JUSTICE: A PILGRIM'S JOURNEY

(Editor's note: We are grateful to Fr. Robert Hovda for And, while that is the beginning, every Sunday we call each allowing us to print the text of his General Session Address to other back together, to express and be formed by God's the Twelfth Annual Congress on Parish Worship, sponsored covenant: all of us who believe - of every color, every class, by the Diocese of Sacramento, January 14, 1989.) both sexes, age, education, handicap, lifestyle, etc. - all reconciled in the proclamation of the word of the one true God and in the eating and drinking together, from a common plate iturgy is the act, the symbolic action, in which our and from common cups, at the common table of the Lord. sources, Bible and sacrament, come alive as our L common expression and formation in the worship of a It is the overriding message of liturgy, the message of our living assembly and in the context of our own times. Both gestures and actions as well as of our texts: to do biblical word and sacramental action, which are one in the justice ...and do it in a peaceable way. So why does it seem liturgy, communicate a faith in one true God whose deeds and such a problem to us - this relationship between liturgy and words are of liberation and reconciliation, justice and peace. social justice? How did you and I become so estranged from Our whole Jewish and Christian history as a covenant people the liturgy, our "primary and indispensable source," ...so is a progressive unfolding of this design of God, a design for estranged that, even though we participate in its actions and which God has made us partners: do justice ...and do it in a say or sing its texts, its words, we regularly miss the point? peaceable way. A WAY OF LIFE That design and command is recapitulated both at the I think we have to talk about that first before we get into the beginning and at the end of Jesus' public ministry: "The more positive aspects of the relationship. We are presently spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore, God has anointed spiritually deformed, and we will never do anything about a me. God has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to right formation unless we first face that fact. It's not surprising proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the and it's not all our fault, but it's a fact. So we can't get from blind and release to prisoners, to announce a "here" to ''there". We have to change the "here" year of favor from the Lord" (Lk. 4: 18-19). "For I so that we begin to understand that in our liturgy was hungry and you gave me food, I was we celebrate not a list of teachings or doctrines, thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a but a way of life - the way of the Torah, the stranger and you welcomed me, naked and way of the prophets, the way of the covenant, you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted the way of Jesus, the pilgrim way ...which is me, in prison and you came to visit me ..." (Man. 25: 35-36). always (and there is the rub) the way of the Cross. These words come from the covenant tradition of the Jewish S Look for a moment at our annual celebration of two seasons in people. the Church's year: Advent and Christmas. Both focus our WORD & SACRAMENT: "DO JUSTICE" attention on the reign of God, the realm of justice and peace, It's all so obvious in our sources - in the sacramental the holy city, the new Jerusalem. "Make ready the way of the actions as well as in the texts. After a long immersion in the Lord, clear a straight path for our God. Every valley shall be way the faith community lives, we take the candidates for filled and every mountain and hill levelled. The windings shall initiation of Easter into the midst of the assembly, stripped of be made straight and the rough ways smooth, and all of their identification with the world as it is, bathe them from head humanity shall see the salvation of God" (Lk. 3: 4-6). Yet such is to foot, anoint them, share the Spirit with the laying on of our spiritual condition that it is quite possible (even probable) hands, clothe them with fresh, new garments for a fresh, new that in neither season did we find ourselves examining in life, sending them back into the world as it is to help make it terms of mission ("Ite, missa est") the ways we earn our what it must become. To do justice ...and do it in a peaceable livings, our voting patterns, our attitudes toward people way. different from ourselves in one way or another, the way we talk about them with our friends, our convictions about other social issues. We haven't yet achieved an integration. have to do with the narrowest notion of have to contest those powers, but it is • We haven't "got it a.1togetherI ." The evangelization: getting more members also unfaithful. moments of our faithfulness to the one for the Church. While all humans are Perhaps only in our time have we had the true God occur in lives which, for the invited to share the vision of faith and the tools, the vision, the experience of one most part, like those of our Jewish and Church's worship, that is by no means. world and the capacity to realize that the Christian ancestors, are lived under the the mission assigned to the covenant· powers of the world are not fate or spell of idolatry. That is not only the people in our sources. "Justice and destiny but are our creations. We make pattern of our biblical history - it is the justice alone shall be your aim" (Dr 16: them and we support them, so we can pattern of our history since biblical times, 20). The God of Jews and Christians is . change them. We must change them if as well. Falling away ...and coming back. the God who is known in the Command to we would move the world along toward Falling away ...and coming back. But if do justice. So Judith prays: "Your greater justice" greater peace. The our quest for the liberation and strength is not in numbers, nor does your simple, tribal, rural ways in which justice reconciliation of all humanity is part and power depend upon the stalwart; but you was understood in the various biblical parcel of this covenant, then it is critical are the God of the lowly, the helper of the ages could be satisfied by the private, that we recognize that to "fall away" is not oppressed, the supporter of the weak, , individual act of feeding a hungry merely to stop going to Mass but it is also the protector of the forsaken, the savior neighbor or bringing a glass of water to a to reject the mission we are given in of those without hope" (Jdt. 9: 11.)