Walking the Rite way

Every time you turn on the radio or the telly these days, its doom and gloom and credit crunch.  None of us, whatever our financial ‘profile’ is immune from the effects of this, whether its the pension fund, or the high street bank we use, exchange rates, cost of heating and fuel, food, mortgage, even jobs.  How does the Gospel speak into our lives this week?   How does it fire up our faith when the going gets a bit tough?  How does it support our catechesis for bringing people into communion with Christ?  The entrance antiphon for 29th Sunday in OT is a call for  protection, the opening prayer for strength and joy, Isaiah ‘from the rising to the setting of the sun, apart from me, all is nothing’.  Paul begins his letter offering grace and peace from God, and encouraging faith in action - ‘when we brought the good news to you, it came to you not only as words, but as power and as the Holy Spirit and as utter conviction’.  Jesus, caught between a rock and a hard place, says legitimate government has authority and deserves our co-operation.   Easy to get bogged down in worries, payment of bills and taxes, and forget to cash in the revealed treasure of God’s salvation, freedom, and all the gifts poured out for our lived lives!  These wonderful mysteries of our faith and our ordinary lives are not separate realities, but find their full expression in each other.  As Seamus O’Connell, Professor of Scripture at Maynooth says, some people in restaurants refuse to put down the menu and do not taste the food - we know the teaching, we know the Gospel - but its useless unless we consume it and allow it to nourish us for every eventually, every worry, every ‘crunch’, every need.  The Communion antiphon from Sunday’s Liturgy supplies: ‘See how the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his love;  that he may rescue them from death and feed them in time of famine.’  Let’s be aware of people whose basic needs are not being met.

Those who have loved and lost know what Good Friday and Holy Saturday feel like – and know too the yearning for hope beyond them.  The Paschal Mystery at the heart of our faith offers that hope and our sharing of it may start with a simple invitation to come to Mass in November and light a candle in memory of a loved one.

Some seeds of ideas …

• This November, draw on some of the traditions of the Church and live them with catechumens and candidates.
• Consider ways of using this season of remembrance as a means of evangelising with those who plan the liturgy.

• Explore appropriate ways for those involved in bereavement support to act as evangelisers.

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 26^th 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.

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.

Caesarea Philippi is situated at the foot hills of Mt Hermon on the borders between Jordan and Israel. It is an extraordinary place. The waters of the river Dan, one of the sources of the river Jordan, flow out of the base of the mountain, ice cold and fresh. Carved into the side of the mountain are the remains of the cave dedicated to the god Pan to whom the area was originally dedicated. The generative powers of the gushing waters were taken as signs of the fertile qualities of this god of nature, still captured in its current name of Banyas. It is a truly significant place. During the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth it was the site of the capital of the region ruled by Herod the Great’s son Philip. It was he who dedicated Paneas (Town of Pan) to Caesar.

It is little wonder that one of the key questions of Matthew’s Gospel , “Who do you say the Son of Man is?”(the gospel for the coming Sunday) is set in this part of ancient Israel. The area was redolent with answers of all kinds. The area spoke of the awesome power both of the fertility god of nature and the might of ancient Rome and it’s Emperor. Powers rarely questioned. Where we’re concerned the context for the question put by Jesus appears to be very different, no longer do we believe in the god Pan and the power of ancient Rome has passed away. However the realities which they represent are very much present in our culture and society. We are surrounded by all kinds of offers “guaranteed to give us life in abundance”, not gushing from the foot of Mt Hermon but flowing out at us in a constant stream of images and adverts: -coming from the various forms of media, offering a plethora of alternative possibilities of life style to one and all. Total freedom of choice: ‘after all it’s your life, do with it what you will’. As for Caesar and his military power, he has simply changed his clothes. He now wears a collar and tie or a free flowing garb. The approach of Pax Romana (Pax Britannica or Pax Americana), which maintains peace through the use or threat of violence has more adherents than the more vulnerable approach of Pax Christi.  The world of Caesar hasn’t quite passed away.     

The question put by Jesus is a real question but it is not a request for a definition of belief, a catechism answer, no matter how accurate that answer might be. It is an invitation to answer from the depth of our own relationship with the person of Jesus. I love the story told by Anthony De Mello where he imagines a conversation between Jesus and a Christian:

The whole process of the RCIA at its heart is a journey of formation rather than of information. Sadly in many cases we give in to the danger of overloading the information to the detriment of the formation. Next Sunday’s Gospel gives us time to pause whether we are continuing to journey each week with an enquiry group or a catechumenal group or taking the time out to prepare for a new start after the holidays. The question still remains in our complex world: “Who do YOU say the Son of man is?”

