Cometh the hour…
I'd always dutifully thought of the miracle at Cana in terms of a foretaste of the new wine of the Kingdom. I've always listened to the homily! But at Mass today another thought crept in, a picture of Jesus at this morning's wedding, waiting for a sign: when to begin the Great Work. Having refused to turn stones to bread for his own hunger and called his disciples together for whatever is to come, suddenly here is his mother at his elbow, giving him the same story: the wine has run out: my son, they have no wine! Jesus has promised his disciples visions of angels ascending and descending, but here is a crisis on the catering front. He says to her, Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come. But Mary has had years to ponder the angel's message, and she recognises hours when they come. She gives the instructions: Do whatever he tells you, and all are astounded at the quality of the wine-from-water.
It is as though Jesus realised that the sign he was waiting for might not be the mighty voice of his Father, but the quiet voice of his mother speaking out a human need. And so his ministry begins, life-giving miracles and meals with friends, transfiguration on the mountaintop and stories of lost coins. This is a man who will know if a sick woman touches his cloak to find healing, who will find faith in unexpected places and change his attitude, who will fight against ordinary, unthinking human injustice. Heaven may well open, with angels ascending and descending, but in the meantime Jesus goes among people who are in need. Nothing is too small or too great for the One who has put death beneath his feet, the second person of the Trinity.
Following Jesus, trying to be like him, is something which comes gradually. I've written elsewhere about how I fell into the Church through the liturgy and the music, a route I wouldn't change. But it meant that Jesus himself became for me a public figure glimpsed through the liturgy, whether as one of the 'presences of Christ' or a the star of the Gospels. In catechesis, he wears many hats: Son of God, Son of Man, Saviour, Emmanuel, Head of the Body which is the Church. To meet Jesus for the first time as someone who responds to the people he meets every day is something altogether different. Jesus challenged by his mother, Jesus, compassionate, Jesus, quick on the uptake, Jesus, powerful. All these hats, these titles are for something, and that something is us, his people. And not when the hour comes, but now, in our need.
What does this morning's Gospel mean for us today? Maybe, if we are following Jesus Christ and trying to be like he is, just maybe it's a reminder that the right time for compassionate action is not later on, as a New Year's resolution, or during Lent, or when we think we're ready, but now, now, now.
Listen: whose voices do you hear?
Baptized into a Way of Life
Things happen when Jesus is ‘at prayer’. ‘At prayer’ for Jesus is definitely not about a cozy chat with the Father but about the possibility of being transformed in such a way as to be open to ‘not my will but yours be done’. This week we are invited to reflect on what it is to be baptized.
I have often wondered what it would be like to be baptized into the Church as an adult rather than as a baby. I have never regretted the fact that my parents and extended family following the long tradition of our Church had me baptized within weeks of being born. I have been fortunate indeed that my understanding of what it means to be baptized has grown and developed over the years. I now know, in a way that I never understood for many years, that I am continually called upon to be baptized rather than simply be a card holding member of the Church.
I was recently asked to officiate at the baptism of a family friend’s child. I was told that they wanted the baptism done by someone they knew and would like to have it done privately. I agreed, provided that they approached the parish priest, also a friend of mine, and got permission. After a little discussion it was agreed that baptisms really aren’t ‘private affairs’. In fact there were six baptisms that day. The service and the community gathered together proved very powerful indeed. I took the opportunity to point out that where the Church was concerned the most important thing the parents could do for their children was to love one another. And if they do that they would do something that no school, college or university could ever do. They would teach them the importance of fidelity, of learning to trust, of kindness, of the importance of forgiveness and generosity. In formal religious terms they would give them the gifts of faith, hope and charity. I also pointed out that if we had the eyes to see and the ears to hear then we would ‘see the heavens open, and see the Holy Spirit descend upon each one of the children and hear the voice from heaven say to each one “You are my daughter/son, beloved, my favour rests on you.”
It is easy to say these words it is another thing to allow them to shape your life. In the case of Jesus of Nazareth when he emerged from the baptism of John he began his public ministry how much more so when we emerge from the waters blessed by the fire of the Holy Spirit are we called to live in a more radical way. As I said at the beginning of this reflection it has taken me quite a number of years to come to some understanding of what it means to be baptized and to try to live as a baptized person.
