We Are The Church
Posted by: tony on 07/28/2007 05:00 PM
Updated by: tony on 07/28/2007 05:00 PM
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Expires: 08/28/2007 12:00 AM
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I have been trying to figure out why I have been put off by the "vibrant parish", "community building", "we-are-the-body-of-Christ" description of Catholic parishes. Part of it, I'm sure, is of residual loathing that I am trying to get over of many things inflicted on us in the name of the "spirit" (yes, those are "sneer quotes") of Vatican II.
Another part of it was the side effect of this attitude as it applied to my home parish. I say "applied" because over the past four years, things have been changing, in my opinion, for the better. I previously found a not so subtle attitude shift away from Christ and toward the "community". This was a focus away from the heavenly (to which we should aspire) to the earthly. We stopped being a "church" and became a "faith community". Many "renovations" were made, but the most important one was the relegation of the tabernacle into a side chapel, out of the sanctuary. Maybe not intended that way, but truly "out of sight, out of mind".
The message was: "We need to get the focus off of that golden box and onto us where it belongs".
I think Mark Shea had the same feelings of unease:
What got me thinking is that I am very grateful because I *have* been given a living experience of the love of Christ, both as a Protestant and as a Catholic. That experience has taken place, since entering the Church, largely at Blessed Sacrament parish.
It's odd really. The parish we went to before Blessed Sacrament was a classic suburban parish, with the trendy nun and the priest who peppered his homilies with all sort of chummy stories and dumbed-down theology. It was chockablock with "community-building" efforts and multicultural this and Aren't We Fabulous That. And it was a deeply lonely place if you didn't happen to belong to the families who had been part of the parish since it was built.
Then we went to Blessed Sacrament, where the focus was on the Dominican charism of praising, blessing, and preaching. In other words, it was a parish that was seeking first the kingdom, not Trying To Be a Vibrant Parish. And we thrived.
It was like the same cast of characters for me. We had the trendy nun (sharply dressed) and priest whose homilies invariably drifted to the topics of peace and justice. There is nothing wrong with peace and justice, but I would have like to hear occasionally about things like sin, Jesus' divine mercy, Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for my sins, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the evils of shacking up, contraception and abortion. But that would mess with all those good vibes, and isn't feeling good about ourselves of paramount importance? Aren't we an "Easter people"?
Mark continues with:
Part of it, I think, is that the parish is, like everything in the Catholic tradition, rooted in a "grace perfecting nature" mode of thought. Parishes presume a pre-existing human community with some stability: the village, town or polis where people are born, live and die and everybody knows each other. With that sort of natural soil you can get a parish which builds on the natural familial relationship to the divine familial relationship of the Body of Christ.
Familial. That is a great way to put it. I have discussed the backwards way that some people approach "community". They take the focus off off of Christ in the Word (Scripture and homily), in persona Christi (in the ordained priest), in the real presence of His Body and Blood, for the focus on Christ in "community" ("where two or more are gathered..."). They try to get close to God by singing songs such as "Sing a New Church" and grabbing each other's hand for the Our Father.
They are trying to get close to God by getting close to each other. All other appearances of Christ in the Mass are looked at as "distractions" from our main purpose of... well... worshipping each other.
I was told by a very wise nun that we like a wheel with spokes and God is at the center. As we get closer to God as a people by traveling down the spoke, we get closer to each other. If we finally make it to heaven (God willing) we will be the ultimate community. We will be one with God and all the angels and saints.
If we follow the paradigm of getting closer to God, we will ultimately become closer to each other. Getting closer to God will inspire us to help our fellow man, not because we can buy our way into heaven with good works, but because we are so filled with God's grace that we are naturally prompted to reach out to each other.
This is the true impetus for social justice.
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