Christ's Call to "Renew My Church"

In a pivotal scene from the 2000 historical drama 13 Days, which chronicles the behind the scenes maneuverings during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's been discovered that a Russian cargo ship has slipped passed the United States Navy's blockade of Cuba. In the War Room the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, is overseeing what is officially being called a quarantine, keeping his eyes on the admirals and generals, who he and President Kennedy suspect are itching for an excuse to start a shooting war with the Soviet Union. When he overhears an admiral give the order to fire upon the ship, he quickly intervenes and a shouting match erupts between the two. The officer informs McNamara that they were firing warning flairs, not shells. It's implied that the Secretary is in over his head and should leave them alone to do their job - the Navy has been running blockades since the days of John Paul Jones, proclaims the frustrated admiral.

McNamara informs the admiral that it is he who is out of his depth, not seeing that President Kennedy is actually engaging in an entirely new form of military diplomacy designed to avoid war while protecting American interests. He says, as he points up to the big board tracking the ships:

"This is not a blockade. This is language. A new vocabulary, the likes of which the world has never seen! This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khrushchev!"

I was reminded of this scene recently when I attended a day of reflection and prayer for parish staffs and volunteers here in Chicago (Cicero, to be exact). Cardinal Blase Cupich has begun an initiative of reorganizing the parishes of the Archdiocese which is called Renew My Church. The symbol of the initiative is the San Damiano Cross, in front of which St. Francis prayed, and from which Jesus spoke to him, telling the Saint to "Rebuild my Church." The Church in Chicago doesn't need to be rebuild, but like the Christian community of all times and places, we need to be renewed in the Spirit so as to be more effective evangelizers for today. We are at "Phase Zero," at this point of the initiative, as the facilitators put it. We are to get together with the other parishes in our groupings, get to know each other, and maybe engage in what is being called "soft collaboration": maybe holding joint processions or social out reach programs before the formal implementation of the groupings over the next several years. These moments of reflection were opportunities for the members of the various parishes to come together and begin the process.

I was reminded of this little episode from the movie, not because there were any dramatic confrontations at the two sessions I attended, far from it. But that at times I felt that the questions being asked from the floor, while reasonable, were missing the point. Participants were asking what plans the Archdiocese had for things like ecumenical outreach, vocation recruitment and bringing fallen away Catholics, especially young people, back to the Church. Again, all valid concerns. But Renew My Church is not a pastoral plan in the traditional sense, where the orders come down from the Pastoral Center to the parishes, and it's up to each place to check off a list of predetermined tasks. It very much is a new language, spoken with the vocabulary of subsidiarity and shared responsibility. The question isn't what is the Cardinal is going to do, or what plan does the Archdiocese have, but rather how are our parishes, working in concert as opposed to isolation, going to address the challenges faced in their neighborhoods and towns.

This doesn't mean that the Pastoral Center doesn't play a vital role in the life of our local church. Cardinal Cupich has already begun reorganizing the the bureaucracy of the Archdiocese, streamlining the central offices while putting more staff into the vicariates, to help the parishes where they live. In many ways he is following Pope Francis' lead of decentralization. The Cardinal, like the Pope, gives us the big picture scenario, but it will be pastors, their councils, volunteers and parish groups who will see, judge and act according to the needs on the ground. 

Cardinal Cupich is well aware that there is a crisis in both vocations and young people leaving the fold. He is personally involved with ecumenical efforts, especially with the Islamic community. But who knows your parish community better than you? Who knows your children better than you? Who knows the ecumenical landscape in your area better than you? At the same time, we may know that something is wrong, but don't know how to address the issues. Or, we have been doing things the same way for so long that we really don't see what's going on beyond the church parking lot, or that it has anything to do with us. This is where the Archdiocese, under the Cardinal's leadership, can assist the local parish groups to formulate and execute a plan to fit their situation. 

This won't be a quick or painless process. People are worried about the future of their parishes, and that's understandable. One person Tuesday night asked where the money from any potential parish land sales would go, and even though he was reassured that any proceeds from real estate deals stay with the local community, I don't think the questioner believed it. But again, while an understandable question, it still misses the point. The purpose of the groupings isn't to close and merge parishes. That may be a byproduct of Renew My Church, but it's not the goal. The goal is to get parishes working together, sharing pastoral resources, working to their strengths. A parish that has a strong religious education program can pick up the slack for ones that may be weaker in that area. Another with a developed social outreach initiative can take the lead for the group with that. It will mean forming intentional disciples of Jesus Christ, who have a real friendship with Him, and are dedicated to leading others into relationship with the Savior. 

