Paul’s Year

Some dioceses and parishes are making something of this special 367-day observance, which begins tonight in Catholic parishes celebrating the vigil of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The occasion is the 2,000th year since the apostle’s presumptive birth. Very few saints are recognized by birth, at least in the Roman martyrology.

Is the Year of Paul on your community’s radar?

If so, what are you doing?

If not, what would you do?

 

FIYH 44-46: Faith As Interpretation

“Faith as Interpretation” headlines the next few sections. The bishops have a curious (to me) and broad take on “faith,” but stay with them for the point being made:

[44] To say that preaching, the homily included, is directed to faith is another way of saying that preaching is involved in the task of interpretation. “Faith” can be defined as a way of seeing or interpreting the world. The way we interpret the world, in turn, determines the way we relate to it. For example, if we believe that a particular race or class of people are our enemies, we will relate to them with suspicion and hostility. A friendly gesture will be interpreted not as a genuine sign of good will but as a ruse to get us to lower our guard. On the other hand, if we believe that a group of people are our friends, we will tend to excuse even a hostile gesture with the explanation that there must have been some mistake: they didn’t recognize us or we have misinterpreted their gesture. Our “faith” in the way things are has led us to live in the world in a way that corresponds to what we believe about it.

Certainly true for those of us who frequent the internet, eh?

[45] The Christian interprets the world not as a hostile and evil place, but as a creation of a loving God who did not allow it to destroy itself, but sent his Son to rescue it. The Christian response to the world, then, is one of acceptance and affirmation-along with the recognition that it is still awaiting its full redemption.

The bishops are still within the glow of the optimism of Vatican II, I’d say. Many of today’s bishops, and certainly many of the new generation of believers treat the world as highly suspect.

[46] One of the most important, and most specifically human, ways in which faith is communicated to individuals and communities is through language. The way we speak about our world expresses the way we think about it and interpret it. One of the reasons we speak about our world at all is to share our vision of the world with others. The preacher is a Christian specially charged with sharing the Christian vision of the world as the creation of a loving God. Into this world human beings unleashed the powers of sin and death. These powers have been met, however, by God through his Son Jesus Christ, in whom he is at work not only to restore creation, but to transform it into a new heaven and a new earth.

Why would the Church–or the preacher–have any interest at all in a worldview? The bishops suggest that dialogue with non-believers is an important part of it. What they don’t say is that as human beings, we each dwell in or interact with the world in some way. How we speak of the world is part of the message to both the family of believers and the family of humankind.

(All texts from Fulfilled in Your Hearing are copyright © 1982 USCCB. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)

 

More on Fashion: “Not Prada But Christ”

CNS summarizes a L’Osservatore Romano piece critical of those who in turn have criticized the pope’s choices in personal and liturgical wear.

The priest does not choose such ornaments because of an aesthetic vice — he does it to put on the new clothes of Christ.

Fair enough. But the commentary on Pope Benedict is not that he wears vestments–all priests do this. I think the sumptuousness of these vestments is fair game for commentary, even criticism.

Non-believers show interest, perhaps for the art of the fashion itself, and perhaps in wonderment that the Church identifies less with a recent papal trend to simplicity. In such simplicity, nobody complained that papal garments were threadbare or poorly made. There’s a lot of room in style between, say, a Shaker simplicity of craft, and the ornate sensibility of Rococo.

Ornate elements and liturgical vestments do not represent frivolous “accessories,” but rather represent this “essential” nature and the “anticipation of the new clothes of the resurrected body of Christ.”

And we have the teaching of the Sacrosanctum Concilium 124:

Ordinaries, by the encouragement and favor they show to art which is truly sacred, should strive after noble beauty rather than mere sumptuous display. This principle is to apply also in the matter of sacred vestments and ornaments.

When advance press releases explain upcoming changes in something like the pallium, I think we’ve gotten to the point where the peripherals of liturgy have outshone the essence. The danger here, as many conservative Catholics are fond of noting, is that the presider becomes the center of attention instead of Christ. In mainstream Catholicism and certainly among non-believers, sumptuousness does not connote with the resurrection of Christ, but rather becomes a distraction.

The pope can do better, I think.

 

FIYH 40-43: The Homily and Faith

After a bit of a break, let’s continue with our close examination of the USCCB document, Fulfilled in Your Hearing, in which the American bishops address the homily at Sunday Mass.