To be baptized either as a adult or as a young person of suitable age certainly offers richer possibilities than being baptized as a child. As the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults reminds us – ‘The Adult is the Norm’. While the ‘normal’ is the child – the ‘Norm’ is the adult. I love the moment when the adult is baptized – it is a definitely a threshold moment. It both confirms and deepens the faith already present in the life of the person. It is obvious that the person being baptized is not just becoming a member of a club but entering a living community of faith. I love the ceremony of clothing the adult with a white garment as a sign of that new life. Each year in the parishes in which I served, to welcome the Elect, the custom grew that all who attended the Easter Vigil would consciously wear something white to indicate putting on Christ. Those who had previously being received into the Church came wearing the white garment that had been out over their shoulders during their reception.
While ‘at prayer’ in Luke’s Gospel Jesus reveals to us something of the mystery of the Trinity and offers a profound reminder that we are all baptized into the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- Take time this week and over the coming weeks to reflect on the challenge to live as one baptized into the love of God.
- Reflect on what it is to be plunged into the waters of life rather than standing on the shore and dipping one’s toes into the shallows.
- Ponder on the difference between saying prayers and being ‘at prayer’
The coming of the Magi – a message for our time
To many people the Magi are the ‘three wise men’ of Christmas cards and nativity plays, and of the carols we learnt as children. Yet what little we know of them suggests that they were on a journey of faith. Whatever their religious background we presume that they were not Jews yet they made the connection between their own observations of creation and the Jewish scriptures. They were earnestly searching for the truth. They were prepared to think outside of their cultural box. Yet ultimately, beneath all the historical and cultural baggage, there is only one truth. Their appearance in the Christmas story emphasises that The Word was made flesh for everyone. The Catechism (819) recognises that ‘many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the confines of the Catholic Church’. This is largely referring to non-Catholic Christians, accepting them ‘with respect and affection as brothers’ (818). It also reaches out to those of other religions (839 to 843) and to ‘those, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart’ (847). There are a lot of such people around us these days.
Is RCIA about helping people to become Catholics or Christians? The short answer to this question is, of course, ‘both’. Most people who embark on an RCIA programme want to explore the possibility of being received into the Catholic Church. But RCIA is more than just instruction in what the Catholic Church teaches, important though that is. It is where a group of people at various stages on their faith journey share their experiences and deepen their personal relationship with Jesus Christ together. The Magi were neither Jews, Catholics nor Baptists but I imagine them as deeply spiritual people who, in the words of the catechism, had come to ‘seek God with a sincere heart’.
Some years ago our RCIA group was joined by a lady who was a Baptist minister. She wasn’t considering becoming a Catholic herself but she came to bring a friend. Her friend had been baptised a Catholic but had never been confirmed. The Baptist minister wanted to help her friend to grow in faith in the living reality of Jesus Christ in her life and she thought the best way to do this was to bring her along to RCIA. We enjoyed having our Baptist friend with us each week. She shared her spiritual experience with us and enjoyed sharing ours. She came along to the Easter Vigil to see her friend being confirmed. RCIA is not, of course, primarily preparation of baptised Catholics for Confirmation, but, in this case, it was very appropriate.
I often wonder how we would feel if someone were to come to RCIA and, after getting a great deal out of it and growing in personal faith, were to decide to become a Methodist. The Holy Spirit can surprise us but it’s exciting to see him at work.
What many non-Catholic Christians respect about the Catholic Church is its spirituality - the distillation of 2000 years of reflection and spiritual experience. What we do in RCIA is to share what we have with each other as well as with our enquirers and catechumens. Not all of Our Lord’s disciples are Catholics by any means. If we share our spirituality, our personal relationship with God, rather than focus on just recruiting more Catholics, we shall help to build up the Church in a way that will stand the test of time. Many of the enquirers probably would want to be received into the Catholic Church – because they were hungry for more of spirituality which it offers. And those who do not become Catholics may well go on to build the Kingdom of Heaven in some other way that we would wish to support.
Ecumenism has come a long way since the 1960s. Back then it sometimes seemed that ‘Christian Unity’ could be a case of fudging differences in doctrine. Some cynics would say being united by not being sure what you believed. It soon became accepted that the way to be an ecumenical Catholic was to understand our own tradition better so that we were more able to share what we have with others of different traditions and discover the reality of our shared spirituality. Discussion of doctrinal differences is a job for theological experts and church leaders. Meanwhile there is plenty for the rest of us to get on with at grass-roots level.
