by Liz | Apr 28, 2008 | main
I am at a conference for work and traveling with a fellow who works done the hall. Breakfast conversation turned to the Catholic Church (he was raised Catholic) and faith and rules, etc. At one point he remarked that he hasn’t been to church in years because if one disagrees with so many of the rules why go?
Where else would I go? I’ve thought about this as I struggle with the rules and whether I can abide by them, or must follow my own way. And I consider that rules and rulings have changed throughout history. But, it focused me once again on why I stay: I need the community.
While faith and prayer are intensely personal, and require a personal relationship with God, it seems that the example of how to live that is only truly found in community. The Trinity is God as community. The Church lives out the individual vocations of its parts as community. Human life (except in really bizarre, artificial circumstances) requires the input of 2 people to create a new person. All life on earth is dependent on the ecosystem – the interaction of all the parts and pieces to create the proper environment for life.
Where would I go? I can’t come up with a satisfactory answer to that. I have no inner call to be a Christian of any other ilk than my current status as Roman Catholic. And so I stay, as one of many parts in the this one body… and I’ll just have to take that One Body, complete with scrapes, scars, warts and rashes mixed in with beautiful eyes, hands that take care of others, strong legs and feet. I can only hope to be a part of the that body that can help with healing the parts that need it — and allow myself to be healed when I need it.
We are many parts, we are all one body.
by Liz | Apr 20, 2008 | main
Today’s readings seem to be shouting at me. I’m sorting through the cacophony of voices I hear and trying to find a central theme. In Acts, I see a group freed up from “serving at table” (I’m not sure exactly what that means, yet) to be out in the community ministering. In the second reading from Peter (1 Pt 2:4-9) I hear the clear call that we are all called to offer the spiritual sacrifice – a whole people who is called to be priests. And in the Gospel (an expanded repeat of Friday’s gospel), I hear Jesus calling me to follow Him, to know Him, to stay in relationship with Him and know that He is the way home.
Where does this leave me? I know that my deep-seated belief that we are all (man, woman, layperson, clergy) called to make Jesus present might get me into hot water with Roman Catholic faithful because I’ve just never understood why Jesus would not be just as present when 2 or 3 are gathered and break bread and share a cup as He is when a priest does the same at mass.
It might seem odd that I would say that, because when asked why I converted to Catholicism (3 decades ago) my answer would have to be “The mass.” And yet it makes perfect sense to me. We believe that Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist. Not just a memorial. Not just a memory. But present, here and now with us. I did not find that in the other Christian communities I explored. And then again, I don’t know why we hold that this only really happens when an ordained priest (male and celibate) is presiding at the celebration. That Presence is simply too powerful for us to declare that it can only occur when we say it is so.
So — I look forward to mass this morning. To hearing the Word proclaimed and being in the presence of God among us.
by Liz | Apr 18, 2008 | main
Today’s Gospel is one that comes to me often: Do not let your hearts be troubled… In the Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I will come back and take you with me..
And Thomas asks how to get there. “We don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life…”
There’s a story I read once about a man, a soldier shot down in the jungle with no idea where he was. A native of the area appears from the jungle and says “Follow me – I’ll get you out of here.”
When the soldier responds “You are going to show me the path to get out? You’ll take me to the road?” the native informs him that there is no path, no road. “Follow me. I am the way out of here.”
It is in the relationship with Jesus, with God that I will find my way to the mansion with many rooms – to the place prepared just for me. It’s not in the rote prayers, or the pious practices or the many books. There is no syllabus for this course.
Don’t leave me behind Lord. Let me continue to know you and walk with you so I can find my way home.
