The Messiah Is Among You
The Messiah Is Among you.
In one way it may seem the ideal if our Journey in Faith groups were to continue to meet over the Christmas season. It would be so good to share experiences of this and other Christmases in the light of the rich liturgies we will celebrate. As a catechist part of me wants to explore the richness of Word and prayer and living traditions. However, in the absence of dismissal catechesis at present, we have already bade farewell until January. This is ‘right and proper’. Family and other commitments also need to be honoured. I suspect it may be another reminder for us that the Spirit of God was at work calling our inquirers, catechumens and candidates to Christ in their familiar places, long before we met them.
Hopefully the next two weeks will also be a time when parishioners, with varying degrees of awareness, will have particular scope for their essential role:
“…the people of God should understand and show by their concern that initiation of adults is the responsibility of all the baptised… Hence, the entire community must help the candidates and the catechumens throughout the process of initiation… They should therefore show themselves ready to give the candidates welcome into their homes, into personal conversations, and into community gatherings…” RCIA n9
I am reminded of the story of the holy Rabbi living in the woods near a monastery that was declining in fervour and numbers. When the Abbot consulted him about his concerns the Rabbi told him that he had, indeed a message for him that he could repeat only once: the Messiah was living in his community. Returning to the abbey the Abbot told his brothers what the Rabbi had said, with the feeling that he had not received anything very helpful. It could just be true, but who could it be?! Gradually attitudes to each other changed – just in case this one or that one was the Messiah in disguise! This led to changes in the way they lived and prayed and soon others were attracted by their way of living and came to pray with them and some came to join them. Almost imperceptibly they’d found and shared a new way of living.
In responding to the Advent messages and all the preparations for celebrating Christmas (and the ancient ‘rites’ of the midwinter solstice too!) the parish community lives its response to the message that the Messiah is among us. In simple, unpretentious ways God’s presence will be witnessed again in this season.
Attracting people who wish to know more about being a Catholic Christian happens unseen, unknown to us. It is different for everyone but in our stepping back to appreciate this time of celebrating Incarnation we can consciously trust that it is the Spirit of God that works among us: individuals and parish.
By encouraging everyone to pray for each other, especially inquirers and candidates perhaps our community awareness of Christ being born in and among us will be heightened and grow the more.
On the Road
We know that each inquirer’s journey in faith started long before s/he approached someone in the parish. In recent months we have met up with some people from close to home and some from eastern Europe, from Asia and from Africa. Diverse experiences of church and Christianity enrich our conversations and become parables that question our perspectives. We meet at a particular point on our roads of faith and know that God was there long before.
BarTimeus was on the Jericho road ahead of Jesus. This man seems to be nameless - recorded for us as ‘son of Timeus’. I’m reminded that all who come seeking baptism are already sons and daughters in human and divine relationships. Already they are prepared to recognise Jesus the Christ, already they have shouted out (or, at least, whispered their questions to someone) and been directed to ‘journey in faith’!
In his dark existence the son in next Sunday’s gospel story seems to have been waiting – on the ‘look out’ for possibilities of a different way of living, or seeing. He was restricted in physical sight but not in insight. He found the Son who took those possibilities way beyond his imaginings. We are told he was begging – waiting to be given what he needed to live on. So often we are witnesses in our Journey in Faith groups of the hunger that has developed for people when they experience new challenges in life. The birth of a child, or should I say, the awesome experience of becoming a parent, is one of those sparks that ignite a desire to see more, a recognition that they now perceive life differently. For others it maybe the death of someone close or a new stage in their children’s lives, or simply the culmination of years of questioning. For many different reasons people can find themselves “no longer at ease in the old dispensation…” (cf Journey of the Magi, TS Elliott). Ways that ‘fit’ for them in the past are no longer are enough.
Was the beggar’s ‘trigger’ the noise of the crowd around Jesus? The opposition he encountered made him shout louder. Recently a young mother faced an obstacle to being received into full communion. The questions she had then increased for her but they also led her to a firmness of resolve and a deep peace. Along with this she had a willingness to wait for God’s timing, not hers. Of course, she also took action but it was coming from a place within her that she had not, until then, known in its depths and its patience. The initial anxiety that she felt as a process of discernment was suggested gave way to insights and commitment beyond her expectations.
We all struggle sometimes to find a place from which to face the road ahead. In sharing the insights each is given we are all led to be more aware of our own way on the journey of discipleship. We may be blind to so much of God’s ways for us but have the assurance that healing is offered. With Bar Timeus we, too, ask, “Master, let me see again."