John Ortberg wrote a challenging book called ‘if you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat’. Going into the world and making disciples does call for water-walking. The lives of many Saints, and of Christians in general, shows that it is amazing what people can do when they keep their eyes on Jesus rather than on the stormy waters around them.
But I’d like to focus on the importance of having a good strong boat to get back into when our attempts at water walking don’t quite come off. A boat where we can dry our clothes, get some encouragement from our friends, and, when necessary, learn some useful theory.
I chose to become a Catholic because it offered me a safe boat from which I could gingerly try a bit of water-walking. Non-catholic Christians who I meet whilst water-walking come from different boats yet they have been enticed out of them by the same Lord and they walk on the same water. We don’t always understand each other but what unites us is the common spirituality which lies beneath what we say.
Now we see through a mirror darkly but one day we may compare notes with the Magi.
Seeking Resources
Once upon a time this was going to be an article for the Newsletter but lack of space prevented pen being put on paper or fingers to keyboard. The article is about finding resources on the web. It makes more sense to put it on the web and maybe at this time of year you may have time to follow the links and even add your own suggestions.
Rite
The complete text of the Rite is not available on the web. There are two reasons for this. The first is copyright. The second is about technology - one of the effects of the internet is that we expect everything to be available but to be available someone has to put it there. RCIA predates the common use of computers - there is no handy electronic text of the rite. So it would first need to be typed up.
All the introductions of the Rite are available on the Liturgy Office website. There is a project to include the Introductions to all the rites on the website. Even if you do not have a copy of the book you can be familiar with the Introduction. The Introductions to the revised Rites provide the theological underpinning, practical guidance and areas for adaptation.
Scripture
The Jerusalem Bible is again not available on the web for similar reasons to the Rite I expect. The New Jerusalem Bible can be found at Catholic Online. This is not a site I have explored that much- the Bible seems well done. There seem to be quite a few 'pop-ups'. I am not sure how much is based on American Catholic Culture but I did discover that A & E stood for Arts and Entertainment rather than emergency prayers!
The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) will be the core text of a new published version of the Lectionary. The Oremus Bible Browser provides excellent online access. For example, you can, at the click of button, show the text with verse numbers or not - which makes it great for copying.
For some guidance about copyright and how much you can use at one time without need to seek permission see the Liturgy Office website.
One of the great, unsung, ecumenical advances of the last 10 years has been the adoption by many non-Catholic Churches of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This is based on our Roman (or Common) Lectionary. Though the 'revised' parts means that it does use some different principles for choosing readings for the majority of readings on the majority of Sundays we are sharing in a communion of the Word. One of the consequences of this is that there is a wealth of resources on the web based on the RCL. To give just one example the Revised Common Lectionary website has not just the texts but images as well.
Two other Lectionary resources that may be useful for those who have people for whom English is not their first language. The Vienna International Religious Centre provides the readings in a variety of European languages including eastern European. The English text appears to use the Jerusalem Bible (unacknowledged). The Department of Tourism of the Spanish Bishops' Conference offers a similar service. I am uncertain what English version is used (it's not JB, NJB, RSV, NRSV or NAB).
Images
Images can be subject to copyright in the same way as text and music. It is easy to find images which are either copyright-free or where the owner gives permission for their use. Key to finding such images are Creative Commons. This is a system which allows people to show if their work can be used by others. The owner can distinguish whether or not the work should attributed to the author, that the use should be non-commercial, whether changes can be made and finally if the user should make their own work available in the same way as the original. The image at the beginning of this paragraph has a license that states that I can freely use the work and even change it if I wish but I have to attribute to the photographer. If you hover your cursor over the image you should see the title and photographer.
Creative Commons has its own search site which allows you to find images, text, video and music. It does this by using search engines such as google and checking whether what you are looking for they have a CC license. My two favourite sources for images are Fickr and Wikimedia Commons. Flickr is a photosharing site and is great for finding images that can spark the imagination. Wikimedia is better for finding classic art.
Happy searching!
Why not add good resources you have come across in the comments.
Be patient! Be confident!
