Don’t Cling
St Paul’s letter to the Phillippians is one of the most disconcerting of all his letters. Talking to a community obviously at odds with one another and pleading from the heart for them to overcome their differences so that they might live more authentically the Christian life.
I love this reading because it is a great reminder that the chances are that their probably never was a community which totally lived the Christian life. This is true both then and now and that we are always in the process of becoming rather than in a state of having arrived. It also acts as a reminder, not to spend time dwelling on the faults and failings of any particular parish community but at the same time to avoid the danger of presenting any given community as the ideal.
At one time I spent a great amount of time visiting schools. I loved the fact that on a regular basis many of the teachers would voice their reflections on the difficulties they experienced yet when we met together as a staff suddenly the school was without fault. The danger of being without fault is, of course, that there is no place to go and nothing to learn.
This danger can also be found in an RCIA Group which can run the risk of acute disappointment when feet of clay are discovered in the community into which the enquirers have been received. St Paul acts as a fantastic reminder that we are always part of a community struggling to become a community. The second reading for the 26th week of Ordinary Time is worth taking time over:
- Reading quietly,
- Hearing it read by different voices,
- Listening to the words or phrases which struck each person in the group,
- Hearing it again,
- Asking what it says to us now, what’s it inviting us to do.
A whole session could easily be spent letting these words speak:- Words which have come down to us from the first century of the Christian Church and are alive today as when they were written.
Recently I came across a reflection on the power of memory. It pointed out that there are two kinds of memory. Nostalgic Memory which usually confirms where we are and acts like a pat on the back and Dangerous Memory which acts as a critique of where we are and invites change and growth. St Paul’s letter is dangerous memory, particularly when he invites us to take on the mind of Christ Jesus. What kind of a mind is that? Well its one that has the capacity of letting go, of not clinging to power, to hurt, to revenge, to getting one’s own back, to have the capacity to identify with those on the bottom rung of the ladder. The image given is that of the cross.
I know that had I been on the receiving end of torture which led to the cross, I’d be with the two thieves shouting abuse at all in sundry and wanting those who had hurt me to at the very least suffer the same pains as I had suffered, especially being innocent. But that was not the way of Jesus the Christ instead of vengeance, forgiveness, compassion and mercy. “Father forgive them”. Blaming nobody holding all until all are changed.
No wonder we are in the business of helping enquirers and ourselves to continue to grow into the mind of Christ rather than thinking that we have arrived.
The Joy of RCIA Labours
The Joy of RCIA Labours
Recently I had the pleasure of visiting an ongoing, parish RCIA group which had just taken its summer break and was coming together once more with the expectation of welcoming two brand new enquirers. It’s quite a while since I was directly involved with a ‘live’ parish RCIA group and I had forgotten the sheer joy a good group can generate: the power of its relationships; the adrenalin rush as new people take those first tentative steps of formal enquiry; the exuberance of newly received Catholics; and the wonder at the diversity of gifts active within a community.
After a warm welcome and a gentle round of introductions, the leader for the night invited two new Catholics to share highlights from their own, very recent journey …
And the words just tumbled out, with an evangelising force that I have rarely experienced before. The two new Catholics were very different: but both mesmerising. I watched the reactions of the new enquirers and they were both inspired and affirmed as some of their own questions and hesitancies were named and the strong support of this community was applauded. These two ‘latest arrivals in the vineyard’ witnessed to a radical conversion centred on the Rite of Election and the unfolding story of the Holy Week. The younger of the two, spoke of her fear that next year’s experience of Easter would somehow disappoint and openly rejoiced in the difference this journey and made and was making to her life and the life of her young family. Throughout this testimony, the other parish accompaniers who share responsibility for the group, listened attentively, nodded in recognition and smiled proudly.
On Sunday we were invited to celebrate Home Mission Sunday and to consider our call to evangelise ‘at home’, on our own doorstep and in our own communities. The gospel parable of the labourers in the vineyard reveals a God who sees things differently to us: who is not concerned with the economics of labour, or market forces; but with the scandal of gifts and talents not being used. A God who has not time for idleness and who rewards all efforts with unbounded generosity.
