How was your first year of ministry here at Christ the Redeemer?
With Confirmation last week and all our Faith Formation classes having drawn to a close lots of folks are asking me, “So, how was your first year?” In a word – Spectacular! You all have built a remarkable church here over the past 35 years and I am deeply grateful to be a part of it! Thank you SO much for your sincere and affectionate welcome – and your understanding and patience while I’ve been learning “on-the-job” this year.
My family and I have been spiritually refreshed and edified by the extraordinarily kind and loving community here at CTR and by the stunningly beautiful and moving liturgies that are so thoughtfully prepared. (Holy Thursday! Wowza! My kids were terribly behaved that night, but I was so prayerfully mesmerized I hardly noticed…my apologies for those who sat near us).
It has been a true honor and joy to work alongside the absolutely incredible CTR Staff – I could not have dreamed up a more compassionate, dedicated and supportive group of colleagues….not to mention exceptionally talented and flippin’ fantastic at the work they do! Thanks to Nancy, Marilyn & Crissy for getting all us "newbies" off to such a terrific start AND a HUGE shout out to our Office of Family Ministry staff: Maryalice, Ann, Karen, Michele, Deb & Lisa – I can’t count the number of times you pitched in and bailed me out this year when my kids were sick or I didn’t have a clue of all that needed to be done given my naiveté, or because I simply bit off more than I could chew. A million thanks….make it a trillion.
Sue, thanks for your generous encouragement and for putting up with my delinquent bulletin articles (BTW, I think this one is going to be late too) and Dawn & Christi for their steadfast care and support. Karen & Lisa, gratitude for your inspiring and faithful hard work to keep what is most important – caring for the poor – before all of us in such creative and meaningful ways. I promise, next year my family will volunteer more often! Mari, thank you for your gentle, “sisterly” guidance and beautiful music! Thanks to Derek, Brian, Mike, and Andrew who are so agreeable even in the face of the most ridiculous, last-minute maintenance requests and to our Education Commission chair Dave Zande for his humor and care!
Deep thanks to Fr. Joe for giving a rookie a chance, being forgiving of my blunders and bad memory and for being supportive of virtually every crazy idea I brought into your office this year. It is such a tremendous gift to work for such a creative, brilliant intellect and “artist-in-every-medium” (including liturgy) Renaissance man like you. God was indeed very lavish in pouring out the gifts on you…thanks for sharing them so freely.
Another word for this year would be “BUSY!” Lord have mercy, I am READY for a vacation! I’ve been joking with our staff that I am officially “Jesused-out!” but Jesus knows that like most humorous comments of this nature, it’s only half a joke. I’m desperately in need of a light-hearted beach read, some bad television AND some very intentional and focused FAMILY TIME! My deepest gratitude to my husband Kip, and my daughters Lauren, Audrey & Vivienne who have tolerated my late nights, disorganized mornings, lousy slap-dash meals, and my distracted and more often than not cranky-momma-self this year. Thank you for understanding how important this year was to me and for all your love and support.
The song “Good to Me” by Audrey Assad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKosVfAEUPE) expresses exactly how I’m feeling about this grace-filled first-year here at CTR. I heartily thank God for such great people to “be church” with….and if God wills and you’ll have me, I’d like to stay for many years to come.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #35: Authenticity
How can we support and encourage our young people to engage more deeply in our faith?
There was a terrific opinion piece in the Washington Post this past week entitled “Want Millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’ Here are some highlights:
“In the U.S, 59% of people ages 18 to 29 with a Christian background have stopped attending church. Asked why, 87% say they see Christians as judgmental, and 85% see them as hypocritical. A similar study found that “only 8% say they don’t attend because church is ‘out of date,’ undercutting the notion that all churches need to do for Millennials is to make worship ‘cooler.’ For a generation bombarded with advertising and sales pitches, young people can sense when there is more emphasis on marketing Jesus than actually following Him. Millennials are not disillusioned with tradition; they are frustrated with inauthentic, slick or shallow expressions of religion.”
