As the joyful chaos of Christmas roars around us, many of us feel real stress, both in terms of our financial resources and our time. There is so much to be done and these are difficult times.
For several days, I have been encouraging contributions to extraordinary programs in Austin that reach out and change people’s lives in a very dramatic and beautiful way. However, nearly everyone is short on money at this time. If you are in that category, how about giving a little more of you, yourself?
There is not a single one of these organizations that I have mentioned and will mention in the coming weeks that does not have a pressing need for more volunteers. Meals on Wheels is a great example of that. I personally believe that the involvement of ourselves directly in aid to those who are suffering is even more valuable than a financial gift. Of course, we have to have both but if you find things a little tight as the year draws to a close, make one of those phone calls and volunteer a few hours a week or a few hours a month as the case may be.
Let me close by again mentioning Meals on Wheels. That warm, hot meal brought to the house to an old person is a wonderful gift but, quite frankly, an even greater gift is the warm smile of the person making the delivery who treats the recipient as a dignified human being, a child of God, a brother or sister with us on our way to eternal life.
Volunteer – volunteer – volunteer!
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At last it’s over! The lives of many Americans, if not most Americans, have in the last few weeks have been filled with the drama, joy, tears and chaos of graduation. Whether it’s eighth grade, high school, or college, every educational institution in the nation has said to some of its older students, “this is it. You’re moving on, your moving up, or maybe, you’re moving out.” When I mentioned tears, I was referring to the fact that along with the joy of accomplishment that comes with academic success, there is also a sense of sadness, because graduation almost always involves separation from people that we have truly loved and liked, and are going in a different direction.
Commentators love to tease and ridicule the speeches that pompous guests unveil in front of the graduates. The pundits laugh and say that they all say the same message, the same way at the same time every year. Let the pundits laugh- the reason that this is true is because graduation ceremonies naturally call for congratulations and encouragement to enter the next chapter with confidence and determination. Many of the speakers flop, but most of the graduates succeed, so there is sort of an inverse value on what’s being accomplished at the ceremony. If you are older and have seen all this through several generations, take one thing seriously: You need to encourage gradutes! Times have always been, and will always be tough. But, young people entering the next chapter are naturally fearful and insecure. Forget the gifts. Forget the check. Tell them they are well on their way to success, and that they will have not only your support but that of a loving God who rewards dedication and generosity.
Congratulations to the Class of 2011!
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Anyone who reads the daily papers carefully and watches the news from around the world on evening TV is certainly aware that the world is, in many ways, being turned upside down. The old structures and systems are giving way either to new structures or to chaos. “The center is not holding.” This is true of the world economy, politics in the United States, of the Arab/Muslim world and medical research. It is true of the Roman Catholic Church as well.
For the last 2,000 years, the Church has always found itself being buffeted by unforeseen events by cosmic changes in social structures and the pain and problems that flow from the human weakness of its members. This has been especially true the last 20 years. The bishops have found themselves in conflict with many different structures within the Church. Vatican efforts to limit the effects of the Second Vatican Council are only now beginning to be understood in a forceful manner. Disappointments within Catholicism is a force within the Church and millions have simply walked away!
Now a new reality comes upon the scene. I am thrilled to see a small lay organization celebrating its 5th anniversary. I am referring to the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. This entity is a network “made up of senior executive leaders from all sectors and industries. These thoughtful, generous men and women, ordained religious and lay, are chief executive officers, presidents, executive directors, generals and major religious superiors. They are people of profound faith and accomplishment. All Catholic, they come together to help the Church respond positively to complex, contemporary and temporal challenges facing Church leaders.”
The executive director of the Roundtable is Kerry Robinson, a dynamic leader with degrees from Georgetown and Yale Divinity School. A former director at the Catholic Chaplain Center of Yale University, she is providing spirited leadership at a time when it is sorely needed. Under Dr. Robinson’s leadership, when Church leaders ask for help, The Roundtable responds rapidly with advice, programs and personnel. This is a much needed and I hope much appreciated service. I am not too sure that every bishop is willing to go for outside help even when it is obviously needed.
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We all know the lines. I am going to take off 20 pounds, I am going to save 5% of my paycheck, I am going to stop complaining about my brother-in-law, etc., etc., etc. We talk about them and them we laugh and we go on about our business without any real serious effort or change. This is a misuse of a valuable tool for self-improvement.
As a new year begins and we look into the future, asking ourselves will 2011 be just another rerun of 2010 and 2009, it doesn’t have to be. We all know people who solve their problems, who overcome their weaknesses and who make life easier for those around them. We should all attempt to move ourselves in that direction. I think that one of the richest areas for self-improvement is to do some soul searching and honestly identify the weaknesses that we have that make life difficult for the people around us. Those changes are not easy but they can be measured with some degree of accuracy.