Inquirers, sponsors and catechists alike, as Bar Timeus, come together to walk the road of faith for one reason and then find quite other reasons for continuing. Perspectives are altered on this journey. It may be a profound alteration as with another young woman who recently told us that she had never understood forgiveness before. The unfolding revelation changed her. Feelings of revenge and anger had seemed to her, a normal, even correct response to something like the murder of an innocent child. For many months the forgiveness offered by the child’s mother had bothered her. Now, however, she saw differently and felt that this change in her way of ‘seeing’ had effected a profound change in her. Looking back over recent months she spoke of seeing herself to be a different person now.
The beggar in Mark’s story was probably in a static place on the road so as to beg alms from those leaving Jericho and heading for Jerusalem. As that man became a traveller on the road he saw his life in a totally new way. He had somehow recognised that the person he was told was Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Messiah and nothing would be the same again. He called out to Jesus as Son of David, not Jesus of Nazareth. He saw what other, sighted people could not see. Some tried to keep him quiet, keep him back – to keep him in his place? Once he was given sight Jesus told him to go, he was cured by his faith. What he did was to follow Jesus along the road from Jericho to Jerusalem – that faith led him was on a road of discipleship. There was nothing to hold him back now that he could see. To make the journey along that road takes courage. Asking for sight or insight means all that was familiar is open change. We are witnesses of this in the lives of our inquirers. May they see evidence of it in us too. It is the encounter with Jesus who asks to fill our needs that gives us what is necessary for the way ahead. As disciples there is companionship with him and his work to be done: a destiny in ‘Jerusalem’ to be faced.
Who Shepherds Whom?
Mark tells us that the crowd reaches that ‘quiet’ place before they do. Like Moses with the wandering Israelites, Jesus sees that the crowds waiting for them are “Like sheep without a shepherd.” So, they are shepherded and nourished by him and his words – the crowd’s need for other food will come later. This is still our way: we feed at the table of the Word then at the table of the Bread and Wine.
As Jeremiah promised and we hear in the first reading, Mark shows Jesus acting as the “virtuous branch… The Lord-our-integrity”; God, who will look after his own sheep when their leaders have failed to do so. Jeremiah’s anger at the leaders almost leaps out at us as he berates those shepherds of Israel who do not take care of the people, who do not build them up in unity. There are threats for them: “…you have not taken care of them. Right, I will take care of you for your misdeeds…” But for the people, there is the assurance of God’s care: “I myself will gather…I will raise up shepherds to look after them…” God will not let the flock remain un-shepherded living in fear.
In our parish contexts of walking our road of faith with inquirers, catechumens, candidates and new catholics and with each other, what warnings, teachings and hope might this particular part of ordinary time offer us and prepare us for? Who shepherds us and those with whom we share our stories? As catechists what warnings are we offered about how we shepherd others, for example, those who come as inquirers, and how we allow ourselves to be shepherded along the way. How well do we each know the Lord as “My Shepherd” in truth; and how do we build up the unity of God’s people?
A presumption is, of course, that our notion of shepherding is real, never ‘soppy’. Shepherding is not for ‘whimps’, even in these days when farmer-shepherds often get around to their sheep on quad bikes. So too, taking care of God’s people doesn’t happen without cost to oneself. Indeed, we know it’s a pre-requisite of being a disciple of Christ who laid down his life for the flock!
At the Rite of Acceptance the parish community, sponsors and catechists promise to help the inquirers to “find and follow Christ”. From then on the period of the catechumenate enables them to become “familiar with the Christian way of life…” [The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) n75]. The promise has been made to live along side, to shepherd, the catechumens within the community. The Rite gives us the scaffolding of the example and the support that helps them embrace this familiarity:
“… the catechumens learn to turn more readily to God in prayer, to bear witness to the faith, in all things to keep their hopes set on Christ, to follow supernatural inspiration in their deeds, and to practice love of neighbour, even at the cost of self-renunciation.” [RCIA n75.2]
Jesus’ invitation to those who returned from their mission was to join him in some lonely place to rest. The primary response to conversion and on-going conversion is for the catechumens and ourselves to step back to make time for a deepening of our ‘readiness to turn to God in prayer’. Yet, Jesus shows that the shepherding of those in need challenges us with the ‘practice of love of neighbour’. That service will come with cost to ourselves and our plans. Had the twelve still had nothing to eat while Jesus taught all that day? They are then asked to feed all of that crowd!