In the middle of August, we have this well-known Gospel, which echoes powerfully with us as a parish,  in the ‘holiday season’ trying to maintain contact with our candidates - feeling we are battling against the odds…..  And He made us get into this wretched boat and go on ahead while he dismissed the crowds (yes, dismissed!) and went up into the hills for a nice quiet time by himself!  We quite fancy a nice bit of quiet ourselves.

Well, in this story there is room for both - time for quiet refreshment in the ’sheer silence’ on the hillside (Community Bible translation of ‘gentle breeze’ (in 1 Kngs 19:12) and with the psalmist to ‘hear what the Lord has to say, a voice that speaks of peace’,  and time for battling with our own fears and immaturity as we attempt to move forward with the process of initiation. 

On reflection, perhaps rather than highlighting Peter’s doubt, it is is his courage and faith that is emphasised when he says in the height of the storm on seeing Jesus walking towards them, ’Order (or ‘tell’)me to come to you’ and Jesus says ‘Come’ and he climbs out and gives it a go!

So what have we been ‘giving a go’ this Summer?  The ‘group’ has not been meeting to break the Word, which could be seen as a disapointment.  However, the sponsors have been alongside our candidates these last weeks, sitting with them at Mass, bringing them to parish picnics, prayer vigils for Zimbabwe, and pilgrimages to local shrines, as well as continuing to share on the Sunday Gospels over a coffee, and telling stories of their own experience, for example, of reconciliation, as this sacramental opportunity approaches for the one who is to be received into full communion in September (on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross - most appropriate for him).  Our neophyte has got married - so that has been a great joy in the whole parish community.  He specifically wanted the recitation of the Creed in the nuptial mass because it has come to mean so much to him.   So on reflection, the community and the candidates have been quietly getting on with the business of helping ‘those who are searching for Christ in the various circumstances of daily life’. (RCIA9)  Perhaps, gradually we are moving towards a more liturgical/mystagogical apprenticeship!

As it is probably a general view of this blog that an all year round catechumenate is a good things, if not an easy thing. It seems appropriate that the blog does continues all through the year. As with a year round catechumenate it does not mean that the same level of offering is present but contact and support is kept up.

In this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 14:13-21):

• Jesus withdraws to a lonely place
• The crowd catches up with them and he has pity for them
• It is evening and the disciples want to send people away for some food
• Jesus tells the disciples — give them something to eat themselves
• They have 5 loaves and 2 fish — Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them
• There is more than they wanted.

A Paradox — perhaps

The disciples are told to provide the food themselves and find they have more than enough. Often what we are looking for is already present whether it be new team members or sponsors. The resources, the people we need are present in our parish — in fact they can come from no where else.

However those we seek to evangelise we need to begin to seek from beyond our familiar boundaries. It is worth reflecting on where those who been through the RCIA process in the past have come from and wondering what might be done to widen our ‘net’.

St Paul is at the heart of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. In the Easter Vigil, the beating heart of the process, the reading from St Paul to Romans describes what we are about:

When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised into his death.

Other traditions in the Church taking a different set of imagery for Baptism based on the Baptism of Jesus and John’s writing of the water and the Spirit, but we have Paul and the intimate connection between baptism and the Paschal mystery - the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. If the Paschal Mystery is the Big Bang it is Paul who is its Stephen Hawkings! Coming so soon after the event and realising that everything had changed. That Christ’s death and resurrection changed everything, but not only that but that we have a part in it.

For all his rhetoric Paul’s image of the body is central to his thinking — that we all have a part in being Christ, we are Christ’s ambassadors.

Paul is at the heart of the Rite in another way. At the very centre of all Paul’s writing is a person — Christ. Even though Paul never met Jesus in the flesh it is his response and devotion to the person who turned his life and all his thoughts around. Nothing was ever the same again.

In this year of St Paul:

• See how the second reading at Sunday Mass might feed your reflection and catechesis.
• Find out what your diocese is doing to celebrate the year.
• Have you a favourite passage — why not share it with your catechumens.
• Give a number of short passages from Paul for their prayer and reflection — there are times when Paul seems to be a string of familiar quotations

I love the feast of SS Peter and Paul. The stories offered to us on the 29th June are prison stories, one in Jerusalem the other in Rome. Read them and reflect (Acts 12:1-11 and 2 Timothy 6:6-8. 17-18). Indeed, they are powerful.

Peter guarded, watched, bound in chains, sadly reminiscent of the experience of many a captive and hostage. In the story Peter is presented as at ease with the situation, asleep in fact, and as in a dream the chains fall from his hands, the doors open, his guards utterly unaware of what’s happening and he walks free. Did it really happen? Or Are we offered a profound insight into the nature of the Church at its best. The truth that nothing, not even being tied down, watched, guarded and chained, similar to the story of the Gerasene Demoniac, can stop the good news of the Gospel from being preached and lived. A sign that we as members of the Church should never out of fear attempt to tie down, bind, chain, watch or silence those with whom we might disagree.