The Church has a long and rich tradition of the importance of self-examination and of spiritual goal setting. Let’s take advantage of this important symbolic date and look into the future with honesty and resolve.
Onward through the fog.
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With Christmas behind us and the New Year not yet arrivcd, this could be a good week to meditate on ourselves and how we are doing with the world around us. Try these few today:
Be brave and realistic.
Everything can change in the blink of an eye but don’t worry, GOD NEVER BLINKS.
Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
Your children get only one childhood.
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The great tragedy of the Christian story is the explosion in the 16th century when Christian unity, which had been such a central goal for 1,500 years, was suddenly shattered. The basic cause of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was not Martin Luther, indulgences, promiscuous clergy or a desire to use the vernacular language in the liturgy. The basic cause of the Reformation was that the Church had no mechanism to enable it to change in an orderly and rational way. In response, the Council of Trent effected many changes but only after a disastrous conflict that flowed from the fact that no mechanism was in place to address the agonizing issues that were before the Church in 1500.
The Second Vatican Council provided the Church with a wonderful rational way to bring about change but, of course, it could come into existence only if the pope wanted to have it and convened it.What was the Vatican Council? Well, essentially, it was simply a positive response to the demand of the 16th century Reformers.
We paid a terrible price 400 years ago and I am very fearful that we are once again prepared to pay another tragic price. The other day, I mentioned that there is no obvious structural method to bring about change in the Universal Church other than by actions of the Bishop of Rome. This has some advantages but it also has some serious problems.
Change is needed because problems naturally arise in new historical contexts and problems arise frequently! When new problems arise, the leadership is frequently not carrying out its work effectively because it is offering the solution of yesterday to the issues of today. If change is in the hands of that same leadership instinctively resistant to change, they are not too prone to see the need for it. Some type of countervailing voice needs to be developed.
What are the possibilities?
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Over the last few years, I have given a great deal of prayer and reflection on problems and difficulties that beset the Catholic Church and what, in my opinion, might be done to improve the situation. There are a number of issues before us and I am going to touch on them over the next week or two.
No mechanism for change. If you do not change, you die, and since the Church is very much alive, it obviously changes to some degree but the process is usually slow, torturous and well behind the needed time line. Authority in the Church is vested completely in the hands of the bishops of the world and in a very special way the Bishop of Rome. From the 4th century on, structured leadership of the Church has always shown a hesitancy to change and more often, it has shown itself to be in marked opposition to doing things differently.
The Founding Fathers were committed to a strict interpretation of the Constitution but from day one, they set up a vehicle through which the Constitution might be altered. It would not be easy but it could be altered. No such structure exists within the Church. Notice that I say structure because the Church does change but there is no vehicle in front of us that would make that easy.
More on that tomorrow.
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When I was a kid, I remember bragging to my young friends, whether they be Catholic or Protestant, that “my Church never changes.” Now that I am in my eighties, I know it is a little more complex than that.
It is true that the essential message of Jesus Christ, which is brought forth in the human story through the instrumentality of the Church, does not change. God, creation, human freedom, grace, salvation through Jesus, His continued presence in the Eucharist – these truths from the first century are intact and as safe as they have ever been but how the Church is organized does change and has changed many times in the last 2,000 years. Many people think there is a dire need for a major reorganization today, early in the third millennium.
Another area of change in the life of the Church is in the world of moral theology. Let’s take a look at those two changes over the next couple of days.
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In December of 1965 about 2,500 Roman Catholic bishops, theologians and special observers filed out of St. Peter’s, pouring into the great piazza, encompassed by Burneni’s columns. I am sure that they were both tired and relieved. The conference had been running for four years and you must also allow two years of preparation. The bishops were witnessing the end of the greatest experiment in ecclesiology since Pentecost Sunday.
The changes that were called for by the Council were awesome. Many people connected those changes merely with the use of vernacular language and the celebration of the Eucharist with the priests facing the people. However, the changes that were called for were far more profound than that. The responsibility for implementing those changes descended upon the shoulders of Pope Paul VI and he struggled heroically to accomplish that throughout the years of his pontificate. Regretfully, the staff with which he had to work was the same curia that had originally opposed the Council and they worked tirelessly to undercut it.
Today the Second Vatican Council is but a shadow of what was called for by those 2,500 bishops. Suggestion: every bishop, priest and lay leader should go back and study the documents of the Council. Fifty years has dimmed our memories. We can still regain their power.
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