Discovering Vibrant Conservative Catholic Communities

I do not know how many people would have the courage to put these three words together - vibrant and conservative and catholic; or if I even think about it these two words - vibrant and conservative.

I move around quite a bit, for work and for personal travel and on all these trips, I tend to visit any Catholic Church I come across so I can keep up with my daily ritual of attending mass.

Anyone will tell you that the beauty about being a catholic is that you can walk into a church in any part of the world and completely feel at home. The rites are the same, the pattern is the same; it has been made this way to preserve the universal nature of the church.

However of recent I have noticed some shifts in the actual celebration of the rites; not in the actual rites because these cannot be changed, but in the way they are promulgated. In light of the new evangelization, there has been a general call for the clergy and faithful to 'breathe life' back into the celebrations, to incite and create the atmosphere for that encounter that all should have when they are in the presence of God.

I have seen several manifestations of this incitement, from the use of musical instruments, orchestra, dancing and rendering of songs during mass, to different styles of preaching from the deeply theological and scripted preaching to impromptu preaching, usually cursory and delivered in a Pentecostal manner quoting a few bible passages. I have also seen this incitement to vibrancy in the prayer of the faithful where the traditional mode of calling the faithful to pray on pre-selected points have in some places been replaced with selecting some members of the congregation to make intercessory prayers on behalf of all, or even in some other cases having a full blown prayer service within the mass.

I commend all those, clergy and laity, who are genuinely working towards rebuilding their parishes into spirit filled communities; however, I think it is important that our parishes do not lose their catholic identity in the process.

Who are we? What are we? Catholic means universal, so we should be truly universal in our celebrations. By all means it is good and even necessary to have some 'local' flavor added into our celebrations, but we must ensure that we do not lose our substance as Catholics, that which distinguishes us from our separated brethren. We are not like them, we cannot be like them, the depths of our faith far outreach the periphery of their beliefs and practices and we should be teaching them to reach out to the deep not coming to shallow waters ourselves.

So when I visit a Catholic Church in which the priest intones the Gloria, or Credo, or Agnus Dei or Sanctus, and the congregation are unable to follow including the choir; but during praise and worship everyone is singing along to those choruses we have borrowed from our separated brethren, then there is something seriously wrong.

I guess perhaps we still think that vibrancy of worship is the forte of the Pentecostal churches but I can assure you that this is not the case. I know of parishes where with the use of music and even a well prepared sermon, vibrancy is being restored back to the church. And this has been achieved without these parishes losing their identity.

So I guess the question is can we really have vibrant conservative catholic communities? And I believe the answer is most definitely, of course we can. We already do.

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Heaven, not a journey made alone

A while back, I went through an 'early-life crisis'. At the time I had recently taken a major decision which I would have to live with my whole life, and I was feeling like I had made a big mistake. However, this was a life-changing decision that I couldn't undo.

So I became philosophical, perhaps I could make a deal with God. I would 'accept' the decision (not like I had too much of a choice, I had made it in the first place); in exchange God will mercifully not allow me to carry that burden for too long. He will call me to himself early and release me from this huge mistake. Perhaps those were the wrong thoughts and my spiritual director chastised me that it was wrong to ask God to shorten my life rather than submit to his will.

Anyways having being suitably chastised and while thinking about everything and what my next move will be, I received a revelation from God. He told me it wasn't so much that he couldn't grant me my wish, but that I wasn't quite ready. I had missed one important thing, I couldn't come to heaven alone because the journey to heaven was not one made alone. He could not call me until I had told and showed others the way to heaven because he desired that no one should be lost (2 Peter 3:9).

I know it may seem funny that someone who has been a Christian from birth had not realized and keyed into such an important mission but with that revelation, God has opened my eyes to see and understand better this injunction in scripture. Beginning with the great commission in Matthew 28:19, and other related scriptural passages such as Luke 14:23, John 1:40-42,45-46, John 15:16, Ezekiel 3:17-21, 33:7-9, John 14:31, Isaiah 40:6-9, God enjoins us to seek out others and proclaim the message of the good news to them, to lead them to encounter him, to know the truth and to bear fruit.

In the spirit of the new evangelization, the Holy Father Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, encourages the faithful to 'Go Forth' in accordance with this divine injunction. Below are some excerpts I have copied out from this exhortation:

"The word of God constantly shows us how God challenges those who believe in him “to go forth”. Abraham received the call to set out for a new land (cf. Gen 12:1-3). Moses heard God’s call: “Go, I send you” (Ex 3:10) and led the people towards the promised land (cf. Ex 3:17). To Jeremiah God says: “To all whom I send you, you shall go” (Jer 1:7). In our day Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new challenges to the Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called to take part in this new missionary “going forth”. Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel."

"The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast."

 Let us then, faithful to our Lord's teaching take this bold step. And if we have already started, continue on this mission trusting and dependent solely on God to see us through. Therefore my friends, I conclude by saying in the words of Christ, "Arise, let us be on our way" (Mark14:42, John14:31)

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