who, when he sees a car, thinks it a novelty is just
as much a Catholic and deserving just as much attention.
I am shocked to my
core that there are politics involved with the election of the pope. Well, of course there is. Just like those pushing an agenda for “today’s
Catholics,” there are those electing a pontiff who have strong beliefs concerning
what type if pope is needed to run “today’s Church.” Of course they are going to talk about it,
lobby for it, ask and bargain for a vote.
I think some people imagine the cardinals sitting quietly in a room
until the Holy Spirit descends upon them with the name of the guy for whom they
are supposed to vote.
God gave us brains and bodies. We are to use them for His glory and for our
benefit. Names arise, talents debated,
factions rise and fall and not all of it altruistic but all accompanied by prayer. In the end one name arises and one of two
things we pray is the case: that this was indeed the man the Holy Spirit wished
to be picked from out of all that human activity or that this is a man that God
can work with.
In the mean time – lobby away.
My parents celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary shortly after I was ordained.
As part of the celebrations I asked my parents if they wanted to
re-exchange their wedding vows. Mom, who
was fairly open to anything, gave her one adamant answer to all of the
questions we asked: “NO!” She explained, “I gave my vows once and I
meant it.” (That's their wedding picture to the right at the old Sacred Heart parish.)
The place where your oils are kept at your parish is called
the ambry. Sometimes they are in very
public places with glass doors, and sometimes they are hidden away in the
sacristy. But if you lay your eyes on
it, know the journey that those oils took and the celebration that was had so
that they might be available for use in your parish.
In honor of the Year of Faith we have been examining the documents of Vatican II. Today we continue our journey through Lumen Gentium. The next section is called “The People of God.” It is the beginning of a self examination a
little bit like sitting down, looking in the mirror and contemplating who you are in the world. This is a sampling from the first two paragraphs:
10. United in Christ we all share in the priesthood of Jesus
called to offer spiritual sacrifices and offering reasons to anyone who asks
why we have such great hope in eternal life.
Now, all in Christ share in the priesthood of Jesus. This is the priesthood of the faithful. Some from this group are also called to the ordained
priesthood. Both priesthoods are
essential to the life of the Church in their proper way. The ministerial priesthood stands in persona Christi confecting the
Eucharist and offering it to God on behalf of the POGs. The priesthood of the people participates in
Christ’s priesthood by their offerings, thanksgiving, and prayers at the Eucharist,
by reception of the Sacrament, and by witnessing to it by a holy life
particularly through acts of charity.
Sometimes at the end of a confession, when a person has
expressed all of the sins they can recall, will ask me, “Can you think of
anything else?” They are not supposing
that I know them so well that I might make some suggestion of sin of theirs
that I might know about but rather is there any area that they may not have
considered. Visiting a whole examination
of conscience is a difficult thing to do especially with Easter on our tails
and long lines outside of the confessional, but there are generally a couple of
questions I might ask.
Should our bodies, physical and living temples of the Holy
Spirit, receptacles of the Body and Blood of Jesus being any less so treated? Do we give ourselves the rest we need (to the
extent we are able), consume the proper food and drink at the appropriate
amounts, do we exercise, follow the direction of our doctors, observe the times
of penance as well as the times of rejoicing, and adorn our bodies modestly? 
On the lower left hand corner is a gold star which represents Mary and in the lower right is what looks like an upended bunch of grapes but what is actually a nard flower. Nope, I never heard of it either. I looked one up and so present it here. Apparently it represents St. Joseph though I dare say I don't know from where this comes. It is not in my books. I would love to know the source if anybody knows.
FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: (FROM THIS MONTH'S CHESTERTON MEETING): "You go through the worst to the best, as you go through the west to the east . . . and there really is a place, at the back of the world, where the east and the west are one. Can't you feel there is something so frightfully and frantically good that it must seem bad?" from the "Four Faultless Felons"
Got your machete out?
There’s a lot more thick material to cut our way through. I’m doing my best to make it a bit easier to
swallow. Remember that if you want to
read the actual text you can find it online at the Vatican website. Today we look at paragraph 8 of Lumen Gentium.
That does not mean that one will find no truth being
preached going to that new storefront church that opened up in the old
drugstore that closed down years ago or that took over the closed Catholic
Church. The truth found there is part of
the gifts of the “Church of Christ” and this truth drives us toward Catholic
unity. (In other words, the fullness of
truth resides in the One True Church and all truth leads to unity in it.)
Good morning Jorge (AKA Francis),
So today starts a new chapter in the life of the
Church. Soon we will have to get used to
a new face replacing Benedict’s hanging in the hallway. At Mass there will be the remembering to say the
name Francis when we pray for the pope.
There is a new voice to which we will become accustomed to listening
when he gives talks and a new style of writing when a document is presented.
Then we got a second memo.
An updated memo. It said, “Mistake. We didn’t mean have your own Mass, but come
join along with your people the Bishop at the cathedral.” But as the song goes, “Well it’s too late
baby, yea, it’s too late . . .”