In Sunday’s liturgy we will have prayed the psalm before hearing the gospel passage. In that ancient prayer we state our trust in the Shepherd who leads us and spreads a banquet, even though the journey passes through the valley of darkness. May summer breaks offer some ‘rest for a while’ and opportunities to shepherd and be shepherded.
Come Anytime
It has always felt wrong to ask inquirers to wait. Once they have taken the all important first step of approaching someone it is not fair to send them away to wait until a more ‘convenient’ time for us. Last year we tried to solve this dilemma by working towards monthly open ‘welcome’ sessions for inquirers, perhaps to include new parishioners.
Other parish needs pre-empted that particular drive and the parish is benefiting from the reconstituted Ministry of Welcome and new impetus to complete a parish handbook.
What had felt like something of a setback with regard to a way of being available to inquirers, in fact has solidified into a ‘come anytime’ mentality. Though the experience is now more of fluidity than of something solidifying! The work of the Spirit - not how we had meant to plan!
It came about without any fresh (autumn) invitation or information about the Journey in Faith process in the parish. That had been stalled while parish consultation about ways of inviting and welcoming took place. Yet, before that first meeting inquirers were making their own first approaches. For three weeks running a different person arrived making inquiries: one asking for baptism; one to be Confirmed and to receive Eucharist and then one to be received into Full Communion. Within a week or so of the first approach we had arranged a suitable time for her and those who where close on her heels. We gathered our small RCIA team and new sponsors. As with Peter at the house of Cornelius [Acts 10], the Spirit was leading people and all we could do was to respond to their request, and stay with them and share experiences of God’s work in the church.
So it has continued. We have managed to respond immediately to individuals who have continued to arrive – not weekly! We have taken account, of course, of their family, work and time commitments and fitted in with them as much as possible. One group now has a catechumen whose babies were baptised at Easter, a previously uncatechised catholic who is now fully initiated and a new catholic brought up within a different Christian tradition and another who remains on the periphery as yet. Because of child minding issues the best time for this group to meet was after Mass on Sundays, or rather, after coffee following Mass. [For very good reasons dismissal catechesis was not appropriate.] A result of that timing has meant that we had a natural way of parishioners and inquirers getting to know each other – people made new friends and parishioners became more aware and involved in the process simply by offering welcome and acceptance. Older teenagers and later families have become invaluable child minders too. It has been of great benefit to meet from within the heart of the parish assembly and fresh from the Sunday liturgy.
Another group has formed in the meantime - meeting on weekday evenings. Because of catechists and sponsors and by now the experience of the rites of acceptance, reception and confirmation and first Eucharist for those others there is a bond between the two groups. There is a sense of a heightened challenge – a goal that is achievable and empathy. The awareness goes both ways. For example, it mattered to those who went to the cathedral at the beginning of Lent that others were exploring in the ways that they had. At the same time it caused some excitement and a sense of unity for the inquirers.
In a sense it is a ‘messy’ process because of new inquirers joining a group who are in the early stages of getting to know each other. Yet it feels right. Ironically perhaps, it seems peaceful and is at once energising and calming. People who are still new in their exploration of catholic Christianity are themselves encouraged by, and encouraging of, new comers. It has made the RCIA process even more just that – a fluid process. We find that we don’t have to try to avoid the idea a programme. Liturgical catechesis feeds all of us and the issues that are brought by inquirers and that catechists suggest for exploration have no set sequence and get revisited along the way.
There are, of course, hurdles to overcome. There is a shortage of trained catechists and no diocesan provision to call upon. Inevitably the RCIA team is stretched even more in terms of time and commitment. Will we reach a time when we have confident catechists to lead in the initial stages and others to lead catechumens and candidates? Perhaps. For now we will endeavour to respond to the Spirit who prompts inquirers long before we meet them and try to offer “catechesis suited to their needs, [and] contact with the community of the faithful…” (RCIA n401)
Cheap Grace?
In Journey in Faith groups we are always preparing. We prepare ultimately so that choices about life and eternal life can be made and we prepare to celebrate the rites of Christian initiation along the way. Constantly we prepare, in ourselves and with others to live continually the consequences and responses to the ‘sign posts’ of the road we follow.
The celebrations of the rites for which we help others prepare seem always to be an experience beyond the expected for them. Words always seem to fail to express this experience of God’s action in the liturgies. Time after time, like so many others, I have glimpsed the bright sparkle in the eyes [the soul?], the intake of breath [the Spirit?] and the comparatively limp: “That was good” or “I enjoyed that”. The words usually carry some surprise because of the nervousness felt beforehand and because whatever was expected it wasn’t the response that struggles so much for words.