Having covered the listeners and the preacher, the bishops begin a long section (paragraphs 40-77) to consider the homily itself. We begin with a brief introduction:

[40] The Sunday Eucharist is a privileged point of encounter between a local Christian community and its priest. Within this Eucharistic celebration the homily is a moment when this encounter can be especially intense and personal. We want now to look at the nature and function of this form of preaching, to relate it to the issues we have already raised in speaking of the assembly and the preacher, and finally to suggest a method for building and preaching the homily.

The next three paragraphs are entitled, “THE HOMILY AND FAITH.”

[41] Like all preaching, the homily is directed to faith. As Paul writes, ” But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe unless they have heard of hIm? And how can they hear unless there is someone to preach?” (Romans 10:14). Some preaching is directed to people who have not heard the Gospel and is meant to lead them to an initial acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. Other forms of preaching are directed to a deeper understanding of the faith or to its ethical implications.

It is significant that the Catholic homily is not necessarily directed to the intellect. Faith encompasses all aspects of the integrated believer. So is the homily as a teaching exercise? Only as part of a whole:

[42] The homily is preaching of another kind. It may well include evangelization, catechesis, and exhortation, but its primary purpose is to be found in the fact that it is, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, “a part of the liturgy itself” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 52). The very meaning and function of the homily is determined by its relation to the liturgical action of which it is a part. It flows from the Scriptures which are read at that liturgical celebration, or/more broadly, from the Scriptures which undergird its prayers and actions, and it enables the congregation to participate in the celebration with faith.

If the homily is indeed part of the liturgy, it is part of the core definition of worship: the praise of God. Like the liturgy, it stands as a human attempt to cooperate with the sanctification of the faithful (see Sacrosanctum Concilium 7). Note also the emphasis here on enabling lay participation. Homilies should lead people to participation, the bishops remind us. This participation is imbued with faith, a faith the preacher should presume as a grounding for the homiletic effort:

[43] The fact that the homily is addressed to a congregation of believers who have gathered to worship indicates that its purpose is not conversion from radical unbelief to belief. A homily presupposes faith. Nor does the homily primarily concern itself with a systematic theological understanding of the faith. The liturgical gathering is not primarily an educational assembly. Rather the homily is preached in order that a community of believers who have gathered to celebrate the liturgy may do so more deeply and more fully - more faithfully -and thus be formed for Christian witness in the world.

Where faith is present, the homily should act to deepen it. And such faith should be evident by ”Christian witness” in the world–an external and active participation if there ever was one.

 

Comments?

(All texts from Fulfilled in Your Hearing are copyright © 1982 USCCB. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)

 

Too Much Attention at the (Human) End of the Line

The Communion line, that is.

First we have Rome focusing on how the Communicant receives and the personal preference of one Eucharistic Minister. Whatever happened to the focus on Christ, not people?

Now it seems the wrong person got in line at Tim Russert’s funeral.

I’ve known lots of people who have received Communion when they shouldn’t. Even me.

The offender’s words:

The outpouring of emotion after Tim’s death June 13 has been extraordinary and even those of us who knew him well and adored him were stunned at the extent of the reaction. I haven’t seen anything like it in Washington since John Kennedy’s death. People who never met him have been e-mailing me and coming up to me on the street, crying and hugging me. I’ve been trying to analyze it and what I think is this: Tim was a truly good person. He was authentic. He was kind and generous and thoughtful and caring. He was optimistic and funny. He was deeply religious. He was the most enthusiastic person I have ever known.

The word “enthusiastic” comes from the Greek words “en theos”, meaning “in God.”

The Anchoress discerns the litmus test. Tim Russert was inspiring to Catholics and non-Catholics alike not by how he preached the faith, but by how he lived it.

I see Andrew Greeley is doing some electioneering on the man’s behalf. I can’t agree. While I’m sympathetic Greeley is looking for some good men in the clergy, my inclination is to snark, “Too bad; Russert’s ours.” From what I read, Tim Russert lived his life as an authentic believer and lay person. Maybe such people should be the stock from which we find candidates for holy orders. It might be an improvement on the careerism model we have right now.

Russert as bishop? Is that all? I think the man has a higher calling: saint.

