Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Priorities and Expectations

Today's Gospel reading is from Luke - the story of Jesus, Martha and Mary:

In the course of their journey Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered: ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’

When I read this story I'm reminded of the importance of staying aware of priorities in life. And I suppose along with priorities come expectations and perceptions.

Jesus doesn't seem like the type of guy who would come to your house and expect to have all sorts of food to served for him to snack on, to have his cup always filled and so on. But Martha had certain expectations of how guests are to be treated. Some of her approach was probably cultural, but surely some of it was just how Martha thought things ought to be done. If you have a guest, it's just polite to make sure they are comfortable, and it's also sort of an honor to serve them.

I picture Mary as the independent-minded little sister, the one who's occasionally irritating others because she's doing her own thing, bucking the trend and tradition. She's looking at a situation and thinking 'what can I gain from this?', and then she goes for it. Both Martha and Mary had probably heard of Jesus and knew how important and special he was. They had different ways of responding – he's an important guest for me to serve; and he has a lot of important things I need to listen to.

For me, the story shows how Jesus came more as a servant than a guest to Martha and Mary, to share with them and enlighten them. Jesus points out to Martha, and to us, that he's wanting us to listen to him rather than spend a lot of time on peripheral things that make us all more comfortable. Those peripheral things around our encounter with Jesus are fine and comforting, but they are not the priority and they can't get in the way of our encounter with him.

We spend a lot of energy and resources on being comfortable in our encounter with Jesus. We spend millions on building huge, grand churches and related buildings; I've heard them actually called 'campuses'. We spend all sorts of mental energy taming the Gospel and creating logic to soften some of the sharper points Jesus spoke about. We emphasize parts of the Gospel that are attractive to us and push the rest into the background. We spend more time listening to so-and-so who preaches a good message (i.e. a message that is comforting and nonthreatening to our point of view) than we do listening to Jesus.

That can all be more comfortable than sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to his message, without interruptions, or distractions, or anything else to water it down. And it's a bit more threatening because if we really listen like that, our lives might change.

Room for each other

I've been wondering what to write about the pope's recent decision to allow unrestricted use of the Latin Tridentine Mass. Honestly, I've been very busy and haven't had all that much time to think about it, but today I had some time to catch-up on blogs and get an idea of what was being said about all this in the Catholic blog community. And I was saddened by much of what I read. If someone was to form their view of the Catholic church based on what they read in blogs, they would get a very disturbing and warped version of things. Back in the early church Tertullian wrote of Christians of his day: 'See how they love one another'. What would he say now if all he saw were Catholic blogs?

Is this unfettered availability of the Latin Mass going to make much of a difference in the Catholic church? I have no idea. If it draws some people closer to God then that's great; if it ends up dividing the church then that's bad. Either way it goes, it will be because we've decided to go there. Yes, it's because we've decided as a church to go one way or the other – to let something draw us, as a church, closer to God and each other, or drive us further apart.

It's pretty easy to blame the pope, neo-Catholics, liberals, Vatican 2, and whatever pet-peeve one has for the church's problems. It's ridiculously easy to do so via a blog, and from behind an anonymous or manufactured online identity. Likewise, it's easy to see a certain concept, movement, or tradition as the key to one's, or the church's, spiritual issues. Reality, and Catholicism, is more pluralistic than that. And the Catholic church is fuller, richer and more diverse than that.

There isn't one way to celebrate Mass, there are a variety of liturgical practices that we can and do draw on as needed. There isn't one type of music that is best for a liturgy, we have many types to choose from. We have hundreds of different orders of priests, nuns and religious – all for a reason and all serving the church in the way they are called to do. We can have a Mass that has long stretches of silence, or lots of chant, choir and organ music, or led by song-leader accompanied by piano. We have room for Carthusians and Jesuits, the Poor Clares and the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace. Diversity, acceptance, charity and understanding are not always very comfortable for us to practice; but it seems to me that's an example Jesus set for us to follow. 'Love one another' can be tough and humbling, but what other way than that will lead us towards God?

As I considered the pope's action and the online community's response to it, a few questions kept popping into my thoughts... Do we have room for each other? Do we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and the church to fullness in Christ? What do my words and actions show the world about the church I call home?