Moreover, the rites that are celebrated within the parish community don’t only take the candidates to unexpected places but affect everyone. Interest, encouragement (given and received), prayer and the reaching out to the new candidate/catechumen seem to overflow more each time, along with an increasing sense of responsibility. Those attending the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion in the Cathedral last week report their exultation too. One sponsor claimed that she was “On a high” all the way home and couldn’t stop talking about it when she got back. The candidates’ experiences went beyond their ability to convey.
We seem to be given so much to delight in for the ‘planting’ and planning that we do so that God can give the increase! What a privilege to be instrumental in preparing for the possibilities of moments when the Spirit of God moves over the waters of our lives.
Like Jesus in the gospel account for Lent week 3, year B, we long to clear a way for God, so that God is given space and time – so that honour can be given – so that all can experience the love offered and hear God’s desire for our love in return. In a bustling market that excludes those to whom the space belongs, that is, the Gentiles in the outer precincts of the temple, God has no point of contact because they are pushed out. In our preparation tasks we don’t usually make whips and throw tables around! We do, however, have times when we too are driven a zeal for what and who belongs to God. We fight to hold on to “Christ, the power and wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1, 2nd reading). This could be a stumbling absurdity in presenting a crucified Christ, if it weren’t for the fact that he is a real and living presence in our parish communities: witnessed in the ‘bits and pieces’ of life’s struggle. God’s way with and for us – be it called a law, rule, reign or dream – is simply a way of love
We know that being simple does not make it easy and we challenge those who inquire about our Way of living with the cost of discipleship, as we ourselves are challenged. There’s no cut price, no easy route. We find out the tough way the meaning of Jesus’ offering of a “yolk that is easy and a burden that is light”. It costs; it is not cheap. As Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship:
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a [person] must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a [person’s] life, and it is grace because it gives a [person] the only true life.”
On the other hand, Bonhoffer’s thoughts on ‘cheap grace’ is a warning that we too could set up stalls where they ought not to be found and so put up the stumbling blocks that Paul writes of.
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. “ ditto
May our Lenten journey keep us true to the cross that gives us true living with Christ in God. In our preparation to enter the Paschal mysteries this Easter may the foolishness of God, in all its wisdom, be with us.
Journey to the Baptism
The journey through advent and Christmastide leads to the feast of Jesus’ Baptism and beyond. The journey of our inquirers and candidates, of course, also lead to baptism- to be ritualised and experienced by the former and explored and honoured with the latter. In the scripture readings of the seasons we have heard of many people on the move. For example, in Isaiah we heard messages for the exiles in Babylon, and later we heard some exultation at their return. With Luke we glimpsed Mary’s journeys to Elizabeth and to Bethlehem and with Matthew, the journeying of the wise ones. Each liturgy of the Word has echoed within our experiences and each has given reasons to stop and ponder and maybe given directions for our way ahead.
Perhaps the feast of the Baptism of the Lord may encourage us, with our inquirers and candidates, to look back over this advent/Christmas journey. The journey shared alongside the sometimes-hectic preparations for the diverse celebrations of Christmas.
On the first Sunday of Advent we heard the pleading of Isaiah: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…” Is 64:1. On the last day of the Christmas season we hear the words of Mark: “...just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart…” Mk 1:10. The feast of the Baptism of the Lord takes us away from the child of Christmas to the adult at the threshold of ministry. Heaven is torn apart, barriers are removed and God claims the Beloved and is well pleased with him.
At our moment of baptism (which is an ongoing reality now!) the union of heaven and earth becomes real too and each is ‘the beloved’ of God with God’s favour resting on us – what marvels! Jesus told Nicodemus that, ‘unless he be born again of the water and the Spirit, he could not enter into the kingdom of God’ cf John 3:5. The General Introduction to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults says:
“Baptism, the door to life and to the kingdom of God, is the first sacrament of the new law, which Christ offered to all, that they might have eternal life…. That is why the Church believes that it is its most basic and necessary duty to inspire all… to that true and living faith by which they hold fast to Christ and enter into or confirm their commitment to the New Covenant.” n3
Advent and Christmastide 2008/9 could not be just a routine or familiar journey for us at the start of another year’s liturgical cycle because the covenant is ever new and the Word of God living and active. The presence of those that we accompany on their journey to baptism or to full communion makes the familiar ever fresh. So I ask: what have I as a Christian and as a catechist experienced and learned in this time? What have been the challenges presented by the self-giving God-with-us and needs of people nearby and faraway? Isaiah’s invitation to “come to the water” Is 55:1 seems to challenge me to discern again how I live my baptism now, how to keep on the road of on-going conversion so as to be awake to the disciples of Christ who seek baptism or full communion with us.