The frowny-faces are predictably all over Sally Quinn receiving Communion when she shouldn’t have done so. You know I’m not sympathetic toward Bill Donohue or Deal Hudson or their commentariats on this one. The WWJD comments don’t float my boat either. A fine man has died, and from all accounts he was a sterling example of being a good Catholic. As for the WWJD question, none of us is Jesus. But we are believing Catholics. If you can’t think of what you should do in response to this, consider what a saint would do.

One commenter at the America blog wrote, “My family will be praying in reparation for this sin.”

If reparation is needed, let me suggest those offended set themselves to a special task this coming year. Find one inactive Catholic and return her or him to the Church. Or, if you feel brave, find a non-believer and bring him or her to Christ. The end of the Communion line will be a more grace-filled experience for it.

 

Tethys Time

Cassini imaged Tethys above the moon’s south pole last month. Crater Melanthius, the largest seen here, has the elongated peak in the middle. Why would that be?

I can’t explain why these icy little worlds fascinate me. Maybe it was looking at snow drifts, making snowballs, and playing winter space explorer when I was a kid. I didn’t imagine myself on Tethys, one-third the moon’s diameter. More usually it was the Martian polar cap.

This moon has significant mysteries: dark bands across its equatorial regions, a large valley, suspected tectonic activity, and the like. Except for Enceladus, Saturn’s icy moons won’t be prime targets of the Cassini mission for the next two years. Too bad, but also maybe not. The unknown still leaves some room to dream.

 

Fashion Statements

A little more of interest in the liturgy news. From CNS:

(T)he pope would begin wearing a shorter pallium — a circular woolen band worn over the shoulders with a shorter strip hanging down the front and back — similar to the kind worn by Pope John Paul II.

Pope Benedict had been wearing a pallium similar to ones worn by popes in the first millennium, when the woolen band was wrapped around the pope’s shoulders and hung down his left side to just below his knees.

…

The longer pallium the pope had been using created “different and troublesome problems,” he said.

Not impressive, I have to say. Catholics are looking for a number of things in the liturgy. Good preaching. Good music. A sense of welcome. The surveys say it over and over again. What kind of fashion statement the presider makes by wearing wool down to his knees or not–that’s not really essential to the Eucharist, especially the noble simplicity of the Roman Rite.

Can’t say I think much more of the kneeling and tongue routine either. It is described as “the pope’s preference for the traditional practice.” Heh. I’d think the Holy Father would be above this sort of narcissism.

What the Church needs is enthusiastic and visionary leadership to inspire millions of Catholics worldwide to live and share their faith and transform the world. As a liturgist I believe it starts with real liturgy. Not fashion statements.

 

Carnival of Space #60

Michael at Slacker Astronomy (love the title) hosts the diamond (that’s elemental carbon) edition–the 60th–of the Carnival of Space.

The above image is the horsehead nebula, via the NASA image of the day site. Michael has another image at the SA blog taken with a different filter. My daughter would approve of the purple there. And the horse, of course. I like this image above, showing up hydrogen (in red and blue) and oxygen (the little bit of green) in this vast cloud. If there’s any carbon there, it’s in the dark parts forming the horse’s head.

Hopefully on these hot days of summer, you’re enjoying the Terran mixture of those two elemental gases and chilling, if you’re not slacking outright.

 

Searching for Know-How

This should be an interesting tussle as aerospace engineers have come up with a faster and cheaper alternative to NASA’s new Ares rockets. The agency is playing up the strong, silent angle. But it points out the huge disadvantage in competition and human safety that large social units sometimes encourage.

One of the neat aspects of the HBO mini-series From The Earth To The Moon was how individual creativity could make significant progress against technical obstacles and get people into space and keep them alive there. Episode 5, “Spider,” was one of my favorites.

I don’t want to make human know-how into its own god, but imagination and intellect are God-given traits. The old canard, “If God meant for us to fly, He would’ve given us wings,” is just silly. Human beings have wings. Unlike bats, birds, and insects, they’re in our heads rather than on our bodies.

 

First Day of Summer for Phoenix

It’s those lazy hazy crazy days of summer here on Earth. At least in the northern hemisphere. Today is also the first day of Northern summer on Mars.

In case you think a stowaway bug on the Phoenix lander can break out those sodas and pretzels and beer, consider the weather report from the landing site here on the right.