The author of this op-ed piece, a millennial herself, closes with this quote “What finally brought me back, wasn’t lattes or skinny jeans; it was the sacraments. Baptism, confession, Communion, preaching the Word, anointing the sick — you know, those strange rituals and traditions Christians have been practicing for the past 2,000 years. The sacraments are what make the church relevant, no matter the culture or era. They don’t need to be repackaged or rebranded; they just need to be practiced, offered and explained in the context of a loving, authentic and inclusive community.”
This past Monday we had our final evening of formation for the 67 teens from our community who will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend with Bishop Cepeda. Long time CTR parishioners John & Maggie Williams came in to share a bit about their story – how they listened in prayer and journeyed with God in founding “Bakhita Village” – a shelter and school for young girls in South Africa.
With just a simple power point and some photos of the girls who live and learn at Bakhita, they had our teens full attention. They explained how these girls were living in the most dire of circumstances – no food, no shelter, no education or opportunities whatsoever, some girls were only 12 years of age and taking care of 4 or more siblings because their parents died of AIDS (which 1/3 of the adult population suffers from in that region) and left them orphaned. John & Maggie encouraged our teens at this important time of decision making in their young lives to think on these realities. They invited them to dream a bit about how they might help to alleviate the suffering of others and make the world a more just and equitable place...to really listen to where the Holy Spirit is leading them to share their gifts and charisms as they prepare to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Pope Francis writes “Performing acts of love towards our neighbor is the most perfect external manifestation of the Spirit’s inner grace. Mercy, bearing the misfortunes of others, is the greatest of all the virtues in terms of moral action. Mercy IS God’s justice.”
John & Maggie shared with humility and great joy how they heard God in the suffering of the children in this small village and discerned through prayer and trial and error how they could help. They said “We aren’t saving the world...we are just doing our small part to make the lives of at least these 28 girls better.”
Authenticity does not need to be “marketed.” The Gospel of Jesus speaks for itself, more through our loving actions than our words. John & Maggie witnessed the Gospel to our teens on Monday and closed with two simple ways we all can live a more just life: 1. Share. 2. Don’t waste. Among our teens listening intently, you could have heard a pin drop.
There was a terrific opinion piece in the Washington Post this past week entitled “Want Millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’ Here are some highlights:
“In the U.S, 59% of people ages 18 to 29 with a Christian background have stopped attending church. Asked why, 87% say they see Christians as judgmental, and 85% see them as hypocritical. A similar study found that “only 8% say they don’t attend because church is ‘out of date,’ undercutting the notion that all churches need to do for Millennials is to make worship ‘cooler.’ For a generation bombarded with advertising and sales pitches, young people can sense when there is more emphasis on marketing Jesus than actually following Him. Millennials are not disillusioned with tradition; they are frustrated with inauthentic, slick or shallow expressions of religion.”
The author of this op-ed piece, a millennial herself, closes with this quote “What finally brought me back, wasn’t lattes or skinny jeans; it was the sacraments. Baptism, confession, Communion, preaching the Word, anointing the sick — you know, those strange rituals and traditions Christians have been practicing for the past 2,000 years. The sacraments are what make the church relevant, no matter the culture or era. They don’t need to be repackaged or rebranded; they just need to be practiced, offered and explained in the context of a loving, authentic and inclusive community.”
This past Monday we had our final evening of formation for the 67 teens from our community who will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend with Bishop Cepeda. Long time CTR parishioners John & Maggie Williams came in to share a bit about their story – how they listened in prayer and journeyed with God in founding “Bakhita Village” – a shelter and school for young girls in South Africa.
With just a simple power point and some photos of the girls who live and learn at Bakhita, they had our teens full attention. They explained how these girls were living in the most dire of circumstances – no food, no shelter, no education or opportunities whatsoever, some girls were only 12 years of age and taking care of 4 or more siblings because their parents died of AIDS (which 1/3 of the adult population suffers from in that region) and left them orphaned. John & Maggie encouraged our teens at this important time of decision making in their young lives to think on these realities. They invited them to dream a bit about how they might help to alleviate the suffering of others and make the world a more just and equitable place...to really listen to where the Holy Spirit is leading them to share their gifts and charisms as they prepare to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Pope Francis writes “Performing acts of love towards our neighbor is the most perfect external manifestation of the Spirit’s inner grace. Mercy, bearing the misfortunes of others, is the greatest of all the virtues in terms of moral action. Mercy IS God’s justice.”