Renew My Church will only succeed in the long run if we all have a change of mentality, and this will not be easy. Bishops and pastors needs to take a good part of the blame if the faithful find it hard to trust. For too long bishops and pastors have been positioned as regional executives and middle managers in what George Weigel calls "Catholic Church, Ink," with he pope as CEO. Clerics became seen as professionals instead of ministers of the Word and Sacraments.  The perception still is that pastors are always asking for money, and leading fundraising efforts rather than serving as spiritual guides. Pope Francis is trying to break that image, getting back to the model of bishops and pastors as fathers and teachers of the Faith, first and foremost. This is the Scriptural and patristic image of the bishop, as well as the vision Vatican II called the Church to recapture. The role of administrator of the goods of the Church will always be an important part of what bishops do (it's in the Bible too), but the first job is to guide the flock with a shepherd's care, binding the spiritually wounded, calling back to stray, building bridges to the world. They are the first animators in that mission to make disciples and lead people into friendship with Christ. 

This is what Cardinal Cupich is proposing. It's the vision of Pope Francis translated to the reality of Chicago. It's the vision of the Church as an evangelizing force on mission, not an institution to be maintained, with the parish and new groupings serving as the launching pads. It's an ambitious program, but one that can be implemented with openness to the Spirit, who wants to teach us a new language with a vocabulary that speaks of intentional disciples in deep friendship with Jesus, on fire with sharing the Good News of salvation. 

St. Patrick: Virtue of Temperance (3/17/17) from the Apostleship of Prayer

Between the Desert and the Mountain Top

The First and Second Sundays of Lent offer us contrasts in style and substance. This past Sunday we heard from the Gospel according to Matthew about Jesus in the desert being tempted by Satan. Jesus is weak and vulnerable after 40 days of fasting. The devil tries to appeal to His desire for physical sustenance, as well as higher aspirations for power and prestige. All these temptations were meant to distract Jesus from His mission, derailing it before it even started.

This Sunday coming up we will hear from the same Evangelist about the Transfiguration. Far from presenting us with the seemingly powerless man in barren places, just keeping it together in the face of trials, we see Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is manifested in Glory, as He will be known in the Resurrection. The three Apostle witnesses, Peter, James and John see Jesus in a dazzling vision, with Moses and Elijah by His side. Moses represents the Law, Elijah the prophets: together they represent the Old Testament that foretold the coming Messiah. This vision, powerful but short lived, is meant to give these three pivotal disciples hope, a memory they can latch on to when the horror of the Passion unfolds, and they are themselves tempted to lose hope.

In many ways we live between these two realities in the Christian life. We may not always be in the desert, thirsty and hungry for God's presence, rather we may find that most of life is pretty mundane. We got to school or work, maybe we are retired. We have our routines that eventually become ruts. We go to Mass on Sunday, maybe try to pray the rosary daily or read the Scriptures or a holy book. We may be tempted to wonder if these practises of piety are really useful because we don't feel anything. There can be extreme moments of crisis in our lives: the death of a loved one, losing a job, suffering a serious illness, where we really do feel alone and abandoned. 

On the other hand maybe we have been on retreat, or went to some type of charismatic prayer service, or had some other peak moment of prayer. We felt the presence of the Lord very clearly. Maybe we came back to the Faith after having fallen away, and feel the Lord directing us, drawing us in to His embrace. We have had that Transfiguration moment that changed our lives. Then we get discouraged because that feeling doesn't last. 

The danger I'm thinking of here isn't so much that we'll want to "stay on the mountain," as Peter suggested (though that is a possibility), but rather that we may go chasing after experiences to keep the spiritual high going. Jesus call us to Faith, which St. Paul tells us works through love (Gal. 5:6). Faith isn't a feeling, but a gift that animates how we live. It guides our actions. It is a supernatural virtue that expresses itself through the actions of our lives. It is a habit that itself forms in us the other supernatural virtue of charity. In truth, the two things go together, for as the letter of James tells us, faith without charity (good works) is dead (2:17). This type of faith is only true when it transcends the feelings of a particular moment. Faith is meant to be manifested in how we treat others when we feel like doing the right thing, and more importantly, when we don't. 

What do I mean by chasing after experiences to keep the spiritual high going?  It could be filling our weekends with retreat after retreat or charismatic prayer services. These are certainly not bad, but if we are under the impression that the faith is only alive in us when we feel it, or are experiencing a spiritual high, then we aren't really following the Lord out of love, but out of emotional need. In a way we are trying to "stay on the mountain," rather than taking those special moments of insight as inspiration and hope. 

The devil uses this chasing after the spiritual high to tempt us, as well. Many people come to me distressed that they don't feel consolation in prayer, especially in charismatic prayer. They hear others talking about how the Spirit is alive in their heart, and how Jesus speaks to them. Those who haven't had these experiences wonder what the problem is. They begin to think that their faith isn't real, or worse that their is something wrong with them that God is punishing them somehow. These seeds of doubt are planted by the enemy so that the weeds of despair may grow. 