An American Catholic

This morning I was reflecting on Independence Day, the state of our country, and what it means to be an American Catholic. America Magazine had a couple good articles – an editorial titled Independence Day and an article about David O'Brien titled American and Catholic. Elsewhere I read articles about the state of the union today – the war in Iraq, how other nations have a lower favorable opinion of us than they used to, how we spend so much money on the presidential race, and so on. They all make sense, and they left me with an impression that indeed our nation does have problems. But then, no one had a reasonable solution to offer, either.

Then I picked up a book that I had started reading a while ago, a book that my wife recommended: The Gift of Change, by Marianne Williamson. I had bookmarked a certain page, which I often do when I come across things that I want to revisit. So, I took a look at that particular page, and it pretty much hit home with how I am feeling about being an American Catholic. The quote is a bit long, but the context is needed:

This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of moment on earth. It's not OK to be stuck in the smallness of our narcissism when our greatness is so needed. It's time for each of us to face once and for all whatever demons have kept us chained to our neuroses and pain; to stand up for ourselves as a way of standing up for God; and to take our places in God's plan for the salvation of the world.

This is an exciting time and a critical one. It's not a time to be a lone ranger. It's a time, despite whatever our pain and heartbreak, to reach deep into ourselves and humbly towards each other. For there we will find God, and in God there is every answer we are looking for, every solution we so desperately seek, and every joy we might have come to think was gone and gone forever. This is the time, and we are the ones.

And why are we not already functioning at a higher level of mastery? What holds many of us back is not spiritual ignorance but spiritual laziness. We know many of the principles of higher consciousness; we're just too mentally and emotionally undisciplined to apply them universally. We apply forgiveness where it's easy, faith where it seems to make rational sense, and love where it's convenient. We're serious, but not really...

Now contrast that with the advocates of hate.

Do terrorists hate us just some of the time? Do they have a casual commitment to their cause? Do they take less than seriously the goal of full manifestation of their worldview? The only way we will triumph over hate is to become as deeply committed to love as some people are committed to hate, as deeply committed to expressing our love as some people are devoted to expressing their hate, as firm that love is our mission as some are that hate is theirs.

I don't believe we can separate our Catholic identity from our American identity. In fact I believe we're called to integrate them, and the starting point for that is love of God and love of neighbor. It's love that leads to liberty and justice for all. Love leads to good governance of the people, by the people and for the people. And in this crazy world of war, terrorism, immorality, crime, oppression and poverty, it is love that will make America great.

Back from Harlan

Phew! What a time we had last week on the youth group's trip to Harlan, KY. I'm still resting and catching up on sleep. And catching up on work – 400-some unread emails, a few voicemails, and a stack of mail. Work doesn't stop just because I take a week off.

Overall the trip was a good one; there were some rough spots and difficulties but that's just part of the process. Nick wants to go back next year; in fact, he wore his COAP t-shirt to Mass Sunday morning, which is quite a statement of support from a 13 year old. So Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be back there next summer for a week (some Appalachia wore off on me; that's a good thing).

After being there a week, working on houses with this group of teenagers, and getting to talk with a few of the local people, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Reaching out to help those in need is definitely the right thing to do, and there are a lot of people in need there. But there are people in need within a mile of my own house in Cincinnati. Getting the kids familiar with a different part of the world is good; it can open their minds, tear down stereotypes, and build their social awareness. But again, we can find a different world just down the road a few miles – in rural Clermont county or the Over the Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. It was good to help repair peoples' houses there because everyone deserves decent shelter. But, some – not all - of the folks there could have done it themselves.

I came away from this mission trip feeling as if we put a bunch of band-aids on situations that called for more intensive surgery. We didn't really do anything to address the systemic problems there. I'm uncertain if the local community is doing much to address those problems; it seems to me that they do have resources to get started on it if they wanted to. But change comes slowly, and many times with difficulty. Should we also put some of our efforts into helping the Harlan community with systemic change?

And then I need to reflect on the band-aids and systemic problems in our own church community, and  our youth, too. That's going to take some time and prayer. And it is essential to do that. So there's a lot of food for thought and reflection from that week in Harlan; and I suppose that's part of the fruit of that labor.