John & Maggie shared with humility and great joy how they heard God in the suffering of the children in this small village and discerned through prayer and trial and error how they could help. They said “We aren’t saving the world...we are just doing our small part to make the lives of at least these 28 girls better.”
Authenticity does not need to be “marketed.” The Gospel of Jesus speaks for itself, more through our loving actions than our words. John & Maggie witnessed the Gospel to our teens on Monday and closed with two simple ways we all can live a more just life: 1. Share. 2. Don’t waste. Among our teens listening intently, you could have heard a pin drop.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #34: What is Essential?
What is this “Essentials” Course I’ve been hearing about?
There are three major challenges with our Adult Formation, including our Confirmation Preparation:
First, we have people wanting to become Catholic in the middle of winter. Traditionally they would have to wait until September for the RCIA process to begin. That's a long wait. And some are not available Sunday mornings.
Second, our Confirmation teens really have it going on. They are busy and this is good! Some are training to become superstar athletes; others are very committed to their academic goals. Who among us would not support our young people in this important time of self-discovery and youthful engagement? A handful of our Confirmation teens are genuinely interested in spiritual formation, but, for most at this time in their young lives, we, as church are a peripheral concern….like it or lump it. We don't want to make things overly difficult or frustrating for busy families. Rather, we want to offer more choice and options for our teens to engage in timely and meaningful faith formation.
Third, most of us - even the cradle Catholics among us - find it difficult to articulate the best of our theology. We have a hard time putting into words the essential core theological beliefs that make us who we are. How many of us have found ourselves in discussion with someone and knew at a gut level that they were deeply misrepresenting our tradition but yet didn’t feel confident to respond?
So here's the pitch. Pope Francis is calling us to return to the “Essentials.” He says “we are not to be obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed….the message has to concentrate on the ESSENTIALS, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing.”
So our idea is to offer 10 “Essential” topics on what it means to be a Catholic Christian – the big central ideas that are at the very core of our faith, i.e.: Prayer, Incarnation, Sacraments, Grace, Eucharist, Scripture, Church, Trinity, Suffering, Mercy and Forgiveness.
Our goal is to identify 15 of the best adult catechists from our community (not necessarily schooled theologians, but good communicators and leaders of prayer). We would provide all the resources needed to put together an hour of instruction in the context of prayer on each of these “Essential” topics and to facilitate a subsequent 30-minute potentially intergenerational round-table discussion.
Here’s the UNIQUE PART: These 15 catechists would offer one or two classes each month on the topic of their choice at the time and day of their choice. For some of our catechists maybe 10:30AM on Friday mornings is best for them, or Tuesdays at 3PM. Odds are that their weird day and time would be good for someone else in our community too!
With 15 catechists, this model could offer up to 30 “Essential” topics EACH MONTH at all different times and days which would form the backbone of both our Confirmation Prep and RCIA program. This model would allow our Confirmation teens to begin their formation early and take two years to finish if they like OR they could kick out the lion’s share in as little as three months if they needed to. Our RCIA folks could begin anytime ….the very week that they inquire! The wider community could connect anytime.
So, that’s the idea. Interested in getting involved? Shoot me an email! And/or send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org
There are three major challenges with our Adult Formation, including our Confirmation Preparation:
First, we have people wanting to become Catholic in the middle of winter. Traditionally they would have to wait until September for the RCIA process to begin. That's a long wait. And some are not available Sunday mornings.
Second, our Confirmation teens really have it going on. They are busy and this is good! Some are training to become superstar athletes; others are very committed to their academic goals. Who among us would not support our young people in this important time of self-discovery and youthful engagement? A handful of our Confirmation teens are genuinely interested in spiritual formation, but, for most at this time in their young lives, we, as church are a peripheral concern….like it or lump it. We don't want to make things overly difficult or frustrating for busy families. Rather, we want to offer more choice and options for our teens to engage in timely and meaningful faith formation.