I find it even more difficult to be patient and wait these days - really I think because of the speed of life, pressure of work, and expectations for instant response. I have an irrational fear of not being ready, or not working hard enough, or of what 'might happen'. And yet as Advent begins, I hear God speak through the First Sunday readings - 'yes, there are nations in agony, and menaces in the world, but dont you be 'coarsened' by the cares of life. Instead, pray for strength, and stand with confidence. Trust in your friendship with God - Christ has already offered salvation, the battle is won, and the life God wants you to live you are living!' That is the Truth, and we are invited to enter, patiently, more deeply into this liberating, life-giving truth. There are tensions in the double-sided message... of 'now' and 'not yet', 'disaster' and 'deliverance', 'destruction' and 'new dawn' - and advent faith says stay awake and actively live with it - and sure enough, if we live the present moment fully, we find signs of the One we are waiting for. As Nouwen says in 'Bread for the Journey' 'waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.'
And I see it on the faces of those being 'Welcomed' or 'Accepted' into the Order of Catechumens - they are such witnesses to patient waiting for me! One Enquirer has been coming to Mass with her little nephew for 6 years (since his mother died - she made a promise!). She is actively taking that first step now, and says it feels so exciting, and so natural. Her enthusiasm is catching - the whole parish seem to be full of advent expectation, really loving this 'new' catechumen who brings new life & hope to us - God is bringing order and beauty amidst the chaos, beginnings and endings, death and birth, dark and light, despair and hopem so in a nutshell, love one another and trust God.
I hope Advent starts well for you - enjoy Thom Shuman's poem:
Every evening it's the same: put the key in the deadbolt, turn and lock; check the windows; put out the cat; leave a light on...
all those routines to feel safe and fall asleep in peace.door open ajar
But some night, in the midst of my security, you will tiptoe into my house,
rearranging the furniture, cracking the combination of my heart, and ransacking all my fears.
Then, softly whistling 'Come Thou Long- Expected Jesus' you will slip out, leaving the door standing wide open
that I might follow you into the kingdom.
Come Lord Jesus! Amen!
Reflections on All Saints Day
There appears to be overwhelming evidence that we share a common 
ancestry with the animal world and that our remote roots go back quite literally millions of years. This is the 150th anniversary of the voyage of the Beagle. The insights of Charles Darwin have coloured our view of ourselves and our world. We hold in our hands the incredible variety and beauty of creation along with the cold restlessness of ‘survival of the fittest’. A restlessness endlessly challenged by the human experience of compassion and mercy.
The readings of the Eucharist for the feast of All Saints remind us that we are not just the accidents of an evolutionary process but are touched by something of the divine – we are in the words of St John “already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed”. We are still growing - one could say evolving, into a new creation.
The quality of that ‘new creation’ is found most profoundly in the person of Jesus of Nazareth – in whose life we discover the limitless riches of what it is to be a compassionate, merciful, forgiving, generous human being and the price that is paid for living such a life, challenging as it does the power structures of the ‘survival of the fittest’ mind set of our world.
The feast of All Saints is a celebration of the countless people whose lives have been touched by the example of Jesus of Nazareth. Not just the obvious St Francis’s or St Therese’s of our tradition but the so called ordinary people who have touched the lives of others by their compassion and generosity of spirit. Murmur name upon name of those who have graced your life and you will begin to move into the mystery of this feast and discover that you are literally standing on holy ground.
In the Celtic Tradition of these Islands this time of year is called Samhain. It marks a significant divide in the year’s cycle – a movement into the dark but creative time of the seasons of the year. It was known as a ‘thin time’ – a time when it was possible for movement to take place between the Two Worlds of the Celtic Imagination. It was a time of creativity and mystery, not without the possibility of discomfort and danger. The ‘trick or treat’ celebrations of Halloween with the emphasis on ghosts, witches and all things that go bump in the night are a pale reflection and mere shadow of this ancient tradition. The feasts of All Saints and All Souls are more than likely a Christianisation of that tradition. Reminding us that to live as followers of Jesus is to live in ‘thin times’ – to live as beatitude people
- To be on the side with those who have no status
- To grieve in solidarity with those who have lost their identity
- To be open to the possibility of God’s action in our world
- To hunger for justice and peace
- To be merciful in all cases without exception
- To live in integrity and truth
- To actively pursue the cause of true peace (Shalom)
- To be open to the possibility of rejection without bitterness
The poet Brendan Kennelly in the poem “The Good” reminds us that..