Remember the corollary coordinates on Earth would be in northwest Canada, near the Great Bear Lake.

Not exactly a place for Bermuda shorts and bikinis.

 

Drop Dead Date

After three days out of the loop, I see Pope Benedict has given the SSPX a deadline for reconciling with Rome. I don’t really see this as netting a favorable result for reconciliation, do any of you?

As with many church political things–and this schism has a political component–pride is entangled with this. Probably enough pride to prevent either side from approaching the other with any sense of vulnerability. And as sacramental confessors ought to know, vulnerability is very much a necessary part of any sort of reconciliation.

 

Return From Ames With Home Views

After three days at the new parish, I’m back in KC. Fifteen or so more days of two parishes sharing me, then we close on the new house, move to Ames, and start up full-time. The current homestead has two prospective renters coming to visit tomorrow. Perhaps one of them will find the house to their liking.

Monday night after work, I drove over the the new homestead to take a few pictures for my wife. It’s a nice little ranch with a finished, full, and dry basement. Here’s the view from the man in the street:

The white clover is in bloom, you see. When I pulled up a big brown rabbit was enjoying an evening snack. First house I’ve owned with a fireplace, as you can see in this image from the driveway. Anita is happy with that.

And the backyard has a cute little deck with some nice plants.

I had a full backyard shot, but it came out kind of blurry, so I deleted it. Lots of open room, and not too much to mow.

Tasks at the parish kept me busy: a music leaders’ meeting, a staff meeting, various one-on-ones with other staff members. The first days on a new job are among the best. I hadn’t enjoyed that feeling in a while. Also, it will take some getting used to a parish with a daily Mass at noon.

 

Pope Calls For SC Study

From the pope’s transmitted address to the Eucharistic Congress (courtesy of Zenit):

‘The Mystery of Faith’: this we proclaim at every Mass. I would like everyone to make a commitment to study this great mystery, especially by revisiting and exploring, individually and in groups, the Council’s text on the liturgy, ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ so as to bear witness courageously to the mystery.

We’ve done that here on Catholic Sensibility. Feel free to look back over our archives on Sacrosanctum Concilium and revisit any conversation that seems interesting. Better yet, petition for or start a discussion group in your parish. Remember, SC is available online in English here.

This index of all the Vatican II documents is also available, giving you ten language options.

 

The Armchair Liturgist: Late or Absent Priest

Here’s one I thought would make for a good discussion here. It’s not really covered in any liturgy documents, so no need to fear being tabbed a heretic or a heterodox. Unless you want to be.

There’s a visiting priest scheduled for one of your Sunday Masses. Fifteen minutes, ten minutes before Mass; no priest, and the sacristan and head usher are getting nervous. Five minutes before and a call to the pastor’s cell phone goes unanswered. Then I arrived, just planning to come to Mass with my family.

I dialed our parish’s retired priest … answering machine–no luck there. The lector, who does prison ministry, says he has a homily on the readings he can give if called upon. But at one minute past Mass time, the guest priest does show up, fully vested, exiting from his car in front of the church. He trades his car keys for the wireless mic, and we’re off within thirty seconds. The handoff was pretty sweet!

But suppose for the sake of the purple chair it’s more than a minute and you have about five-hundred people already at Mass. Do you start a liturgy of the word and hope the guy shows up? Sing all the verses? How long would you delay starting a liturgy? How many phone calls would you make to priests you happen to know who might be otherwise at home? Do you call it off? Would you be prepared to SCAP* it?

*Sunday Communion in the Absence of a Priest

 

Life on tv

Since my return to the realm of television in 1993 (I hadn’t owned one and watched little since the mid-70’s), I’ve been an admirer of David Attenborough’s documentaries. I first saw The Private Life of Plants around the time I got married and I’ve watched old VCR tapes of it several times. Last year, I used a gift card to pick up this marvelous series* on dvd. The other day, we picked up The Life of Mammals from the public library. That has been a treat the past few days as I’ve been recovering from a bout with the flu.

It strikes me someone should write, produce, and film a series on astronomy that goes into sixty-plus hour  depth that Attenborough’s on life. If it involved travel, I’d like to sign up, of course. If it was to be truly comprehensive, meaning with someone like the inimitable Sir David narrating on-site, I think we have a few centuries to wait.

* Why, do you suppose, my daughter objects to watching it during or near mealtime?