Third, most of us - even the cradle Catholics among us - find it difficult to articulate the best of our theology. We have a hard time putting into words the essential core theological beliefs that make us who we are. How many of us have found ourselves in discussion with someone and knew at a gut level that they were deeply misrepresenting our tradition but yet didn’t feel confident to respond?
So here's the pitch. Pope Francis is calling us to return to the “Essentials.” He says “we are not to be obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed….the message has to concentrate on the ESSENTIALS, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing.”
So our idea is to offer 10 “Essential” topics on what it means to be a Catholic Christian – the big central ideas that are at the very core of our faith, i.e.: Prayer, Incarnation, Sacraments, Grace, Eucharist, Scripture, Church, Trinity, Suffering, Mercy and Forgiveness.
Our goal is to identify 15 of the best adult catechists from our community (not necessarily schooled theologians, but good communicators and leaders of prayer). We would provide all the resources needed to put together an hour of instruction in the context of prayer on each of these “Essential” topics and to facilitate a subsequent 30-minute potentially intergenerational round-table discussion.
Here’s the UNIQUE PART: These 15 catechists would offer one or two classes each month on the topic of their choice at the time and day of their choice. For some of our catechists maybe 10:30AM on Friday mornings is best for them, or Tuesdays at 3PM. Odds are that their weird day and time would be good for someone else in our community too!
With 15 catechists, this model could offer up to 30 “Essential” topics EACH MONTH at all different times and days which would form the backbone of both our Confirmation Prep and RCIA program. This model would allow our Confirmation teens to begin their formation early and take two years to finish if they like OR they could kick out the lion’s share in as little as three months if they needed to. Our RCIA folks could begin anytime ….the very week that they inquire! The wider community could connect anytime.
So, that’s the idea. Interested in getting involved? Shoot me an email! And/or send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #33: Discernment
What does that churchy word “discernment”
mean?
Discernment
is the practice of distinguishing the voice of God from among the many different
voices that vie for our attention: expectations
of others, cultural pressures, our own inner critic or tendency toward perfectionism,
etc. The root word for “discern” means
to “cut away.” So, discernment is the
art of identifying all the many voices in our lives, sorting through our own tangled
motivations and cutting away all but those that come from God.
In our
scriptures we often hear the “voice” or call to live for others, unselfishly,
both in terms of our time and our resources; to put the needs of others before
our own. Jesus himself said ‘there is no
greater love than to lay down one’s life for others.’ We must fight with all we’ve got to put an
end to injustice, to care for the sick, feed the poor, and be peacemakers in a
troubled world. Not to mention the “teeny-tiny”
demands of family life; caring for our children and/or aging parents &
relatives. This voice is undoubtedly of
God, so, there is no disputing the truth that being a Christian means being a
person for others…
But, we
also hear another voice, sometimes very LOUDLY, that seems to be calling us in
the opposite direction, towards comfort, pleasure and restful security. This voice tells us to enjoy life, to take
care of ourselves and find time for solitude.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says if we can manage
to sort through how our culture has distorted this voice – we will find
a bit of God’s truth here as well.
Many
times in our scriptures Jesus tells us to find a deserted place to pray, take time
to reflect, eat and rest. Jesus sought
solitude and encourages his disciples to do likewise, not just to be alone, but
to be alone with God fostering an awareness of life that we stand to lose in
the blur of daily living. We are
instructed to be still and savor our relationships and opportunities for fun
and laughter. This voice invites us to
enjoy and appreciate the creativity and the sheer beauty in nature, art, sex,
reading, romance and intelligence that make life worth living.
Both
of these voices taken to the extreme, have their dangers. Discernment is the delicate art of listening
for God in both. On the one hand we must
guard against becoming self-righteous, compulsive “do-ers.” Thomas Merton was once asked what is the
leading spiritual disease of our time.
With one word he answered, “efficiency.”
He said that our problem is not so much our ‘badness’ as our ‘busyness.’ We are so busy with our to-do lists and
packed calendars that we do not take time to reconnect with our source, and
listen to what God wants us to become, in terms of our character and
development as a person.