- thirsty one. In the World in which we now baptism and eucharist: to do justice and Expressions like that are the refrain of live, with all of its parts brought close, to do it in a peaceable way. the Bible. Not death but baptism is the along with all of its problems, that beginning of the new kind of life to which It is a great gift to have covenant sources command can be satisfied only as cities believers commit themselves. It's a kind (the liturgy, which is to say, bible and and nations and as a world that is one. of "all or nothing" game we play. If we . sacrament) which reveal God's design The progress of the world requires a can't have perfect peace and perfect and make us partners in its realization. corporate, social, structural and justice here and now, then we don't want And do it in a classic way which applies institutional morality of all of us. What to all times and all places. No specifics. was once a glass of water in a private No party line. No concrete instructions hand is now that and much, much more. for exactly what must be done he.e and It is taking control of the water supply of now in politics and economics. Those the city, nation, world and making justice, things we have to work out with the rest rather than profit, the norm of every of the human race and with the talents stage. God has given all of us. But the As the Second Vatican Council taught, a direction, the orientation, the goal is clear new kind of human being is emerging in in the word of the God who is liberator this new kind of world, who senses her or and reconciler. Everything is to be his responsibility to all the sisters and measured by that direction. It is that brothers and toward history. That means clear direction in our sources, as well as seeing government not as an ogre to be the ambiguity about the steps we must kept small, but as the only instrument we to e ot ere Wit t e itt e take today, that invites a multitude of have for doing together what we cannot different interpretations in the community lead in its direction. So we say, is God's gift and it will come to us when we do alone. That means taking of faith. And out of all our different governments in hand and using our die." But that is not what our sources insights and interpretations, we make a participation and power to see that they bit of progress here or there through a say. Our sources say that our little baby steps of liberation and of reconciliation serve the needs of all, not merely the consensus. That's why at our best, as needs of the powerful. It is through the Church, we are so loathe to stifle are the meaning of human life in God's covenant. And if we don't love the world tools of government and law and the controversy ...bscagsa we are all so common weal that we obey God's and our fellow human beings enough to limited and it is through our sharing of our command to love our neighbor as we different interpretations of what we must keep agitating for these little steps, then we have made idols out of our habits and love ourselves. As someone has said, do that we may eventually arrive at s~me justice is love operating at a distance. common interpretations as the body of our customs, and we are unfaithful. Yet we still want to believe that Christ. GQD'S DESIGN NOT A PRIVATE MATTER philanthropy, noblesse oblige and our DIMINISHING THE MEANING handouts, our benevolent giving out of This classic character of our sources - Another of our sins in taking the teeth out our abundance to the impoverished, are the fact that they reveal the aim but not of the gospel, out of God's word, out of somehow the fulfillment of the Law, of our the specifics and leave so much up to our the liturgy, is the privatizing and mission. On the contrary, our sources imaginations - also can be dangerous. individualizing of God's design for the are clear: what we do not need in our It makes it easy for our sins, and our sins world. We knew better when the Church abundance belongs by right to the in interpreting the covenant have created was persecuted, but in the periods when impOverished, whether we give it to them the disjunction between liturgy and the Church has been accepted by the or not. Our job is not merely to be of justice. One of those sins is to diminish powers-that-be we tend to reduce God's private assistance, but to create a society the meaning of Christ's coming, to reduce design to the private - to making and eventually a world that enables the it to the dimensions of the after-life. This something out of little me, but having liberation and reconciliation of all. is one of the ways in which we have nothing to do with politics or economics Leonardo Boffspoke to both sins when tamed, domesticated the message. The or culture or the world in general. Again, he wrote: reign of God, the reign of justice and that is not what our sources tell us. If we want to think that morality is merely the The reign of God, the eschatological peace is for after death, when there will liberation of the world, is already in be no contest. Tragically, this has way we manage our sex lives, we can - obviously, we have - and so we remain process, is already being established. It become the common temper of the takes shape in concrete modifications of Church, along with a fatalism about the the slaves of the institutional idols of our time: the military, big business, money. actual life (Passion of Christ, Passion of the World, world and its evils. In general, ask any of Or~is, 1987) us what our mission is and the reply will It certainly simplifies life when you don't