My visit to this lovely, local group reminded me of the importance of the ministry of the newly received especially in the context of peer evangelisation. It prompted me to give thanks for the work of so many parish RCIA groups up and down our countries and for the contribution they make to the mission of the church ‘at home’.
“The eyes of faith behold a wonderful scene: that of a countless number of lay people, both women and men, busy at work in their daily life and activity, oftentimes far from view and quite unacclaimed by the world, unknown to the world's great personages but nonetheless looked upon in love by the Father, untiring labourers who work in the Lord's vineyard. Confident and steadfast through the power of God's grace, these are the humble yet great builders of the Kingdom of God in history.”
CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI Pope John Paul II1988
Network Directory
I am preparing a new edition of the Network Directory for members to go out with the next Newsletter later this month.
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Starting up
The parish I serve has a term-time catechumenate. It starts up again next week. So the last few weeks have been a time for more focussed encouraging of people to come along as our group starts back after its fallow-period post Pentecost.
People come to the group that supports the catechumenate through a variety of ways. Particularly important are the personal contacts - through friendships in the parish; through the Parents and Toddlers groups; through the pastoral encounters around weddings and funerals. But also of importance - it seems to me, (their author and designer!) - are the leaflets and posters we put around - sources of information, prompts to action.
Last year I used a series of posters which used images of gates and paths and lighthouses. I hoped these would suggest the idea of journey, and - who knows - for the more biblically literate the idea of Christ our pioneer, our way, the gate, the light. A few people noticed them but they didn't seem to find them particular significant - the images didn't seem to register, much.
So this year I decided I'd lose the visual images and go for words. Searching? Questioning? Lost? And suggesting that in response to these experiences the Gospel has something to offer - companionship on the way; support in the search; and yes, able to introduce the searcher to a relationship with Christ who we have found to be the way, truth and life.
I though the new poster looked pretty good and eye catching. Bold graphics, bright colours. I still think that. But a number of the people who I am in contact who will be coming to the group have been on the look out for the poster which would give them information about when the group starts up. And none of them thought that what this poster was advertising could be what they are looking for!
I've not yet had the chance to explore with them why that might be. But clearly the poster and its words speaks to my agenda and not theirs. At the moment it's enough for them to know when to come and where to ‘become a Catholic'. Their main interest is not the why or wherefore
So, all this has got me thinking again about where people are coming from and what, at a conscious level at least, people are looking for. I'm comfortable with the idea of people searching from motives of existential angst. I'm also happy with the idea of people interested in ‘becoming Catholic' or wanting to deepen a relationship with Jesus or the Church. Different things engage and motivate different people. I hope in pastoral practice that I'm sensitive to that, and can give space for the person to journey as they see fit as well as trying to feed into their exploration of Catholic faith an awareness of important dimensions that they may not yet have considered in any conscious or explicit way.
But the question of the posters and what we put on them and what they say to people has me thinking again about what we offer and what people want. What is the good news we want to share? I can put names to aspects of that. But then my fear is that the Christian specificity of these things might be neglected. We could offer ‘Community'. Our Gospel offers this, but it also promises to set brother against brother. ‘Truth through intimacy with Jesus': we can offer that. But from time to time Jesus might turn and call us Satan and say we think as people think and not as God. ‘Security' too we can offer, but it is a security that sometimes leads us into hard and lonely places.
It probably all boils down to a matter of quality of catechesis. They will perhaps be coming from one reason. The challenge to the group is to ensure that if they stay, they stay for a reason which is acceptable to the Church and authentic to the Gospel we preach.
My personal fresh resolution - encouraged by the poster issue - to try to make sure that the Gospel we share in our pre-evangelisation meetings and in catechumenate is one which welcomes those who come, offers the assurance we all need that we are loved by God and chosen. And at the self same time, draws us speedily into the mission which helps us to see that if the Gospel is for us, we and not just the Gospel are for the world.