“Instead
of becoming genuine martyrs, we are becoming people with ‘martyr-complexes,’
frustrated people who have become negative and manipulative in the name of love
and service. Times of rest, solitude and
prayer are not lavish, self-indulgent, or optional aspects of the Christian
life…They are non-negotiable essentials” (Rolheiser).
Time
is a (THE) hot commodity these days, and how we spend ours says a lot about who
we are. We are called to recognize and
respect the complexity of our lives and live thoughtfully with integrity and no
small amount of grit and moxie – not an easy task! Jesus knew well the feel of work and
tiredness, but he also enjoyed time alone in prayer and fun with friends around
the dinner table.
I must
say though that my writing this article is more than a bit ridiculous, because
if I died today I genuinely fear my tombstone would read “Here lies Lisa. She was very efficient.”
Send
your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past
columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #32: The Attraction of Joy
The Easter Vigil was so beautiful and it’s wonderful to see new people joining our church, but I also read recently that our Catholic membership is at an all time low. What are we to do?
“Our lives are about trying to imitate the God we believe in. But, we are so used to the ‘One-False-Move’ God we're not accustomed to the ‘No-Matter-What-ness’ of God: the God who is too busy loving us to be disappointed with us! This is the hardest thing to believe, yet everybody knows it is the truest thing we can say about God.” (Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ)
No matter who you are, what you believe, what you have done, if you go to church or not, you ARE loved. There is little you can do about that. In fact, there is NOTHING you can do about that. It is simply not in your power to change God’s love for you. It is impossible, like turning off the sun.
God’s love for us is not PART of the message - it is the ONLY message of Christianity. All the rest is maintenance, details, sinking in, and our response to this affection. God waits, with eager anticipation, for us to ‘get it’ – for us to receive this good news in our bones and to live out of this loving acceptance and flourish from it like a flower thrives on water.
If our weekend Masses are genuine celebrations of this good news then we need not use obligation or fear of hell to draw others in. We don’t even need a clever marketing scheme. Pope Francis says that "sourpuss" Christians (those that “have the face of a pickled pepper”) who do not communicate the joy of being loved by God do great harm to the witness of the church. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction.”
So what are we to do? Well, seems at the very least we should be joyful. At our best, if we have truly taken hold of God’s love for us with no small bit of tenacity and courage then people would see this love effecting the way we live and the choices we make and it would be infectious (like the old saying “Faith is caught, not taught.”).
If we fully live out of this love in which we believe and are joyful, powerful people, in the best sense - changing the world with our response to God’s love - our neighbors at the grocery store will start asking each other “What in the world are those Christ the Redeemer people ON anyway? Curiosity alone would be bringing people to our door wondering why all of us are so danged hopeful, free, and generous - and more than a bit extravagant in all those things because that which we have received is so lavish, unbridled, and extravagant. Our RCIA folks certainly, thankfully, recognized something of this in us…
It’s not about plastering a fake, happy smile on our face. Happiness is rare and fleeting. Rather God’s love brings a joy that is a solid, stable disposition that comes from knowing who we are and that our lives have meaning no matter the circumstances we currently face. Joy comes from knowing that we belong, that we matter and even though things may sometimes look rather bleak, our decision to love DOES make a difference.
With That Moon Language (by Hafiz, 14th Century Poet)
Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud; Otherwise, someone would call the cops.
Still though, think about this...this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear....
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
“Our lives are about trying to imitate the God we believe in. But, we are so used to the ‘One-False-Move’ God we're not accustomed to the ‘No-Matter-What-ness’ of God: the God who is too busy loving us to be disappointed with us! This is the hardest thing to believe, yet everybody knows it is the truest thing we can say about God.” (Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ)
No matter who you are, what you believe, what you have done, if you go to church or not, you ARE loved. There is little you can do about that. In fact, there is NOTHING you can do about that. It is simply not in your power to change God’s love for you. It is impossible, like turning off the sun.
God’s love for us is not PART of the message - it is the ONLY message of Christianity. All the rest is maintenance, details, sinking in, and our response to this affection. God waits, with eager anticipation, for us to ‘get it’ – for us to receive this good news in our bones and to live out of this loving acceptance and flourish from it like a flower thrives on water.