Liturgically we arrive at the waters of the Jordan and the verge of public ministry and a return to ‘ordinary time’. Like Mary we have pondered mysteries in our hearts and continue to ‘wonder at all that is said about him.’
On this journey in faith with inquirers and candidates I need frequently to check my bearings along the road. There’s no sure satellite navigation for this journey! Is it the way of Jesus in the gospel: Baptism followed by ‘desert’ time, then announcing the Kingdom of God, going about doing good and proclaiming forgiveness? Can it really be that just by being, each person is the ‘beloved of God, and we can know ourselves to have God’s favour, having God’s Spirit.’ (cf Mk1 Baptism of the Lord)! Isaiah recommends that journey “to the waters…” and to “Seek the Lord…” (Is 55, Baptism of the Lord). If I can be faithful to that journey and recognise when I veer off course perhaps I may be used as some kind of signpost on the roads others follow.
The Ongoing Challenge of Being Church
During the early part of this year we had talked increasingly about our hopes for future developments in implementing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. We discussed wanting to begin year-long invitation opportunities for people who may wish to know more about living a Catholic Christian life.
Our other main area of concern was how to be much more faithful to including, or should it be allowing, the whole parish to take its due role in evangelisation and catechesis. That is, to “be always fully prepared in the pursuit of its apostolic vocation to give help to those who are searching for Christ”. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, n9. How do catechists, in the task of assisting an initiation process, avoid at best being the ‘yeast’ consciously working on behalf of the parish and at worst an exclusive group? We need to unveil more the role of parishioners as threshold companions.
If something like monthly opportunities to meet with, question and find welcome from catholics were to happen we had to involve all parishioners. Both objectives went hand in hand. We knew that perceptions and experience of RCIA could develop more with this process.
To begin with the discussion needed to be opened up for fresh dialogue…to start a ripple effect at least. Hence, parishioners representing some ministries, activities and interests, as well as different age groups were personally invited to come together to explore ways in which we could become an even more welcoming parish.
The Spirit of God doesn’t hang around waiting for our ideas to come to fruition, of course. We had thought that our hopes for regular welcome sessions may be our fresh way to being open to inquirers. The week before the exploratory meeting inquirers came seeking! The ventures happily became parallel sooner than anticipated.
Thankfully, when the invited group met they did not want to hear and then just rubber stamp the ideas proposed but responded to the questions raised and added their own. What happened was an appraisal of how welcome is experienced by all and how it could be. We prayed together, reflected and explored suggestions about who the people are whom we want to welcome. The list included: ourselves, new parishioners, the curious, those who may wish to re-discover a once familiar belonging along with those who have a wish to get to know the Lord and us better and may wish to begin a process towards initiation.
What has happened so far is that the discussion continues among parishioners as the group talk with others. The newsletter was used to alert all to the meeting beforehand and to give a brief account of the ongoing nature of the enterprise. One of the most heartening outcomes was a date in diaries to meet again as a steering group – one that is open and inclusive and listens. A decision that will be worked on initially is to use Christmas, with its customary visitors and ‘returnees’, as a first step in offering invitations to ‘come and see’. It is intended to offer a couple of dates for informal gatherings to be planned for soon after Christmas. Similar action was envisaged for Easter and September. We can work more then with suggestions of how this is to be done and explore materials like those available from CASE (Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation).
Other questions raised were around how welcome is practiced weekly and how to utilise better our restricted entrance space. Work had begun some time ago on compiling information about the parish in the form of a parish booklet and action was decided on bringing that to fruition.
What we learned was a lesson in how listening and dialogue change and open up ideas – perhaps this is an affirmation of the principle that where even ‘two or three gather together…’ [After apologies, we were 12 or 13!]. We also learned something of the need to change pace in order to include the values and perspectives of others. One step at a time…and need for patience while ‘God gives the growth’!
The hope for yearlong group opportunities to welcome potential inquirers had started with two of us. It took a day or so to realise that this had not been rejected but transformed for the moment and may come in the future. However, there is a sense of shared growth, enthusiasm and responsibility that is enlivening.
Ultimately we have the Spirit of God prodding us to honour the pastoral cycle of continuously bringing ideas together, allowing new ones to be born and moving into action: to explore the mystery of Christ. We are conscious that those of us with leadership in Christian initiation in the parish have the task of keeping the vision of the Rite to the fore in all areas of parish life.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with our spirits!
Catherine D