“The good are vulnerable
As any bird in flight,
They do not think of safety,
Are blind to possible extinction
And when most vulnerable
Are most themselves.”
He concludes the poem with these two lines
“I think that I know one or two
Among my friends”
The first reading of the Mass for All Saints is an affirmation that far from there being only ‘one or two’ the numbers are impossible to count of those who have born witness to the life and teaching of Jesus. The question for each one of us is:
“Can I add my name to the list?”
The importance of sycamore trees
The importance of sycamore trees
Before I became a Catholic, reading and reflecting on Scripture, hearing the Word expounded, meeting with other Christians for prayer and praise, and praying on my own, were all important things I did in the practice of my faith. And when I did became a Catholic they remained just as important to me, although I also began to appreciate the reality of the Mass much more than I had before. I encountered some more things people did, such as the Stations of the Cross, saying the rosary, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, honouring Our Lady and the Saints and asking them to pray for us, and going to places like Lourdes. I now understand some of these practices more than I did and am much the better for doing so. The others I may come to understand more fully one day in the future when the Spirit leads me in that direction. But I see them all as part a fascinating spiritual landscape to be explored. A corporate distillation of 2000 years of shared spiritual reflection
But how many hours a day should I spend in prayer, or in reading the Scripture or in saying the Office, and how often should I say the rosary or go to Mass during the week, and how much of my money and time should I give away to those in need? The answer could well be ‘a lot more than I do’ but, apart from the useful discipline of the Sunday obligation, it’s the S word – the should word that often indicates that the cart is before the horse and that there is a major loss of the plot. St Paul (1 Corinthians13:3) went as far as saying ‘and even if I give up my body to be burned – if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever’. What St Paul (and, indeed, St Thérèse of Lisieux) meant by ‘love’ was inseparable from an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Originally the word ‘charity’ meant this kind of love (derived from the Latin caritas), but somehow the ‘should’ type of do-gooding gave birth to the unpleasant expression ‘as cold as charity’.
Sycamore Fig
Zacchaeus (Luke chapter 19) was a rich man but his riches did not win him any friends. His neighbours hated him as a tax-collector and a collaborator with the Roman army of occupation, and they suspected him of ripping them off. When Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming, the crowd would not let him get through to the roadside as Jesus came along. Being, like me, vertically challenged, he couldn’t see what was going on. But Zacchaeus had one quality that was to prove the gateway to life. He knew that he wanted to see Jesus very much indeed. He was so determined that he single-mindedly climbed a tree*, perhaps spoiling his expensive clothes in the process and causing some loss of dignity. But he wanted to see Jesus more than anything else. And not only did he see Jesus but Jesus looked up and saw him. And Jesus honoured him beyond his wildest dreams – he chose to come eat with him in his house. Here was totally undeserved and freely-given grace that filled him with joy. We are not told whether Jesus told him that he should clean up his act or even ‘should’ give up being a tax-collector. But when so much love is freely given there isn’t any ‘should’ about it. Zacchaeus reacted to the grace offered by Jesus by repenting and wanting to make amends to anyone he had defrauded by misuse of his office.
Religious practices are good sycamore trees if they help us to see Jesus and to reach out to him. If we let them become ends in themselves they are sycamore trees on the wrong road into Jericho. But if we let the living Holy Spirit lead us to the ways of organising our spiritual life according to where we are at the moment on our faith journey, the Lord will be spending more time at our house.
*The sycamore of the Bible is not the familiar Acer pseudoplatanus, (a kind of maple) that is so common in Britain but the Sycamore Fig , Ficus sycamorus . The tree Zacchaeus climbed would be much smaller than the ones around Wuthering Heights!
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.
What were you arguing about on the road?
We have just had Sheila O'Dea (formerly of North American Forum on the Catechumenate) with us in the Diocese for three days reflection on our practice of RCIA. At the centre was the Word of God for last Sunday - and the whole thing of 'what were you arguing about on the road,.. being afraid... not saying anything.' This particularly struck me because it amazed me that the 'arguments' about initiation of adults come about because people dont even have copies of the Rite and are simply doing their own thing - many clergy hadnt opened the Rite since they were given it, let alone have studied and reflected on it together, with people from their parish. So that was the first point of encouragement: everyone who is involved at 'leadership' level in the process should have their own copy of the rite, read, mark up and inwardly digest! The Rite is the skeleton and our task is to put flesh on it, and not to replace it with a programme!! Flowing from this essential of knowing the rite inside out, the second point of encouragement: to get to know the community inside out too! If initiation of adults is the responsibility of the baptised and takes place in the heart of the community, a gradual process accommodated to the liturgical year, then we must know the community, and then we can 'link up' our enquirers with people who can accompany them - a single mum with another mum for example, a 20-yr old university student with a student, a family with a family and so on..