If our weekend Masses are genuine celebrations of this good news then we need not use obligation or fear of hell to draw others in. We don’t even need a clever marketing scheme. Pope Francis says that "sourpuss" Christians (those that “have the face of a pickled pepper”) who do not communicate the joy of being loved by God do great harm to the witness of the church. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction.”
So what are we to do? Well, seems at the very least we should be joyful. At our best, if we have truly taken hold of God’s love for us with no small bit of tenacity and courage then people would see this love effecting the way we live and the choices we make and it would be infectious (like the old saying “Faith is caught, not taught.”).
If we fully live out of this love in which we believe and are joyful, powerful people, in the best sense - changing the world with our response to God’s love - our neighbors at the grocery store will start asking each other “What in the world are those Christ the Redeemer people ON anyway? Curiosity alone would be bringing people to our door wondering why all of us are so danged hopeful, free, and generous - and more than a bit extravagant in all those things because that which we have received is so lavish, unbridled, and extravagant. Our RCIA folks certainly, thankfully, recognized something of this in us…
It’s not about plastering a fake, happy smile on our face. Happiness is rare and fleeting. Rather God’s love brings a joy that is a solid, stable disposition that comes from knowing who we are and that our lives have meaning no matter the circumstances we currently face. Joy comes from knowing that we belong, that we matter and even though things may sometimes look rather bleak, our decision to love DOES make a difference.
With That Moon Language (by Hafiz, 14th Century Poet)
Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud; Otherwise, someone would call the cops.
Still though, think about this...this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear....
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #31: Growing in Faith
I was very uncomfortable with your article in the Easter bulletin about disagreeing with church teaching. If what you propose is valid theology, doesn’t that make truth relative?
No, but it does recognize that we don’t know ALL of the truth quite yet. As one of my old Loyola professors used to say, we always need to approach the divine mystery with a healthy sense of epistemological humility, which simply means we are able to say with a great sense of surrender and awe before our great God “we don’t know it all.” Which, truly, if we DID ‘know it all’, then God would not be God, right?
Our scriptures say, Jesus “grew in wisdom and maturity” and he was the ultimate model and example of a human being, so why would we not need to grow too? It would be our hope that each generation moves a little bit closer to God, and grows in truth, yes? Perhaps the disagreement that we experience in our pursuit of truth and our understanding of God’s revelation is often a result of growing pains within the Body of Christ. But, if in the face of this conflict we resist the urge to “take our toys and go home” we can learn much from what Pope Francis calls “constructive dialogue.” Disagreeing? Perhaps, but listening….always listening with an openness to where God may be inviting us to expand our thinking. Listening for God’s presence and revelation in one another and consenting to the call to “grow up.”
Author, priest and theologian Diarmuid O’Murchu says, “Tradition is not about HANGING on to the truth, but HANDING it on!” Each generation needs to do the hard work of meaningfully updating our core beliefs, through mature reflection on all our new experiences and knowledge gained, so we can effectively hand on the faith to our children. That is why the theology of our grandparents no longer cuts the mustard! It shouldn’t! Because we have grown, it does not connect with our experience. It is not relevant to our lives.
St. Paul said “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Cor 13:11). And Galileo said “I do not feel obliged to believe that the God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use!” This is not to say our grandparents were “childish” or dim-witted in their faith. They were no doubt prayerful, pious, smart people in touch with God and their theology was exactly where it was expected and meant to be for their time. The question is: can we say the same about ourselves?
“When we are confronted by evidence that the faith in which we were brought up no longer provides an adequate explanation for the nature, meaning and purpose of our lives, we have three choices:
1. We can refuse to accept the evidence and continue as before (but this is rather intellectually dishonest. Putting on blinders has never served anyone well in the pursuit of truth).
2. We can abandon the faith we grew up with because it has proved to be inadequate (this is intellectual laziness, an unwillingness to wrestle and update the faith for our children).
3. Or, third, we can accept all our new knowledge and experience and use it creatively to develop a more mature understanding of what lies at the CORE of our beliefs. This third choice is a stance of critical acceptance, leading to a reinterpretation of our core concepts. It recognizes that every advance in understanding invites us to a deeper faith. (John Feehan).