Paul also in prison, awaiting execution, totally free in himself, reminiscent of some of the greats of our world, people who have the ability to put terror into me, at any rate. Free people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, St Thomas Moore, Dorothy Day, Edith Stein, Nelson Mandela and others: Those who hold up the possibility of internal freedom, of being truly human. Those who force me to look deep into myself and recognise the compromises, rationalisations and half truths I hide behind. Who make me wonder if there is any other way to achieve that kind of freedom than the way of the Cross. The image of Jesus on the Cross hands stretched out, blaming no one, holding all, compassionate to the end, forgiving and reconciling all comes to mind and is echoed in Paul and those other greats of our world. For myself I find a tendency to find fault and blame, though at my best, I know that it shows a lack of true freedom.

My own favourite stories of Peter and Paul are:
A) Peter on the Via Appia running away from the persecutions and meeting the Risen Christ on his way into the city. The great question Quo Vadis (Where are you going?) resulting in Peter’s return to the city of persecution and solidarity with the suffering where in fact he becomes the Rock wherein the Church and even the Vatican are built. A legend certainly but then again legends are profound conveyors of truth, like grass through concrete, they never quite go away and haunt the imagination. Where are you going? - a great question for anyone involved in the RCIA.
B) Paul responding to Peter’s compromise with the more traditional group of Jewish Christians operating as he was out of fear as described in the Letter to the Galatians 2:11-14. “I opposed him to his face”. In our terms serious debate and strongly held views are to be encouraged and treasured in a search for what is genuinely true and authentic:- A model for Church and Parish and Society!

Ah yes! Peter and Paul you invite us to listen to the words which are found around 365 times in the Bible “Do not be afraid” and not just to listen to them but to allow them to find a home within the heart.

It’s a shame that, at least as far as Sundays are concerned, we only hear the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus once every three years.  As a story that shows the power of meeting Jesus in the Word and Eucharist, it is wonderful for all Christians - and a real gift for those in these early days of mystagogy.  It’s a Gospel we can go back to from time to time and reflect on how we have met Jesus - and what effect this has had on our own discipleship.

At some point, the weather in the UK has to improve - our bleak weather at Easter must soon give way to springtime! There are signs of spring around us - but they are hard to spot from under and umbrella or behind a scarf and hat. So, having a bit of faith… let us assume that this is the week when it will be warm enough to get outside and maybe take an Emmaus Walk for ourselves.

New Catholics might like to do this with their godparent or sponsor - or it could be done in small groups. The main thing is to ensure that there is space for talk - and space for the silence in which the Word can speak. It can be useful to give each person a certain amount of time - to speak without interruption or to keep silent - their companion offering respectful listening before having their own time to speak.

The Walk can be divided roughly into four parts. Though each part will have its own dynamic and there has to be flexibility if something really significant comes up, it is important that all four areas are experienced to give a sense of wholeness and completion by… Participants can always agree to come back to the parts that seem worth revisiting.

Read the first part of the Emmaus Story: Luke 24: 13-17

What were the sorts of things that we were discussing at the beginning of the Journey to initiation? And what issues along the way caused us to ask hard questions - perhaps even to wonder if this was the right path for us: was this man Jesus actually the one we wanted to follow? What helped to resolve the issues - or are there still things we are pondering on?

Read the second part of the Emmaus Story: Luke 24: 18-27

What are our memories of the Easter Triduum? Of Holy Thursday evening? Of the solemn celebration of the Lord’s Passion and the long hours of waiting at the end of Good Friday and Holy Saturday? How easy was it to feel part of the events we were recalling? What emotions did we experience?
What spoke to us in the Word of God during those days? Where did we hear the voice of Jesus as the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus did - speaking - explaining - challenging - as we listened to the many pieces of Scripture of the Triduum?

Read the third part of the Emmaus Story Luke 24: 28-31 (If this can be timed to arrival at a convenient hostelry or tea room for refreshments so much the better!)

What was the experience of taking part fully in the Liturgy of the Eucharist like? What did it mean for me - does it mean for me - to recognise Jesus in the breaking of bread?

Read the final part of the story: Luke 24: 32-35

So - having encountered our Risen Lord in our confusions and questions - in the Word of God - and in the breaking of bread - what are we going to do with it? Leave it all behind with the hymnbook at the end of Mass? Or…
As we walk back to our own “Jerusalem” what do we take back - and how do we share that with other people?