I don't mean to be picking on charismatics. We have a very active charismatic group in our parish, with many of its members numbered among the leaders of the broader community. But there is a danger when we put too much of a stress on feelings in the Christian life. We can equate consolations and emotional states of mind with faith. As Archbishop Sheen might have put it, faith isn't tested in the short spiritual highs but in the long pull of living our life in Christ over the decades.

Another example of chasing after a spiritual high involves becoming preoccupied with Marian apparitions. Again, I'm not a skeptic. I've made pilgrimages to both Guadalupe and Lourdes, and have Fatima high up on my bucket list. Both visits represented profound, dare I say life changing events for me. But in the end I had to go home and live the devotion that was enkindled in those sacred shrines. Those moments of connection with the Mother of God were meant to spur me to greater union with her Son by imitating the virtues that made her the first disciple. 

It was tempting to want to stay and gaze at the mysterious image she left us at Tepeyac: contemplating her posture, and all the prophetic power contained therein. I would have loved to have just stayed in the Grotto by the River Gave, touching the wet rock while remaining dry, just below where our Lady stood, caught up in the natural beauty of the Pyrenees that lift the mind and heart to God. In both cases how wonderful it would have been to just build a spiritual tent, staying hidden, just Our Lady and me. But that's not the point of those apparitions. There is a reason our Lady only appears for a limited time in any of her apparition sites. She doesn't call us to come and stay. She asks us to come and pray, be recharged - renewed, and then to go back home to follow Jesus more closely. She calls us to change our lives, repenting of our sins. She calls us to be peace makers. She asks us to imitate her who, when she received the angel’s message consented, taking the Son of God into her body and her heart. She then immediately went out and served her cousins Elizabeth.

We need those moments on the mountain top, gazing at a miracle imprinted on a tilma, or in a quiet grotto caught up in prayer, as long as we remember that they only last a moment. They are meant to live on in our heart, reminding us of the greater glory God has in mind for us. The sad truth is that most of our discipleship is spent in a desert of drudgery. It's changing diapers and cleaning the toilet. It's filling out reports and filing paperwork. It's doing our homework and feeding the dog. It's doing the million little trifles we are board by, but when they're done for love these small acts make us saints.

We live between the desert and the mountain top. Most of our lives on planet Earth don't reach either extreme of desolation or exaltation, but is lived somewhere in the muddled middle. May the highs encourage us, strengthen us, give us courage for when the bad times come. May they also get us through the ordinary monotonies which can seem just as unbearable. Most of all, we need to perceiver in prayer and charity, with God's grace, when we feel the high, but especially when we don't, for it's in those moments Christ makes us saints.

St. John Bosco Bulletin Letter - 1st Sunday of Lent 2017

This letter will appear in the Sunday, March 5 St. John Bosco Parish Sunday Bulletin 

During Lent we are asked to pray, fast and give alms. These are spiritual weapons we are given to help us focus less on ourselves and more on our relationships with God, material things and, others. Prayer unites us to God, fasting teaches us that when we worry less about what we eat or what we wear or what we possess we have more spiritual energy to grow closer to the Lord and look after the needs of others.  Alms giving teaches us to grow in charity and in the sense that the things we have are gifts that are meant to be shared for the good of our neighbor and the Glory of God.

The prophets tell us though that we need to be careful. We can get so caught up in the letter of the law that we forget what the law means. We are, for instance, asked to give up meat on Fridays. While we should be careful not to eat meat on those days, we must remember the spirit in which we give these things up. We are asked not only to abstain from beef, chicken and pork, but to eat more simply.  With the money we save we are asked to give more to the poor, who are the presence of Jesus among us. In this way, prayer, fasting and almsgiving work together to purify our hearts and make us more Christ like. 

The Prophets also tell us that the sacrifice God wants more than anything else is a heart that is poor, contrite and seeks justice.  At the parish we have begun the Carridades de Cristo Recucitado ministry that over sees the food pantry and brings food and other essential materials, like cloths and heaters, to the homeless of our area. We have also restarted our Pastoral Migratoria ministry, and will be hosting events on March 19 – sponsored by the Archdiocese, and March 23 - in cooperation with the Mexican Consulate, to help pass on information regarding immigrant rights as well as offer an opportunity for people to share their worries, hopes and experiences. 

May these traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving help us to grow closer to Jesus. May they purify our hearts that we may serve Him in our brothers and sisters in need. 

An Ash Wednesday Reflection from the Apostleship of Prayer

What are the Practices of Lent from Fr. Barron