So, in short, growing in truth does not make truth “relative” it makes it “relevant!”
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
No, but it does recognize that we don’t know ALL of the truth quite yet. As one of my old Loyola professors used to say, we always need to approach the divine mystery with a healthy sense of epistemological humility, which simply means we are able to say with a great sense of surrender and awe before our great God “we don’t know it all.” Which, truly, if we DID ‘know it all’, then God would not be God, right?
Our scriptures say, Jesus “grew in wisdom and maturity” and he was the ultimate model and example of a human being, so why would we not need to grow too? It would be our hope that each generation moves a little bit closer to God, and grows in truth, yes? Perhaps the disagreement that we experience in our pursuit of truth and our understanding of God’s revelation is often a result of growing pains within the Body of Christ. But, if in the face of this conflict we resist the urge to “take our toys and go home” we can learn much from what Pope Francis calls “constructive dialogue.” Disagreeing? Perhaps, but listening….always listening with an openness to where God may be inviting us to expand our thinking. Listening for God’s presence and revelation in one another and consenting to the call to “grow up.”
Author, priest and theologian Diarmuid O’Murchu says, “Tradition is not about HANGING on to the truth, but HANDING it on!” Each generation needs to do the hard work of meaningfully updating our core beliefs, through mature reflection on all our new experiences and knowledge gained, so we can effectively hand on the faith to our children. That is why the theology of our grandparents no longer cuts the mustard! It shouldn’t! Because we have grown, it does not connect with our experience. It is not relevant to our lives.
St. Paul said “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Cor 13:11). And Galileo said “I do not feel obliged to believe that the God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use!” This is not to say our grandparents were “childish” or dim-witted in their faith. They were no doubt prayerful, pious, smart people in touch with God and their theology was exactly where it was expected and meant to be for their time. The question is: can we say the same about ourselves?
“When we are confronted by evidence that the faith in which we were brought up no longer provides an adequate explanation for the nature, meaning and purpose of our lives, we have three choices:
1. We can refuse to accept the evidence and continue as before (but this is rather intellectually dishonest. Putting on blinders has never served anyone well in the pursuit of truth).
2. We can abandon the faith we grew up with because it has proved to be inadequate (this is intellectual laziness, an unwillingness to wrestle and update the faith for our children).
3. Or, third, we can accept all our new knowledge and experience and use it creatively to develop a more mature understanding of what lies at the CORE of our beliefs. This third choice is a stance of critical acceptance, leading to a reinterpretation of our core concepts. It recognizes that every advance in understanding invites us to a deeper faith. (John Feehan).
So, in short, growing in truth does not make truth “relative” it makes it “relevant!”
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Crazy Catholic Question #30: Disagreeing with Church Teaching
Can I disagree with church teaching and still be considered a Catholic?
OMG - YES! We would be VERY hard-pressed to find anyone among us who does NOT struggle with the teachings of the church on at least one point (or two…or ten). Think of our own families. Do we believe every, single thing that our parents believe about raising children? Money? Social issues? Politics? Even about what being a follower of Jesus concretely looks like? So why would our global family/church be any different? Why would the Body of Christ not reflect the conflicts that are going on at our most local level; our own dinner tables?
Our Catholic doctrine changes and develops over time. Conflict is often essential to our growth. As witnessed in the bible (Gal 2) when Paul “opposed Peter to his face” because he was avoiding eating with gentiles. Paul said this was not in line with the Gospel and Peter heard him and changed his ways. This is a model of how conflict can lead to clarity.
“Doctrines are ideas, and ideas always change because they exist, not in books, but in people. Ideas change the way people change, according to their different experiences and the new insights and understanding that follow from those experiences.” (Cardinal Newman) The discovery of truth and God’s revelation is not a “once –and-for-all” kind of thing. It is ongoing, dynamic and therefore always changing….and change more often than not brings conflict with it.
Pope Francis recently said “If we go out and encounter new people, cultures, and religions, we grow and begin that beautiful adventure called dialogue. Dialogue is the only way for individuals, families and societies to grow and progress. All wars, conflicts and troubles we encounter with each other are because of a lack of dialogue. Dialogue involves asking the other, ‘Why do you think this?’ and then listening to the response.” So honest, heartfelt, passionate, sometimes opposing dialogue is not optional for us….