The third point of encouragement: the whole mystery of Christ really does unfold over the course of the liturgical cycle, and if we are reflecting on the Word of God Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, then we can be sure that our catechesis will be suitable and complete. These 'feasting on the Word' for at least one year is what the Church calls 'appropriate' preparation - together with the catechumens we feast and grow into the Body of Christ.
RCIA is about who we are as Church - and the focus is not about 'getting sacraments' but on becoming a member of the Body of Christ and doing the mission of Christ! RCIA is about how we celebrate Liturgy and how this forms us as 'Church'. RCIA is about how we do catechesis - and the goal is communion with Christ. And finally, RCIA is about living and sharing the life we have with others - to be a place, a heart, that offers hope and listening, peace and reconciliation - the mission!
What now? Well if we really believe that RCIA is not about 'them' but about 'us', then can we do a few simple things for ourselves?
Encourage 'feasting on the Word' for all the community - many many Catholics still havent heard that God is really present in the Word... there is a 'famine of hearing the Word' (Amos). Can we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word really well every Sunday, and teach people how to open to the power of God's presence through the Word?
Q: To start with, have all the Ministers of the Word in your parish been offered and taken up formation? Including praying with the Word? And then, what about other opportunities to reflect - in families, neighbours, parish groups of any kind?
You Can’t Be Serious!
Over the past couple of Sundays the foot stamping antics of the bold John McEnroe questioning the referee decisions at Wembley seem very appropriate. It is easy to imagine Peter and the other disciples talking among themselves saying “He can’t be serious?”
“How could He possibly mean that the whole adventure will end in total failure? – on a Cross! Surely not!”
“And what does he mean by saying we must become like a stateless child, one who has no say and that’s the way to leadership!”
“And we must work with others who are outside our group and not shut them up!”
He can’t be serious – but maybe He is.
A number of years ago with a small group we visited the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi – it was a most moving occasion. What stayed with me, however, aren’t the beautiful frescos by Giotto or even the image of Francis himself but the question put to us by the American Friar who led us around the building. “Before we begin, can I ask you; “Are you here as tourists or pilgrims?” Rather shame faced we replied “Pilgrims”. Then he said “Great – I will try to bring you into something of the experience of Francis.”
The question has continued to haunt me. Am I a tourist or a pilgrim? – The tourist goes on a journey and tries to capture the moment taking the photo before even looking at the scene, trying to capture the moment - a journey of refreshment and hopefully excitement but essentially the tourist doesn’t change. The adventure just adds to his or her levels of experience and possible knowledge. The Pilgrim on the other hand sets out on a journey where hopefully he or she will experience change, possibly radical change, and come back seeing with different eyes, becoming, in the words of St Paul, a new creation.
These past few weeks are definitely an invitation by the Man Himself to get off the tourist journey into becoming an Adult Christian and move away from a rather shallow discipleship – away from the pick and mix of many a market based media approach to spirituality with instant formation and preference. The invitation is to step into deeper waters, to reflect and grapple with the riddles and ambiguities of the Man from Galilee – a task not just for one or two evenings but for years to come.
How is it possible to die and rise again – to be open to complete failure– and make that a creative way of life?
If we are caught up in the language and behaviour of “Who is the greatest?” what hope is there for true peace?
The great Mohammed Ali, used the phrase “I am the Greatest” not simply as a sign of personal vanity but as a profound challenge to the prejudices and bigotry of his own nation at a time when black people were very definitely second class citizens. Is it possible to use the language of dying and rising, becoming like a child, working with those outside of our group, beyond the pale, in a similar imaginative way?
The challenge to catechists, inquirers and catechumens is to allow the gospels of these weeks to find a deep home within and to resist the temptation to water down these radical sayings of Jesus and like the disciples to hide behind: “We don’t understand what he’s saying and we’re afraid to ask”. Or like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane to simply run away.
Surely! He can’t be serious?