A Space For Encounter
Walking round the local mega-supermarket last year in Autumn (part of a well known ‘family’) was like entering a time-warp. In the same aisle were Halloween costumes, Bonfire Night essentials and a few early reminders that Christmas wasn’t too far away. In the milk aisle, the plastic cow was mooing and the plastic chicken clucked next to the eggs. In the background, over the PA system, someone was giving a commentary on life in the store – bargains on aisle 26, Golf Clubs on aisle 2 – oh, and “Sandra on aisle 24 is 40 today, lets all sing: Happy Birthday too you…”. By the time I got the shower-gel aisle, I was completely overwhelmed with the endless choices – Which water do I want? What kind of bread do I want? What kind of cereal, soap, ….? The experience became somewhat surreal and for a moment, time stood still and I began to feel like I was caught in some weird sci-fi universe in which “resistance is futile”.
So, what has this got to do with RCIA? The key thing is to trying not to overwhelm people all at once with the speed of the process and all that’s on offer.
As many of our parishes will be preparing to welcome new enquirers over the next couple of months maybe we need to be aware that in new situations people can easily feel overwhelmed, carried along by the momentum of the group and end up feeling a like there’s no way out - or that ‘resistance is futile’. We often speak of meeting people ‘where they’re at’ and not where we want them to be. This requires discernment on the part of the enquirer and of catechists – and it requires us as catechists to be aware of any of our own desires and tendencies which might be coming into play. It also means avoiding the temptation of the October – Easter ‘course’. RCIA is a gradual process, not a treadmill. How does the way we work in parishes allow for the different speeds at which enquirers will journey?
We also need to avoid the RCIA curriculum approach – we’re not about putting everything our faith brings to us on offer all at once – like the supermarket shelves. We are about creating space for an encounter with Christ. As Pope Benedict said recently, Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person. In speaking of Paul on the road to Damascus he said "this change of his life, this transformation of his whole being was not the result of a psychological process, of a maturation or intellectual and moral evolution, but it came from outside: It was not the result of his thinking but of the encounter with Jesus Christ.”
( http://www.zenit.org/article-23546?l=english)
In exploring the implications of conversion for us as Christians today, he said "We can touch Christ's heart and feel him touch ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, only in this encounter with the Risen One do we really become Christians. And in this way, our reason opens, the whole of Christ's wisdom opens and all the richness of the truth. Therefore, let us pray to the Lord to enlighten us, so that, in our world, he will grant us the encounter with his presence, and thus give us a lively faith, an open heart, and great charity for all, capable of renewing the world."
( http://www.zenit.org/article-23546?l=english)
Let your behaviour change
We are coming to the end of the reading of St Paul's letter to the Romans at Sunday Mass. It is Paul's longest letter and has been a thread on for Sundays 9-24.
This Sunday's reading (12:1–2) has a phrase that always stands out for me — Let your behaviour change — a phrase that is both a constant reminder and a challenge. It is a phrase that perhaps characterises the Catechumenate. But it doesn't stop there the need to take responsibility for my behaviour in my responsibility; to view myself in the mirror that is Christ and let my behaviour change.
Paul identifies one of his paradoxes. To change our behaviour is to model ourselves on Christ yet it is through changing our behaviour that we get to know what God wants. It is my responsibility to change but God will be there.
The changes are not necessarily the stuff of headlines. It is the small changes that build up to make the big differences. In that way it has similarities to livesimply — we need to learn new ways if we wish to live simply, in solidarity and sustainably.
This is the very stuff of the catechumenate; the very stuff of discernment. The catechumenate is not just the assimilation of theology — yes, it is part of it — it is that this desire to know Christ and the Church makes a difference in people's lives. For the team these are the signs to be looking for when discerning the time to move on to the next stage. Discernment is not an exam where the student produces evidence; it is the ongoing conversation. It is 'once I did that, now I no longer can.
Do not model yourself on the behaviour of the world around you,
but let your behaviour change,
modelled by you new mind.
This is the only way to discover the will of God
and know what is good,
what it is that God wants,
what is the perfect thing to do.