Every time I hear someone say “I was raised Catholic, but….” I want to cry. One out of every 10 Catholics have left the church mostly because they feel that our leadership is unwilling to really listen to the experience of women, gays, divorced, remarried, or plain ol' married couples, etc.…
1 Cor 12 reads: “You ARE the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it… there should be no division but all the parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Welp, it’s pretty plain to see that the Body of Christ is limping…and it’s no doubt because we are missing some indispensable limbs!
One of our parishioners recently wrote a thoughtful and passionate letter to our Archbishop about how she thought it was morally wrong for priests to announce at weddings and funerals that “only Catholics in good standing” are permitted to receive communion. She thinks this is a blatant and painful violation of the unconditional love and inclusiveness that Jesus taught and ultimately died for. I wonder what would happen if all of us sat down and penned an honest letter to our bishop about what we (valuable members of the body of Christ) think we Catholics are doing well - and maybe not so well - in our efforts to follow Jesus? Or maybe even write to Pope Francis - he seems to be listening! His address is: His Holiness, Pope Francis, Apostolic Palace, 00120 Vatican City.
As Sr. Joan Chittister always says, "If you're going to leave, don't leave quietly, And if you're going to stay, don't stay quietly!"
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
OMG - YES! We would be VERY hard-pressed to find anyone among us who does NOT struggle with the teachings of the church on at least one point (or two…or ten). Think of our own families. Do we believe every, single thing that our parents believe about raising children? Money? Social issues? Politics? Even about what being a follower of Jesus concretely looks like? So why would our global family/church be any different? Why would the Body of Christ not reflect the conflicts that are going on at our most local level; our own dinner tables?
Our Catholic doctrine changes and develops over time. Conflict is often essential to our growth. As witnessed in the bible (Gal 2) when Paul “opposed Peter to his face” because he was avoiding eating with gentiles. Paul said this was not in line with the Gospel and Peter heard him and changed his ways. This is a model of how conflict can lead to clarity.
“Doctrines are ideas, and ideas always change because they exist, not in books, but in people. Ideas change the way people change, according to their different experiences and the new insights and understanding that follow from those experiences.” (Cardinal Newman) The discovery of truth and God’s revelation is not a “once –and-for-all” kind of thing. It is ongoing, dynamic and therefore always changing….and change more often than not brings conflict with it.
Pope Francis recently said “If we go out and encounter new people, cultures, and religions, we grow and begin that beautiful adventure called dialogue. Dialogue is the only way for individuals, families and societies to grow and progress. All wars, conflicts and troubles we encounter with each other are because of a lack of dialogue. Dialogue involves asking the other, ‘Why do you think this?’ and then listening to the response.” So honest, heartfelt, passionate, sometimes opposing dialogue is not optional for us….
Every time I hear someone say “I was raised Catholic, but….” I want to cry. One out of every 10 Catholics have left the church mostly because they feel that our leadership is unwilling to really listen to the experience of women, gays, divorced, remarried, or plain ol' married couples, etc.…
1 Cor 12 reads: “You ARE the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it… there should be no division but all the parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Welp, it’s pretty plain to see that the Body of Christ is limping…and it’s no doubt because we are missing some indispensable limbs!
One of our parishioners recently wrote a thoughtful and passionate letter to our Archbishop about how she thought it was morally wrong for priests to announce at weddings and funerals that “only Catholics in good standing” are permitted to receive communion. She thinks this is a blatant and painful violation of the unconditional love and inclusiveness that Jesus taught and ultimately died for. I wonder what would happen if all of us sat down and penned an honest letter to our bishop about what we (valuable members of the body of Christ) think we Catholics are doing well - and maybe not so well - in our efforts to follow Jesus? Or maybe even write to Pope Francis - he seems to be listening! His address is: His Holiness, Pope Francis, Apostolic Palace, 00120 Vatican City.
As Sr. Joan Chittister always says, "If you're going to leave, don't leave quietly, And if you're going to stay, don't stay quietly!"
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com
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