-- 2 ------WAY OF THE CROSS BRINGS 3. Be at Home in the World You can lock up the bold ...and hold them TENSION 4. Use Your Imagination in tow, That is what makes our mission, our You can stifle all adventure for a century pilgrimage, our Jewish or Christian way 1. GROW UP or so ... But you cannot imprison the word of the of life a way of the cross: H we are trying To assume the responsibility of witness Lord ... to be faithful to the covenant, we find and mission requires that we grow up by we wait in silent treason until reason ourselves experiencing and living a going to our sources in the liturgy and So is restored tension as long as this life lasts: a making them our own, as the great And we wait for the season of the word tension between being comfortable and Second Vatican Council taught and of the Lord. at home in our world as it is on the one enabled. Make the liturgy our own so (New York: G. Schirmer. Inc .• 1971. IiIP. 11-12) hand, and being a gadfly, an agitator, a that its biblical texts and sacramental protester for the sort of changes that will actions nourish us and form us, rather ma~e it more possible for more people to than being content to be second class 2. BUILD YOUR LOCAL CHURCH be liberated and reconciled, to enjoy in m.embers d,ependent on being spoonfed this life those fundamental gifts of the with the do s and don't's of clerical Even when we grow up, we cannot be one true God; a tension between the interpreters, however official and Ohristians alone. The pilgrim way of world as it is and the world as it must however gifted. We need to listen to Jesus IS a corporate as well as individual become - that is the healthy tension of others, but God has given us effort. Just as the Council focused our a faithful person and a faithful Church. consciences, too. It is the equal and attention not merely on the universal common access of all the baptized to full Church but also and especially on its Because the idols of the day are always local constituents, it also gave us the way out to capture our allegiance and to participation in the liturgy which enables our development as adults in the Church, to revive local churches. To make them divert us from doing justice and doing it communities not only of worship but also peaceably, we are always falling not merely receiving all the time, but making a contribution as well. In a great of liberating and reconciling deeds in and away ...and coming back. We must be for and with the larger communities patient with ourselves in our sinfulness give and take, the classic themes of liberation and reconciliation take flesh in around them. The Rite of Christian so that we do not give up, but rather ' Initiation of Adults and all it implies is to keep repenting, keep accepting God's all of us, always for the purpose of refining a position we can take together be the agenda of every local faith ever-present forgiveness and God's community. invitation to be open to the vision, to get as a common witness. out of our ruts and move on. It's simply H we are alienated from those primary We can and should all have a part in this !he way life is. The moving on is more and indispensable sources, the whole process, old-timers and newcomers alike Important than the pauses and the process suffers ...as we see when reform experiencing shared prayer, shared ' ~nfaithfulness, for we are pilgrims ...on a is suspect rather than hailed, and when problems of faith, shared planning of Journey. those few who struggle notably for justice mission.--As we had tamed the gospel, and peace (and who in our best moments the local church tended to become Many of the enticements, many of the merely the pious face or part of the larger ways in which the idols of our time are the Church's saints and heroes) tend to be ostracized rather than followed. community, merely a service station for seduce us are in the biblical story and in dispensing sacraments to anonymous the liturgy. When asked to succumb to AI!enation from the liturgy, from our pnmary source, robs us of a sense of individuals. The recovery of the ploys of power, wealth, and ~atechumenate and initiation as a year- friendship with the king, "Mattathias humor about ourselves and our leaders and throws us on the rarely-tender ' In, year-out agenda, as the very life of the answered in a loud voice: 'Although all church, is a revolution whose effect will the Gentiles in the king's realm obey mercies of other interpreters, sometimes official, sometimes influenced by the take time to realize and is the hope of our . him ...yet I, my family and kinsfolk, will future. That hope is to build a community keep to the covenant ...God forbid that powers-that-be, sometimes more concerned for order than for life. We as committed to liberating and reconciling we should forsake the law and the deeds !o.r the world as it is to the worship commandments ...'" (1 Maccabees 2: 20-21) of the living God; a community of people ~ot many of us have the courage and Even when we grow up, who know that human beings are Independence to echo Mattathias' words somebodies, and act like it; a community and deeds. But it is those few - a we cannot be Christians of people who know that justice and Dorothy Day, a Martin Luther King, Jr. - alone. The pilgrim way pea~e can't be accomplished alone, but who keep the Church and its mission of Jesus is a corp.orate require an unending restructuring of alive to inspire the rest of us and as well as indivIdual economic, political, cultural life; a eventually create a movement with commu.nity of people, in short, who are sufficient numbers to non-violently effect effort. determined to change the world. social change. In other words, to be the 3. BE AT HOME IN THE WORLD faithful Church which King described: respect and love our ecclesialleaders. If o~r local church has become a ghetto, If the church does not recapture its We need pastors in the church. But we an Island ora fortress to isolate or protect prophetic zeal ... If the church does not must not divinize them. We must not us from the rest of the world it has lost participate actively in the struggle for make stars of them, for we live in a its true meaning. The church is not peace and for economic and racial culture which idolizes stars of every kind. supposed to consume all the time and justice ...it will become an irrelevant The genius of the biblical covenant is our sap all the energy of its members. It is social club without moral or spiritual worship of one God and one God only. supposed to be a vivifying and inspiring authority. (NCCIJ poster) There IS no substitute in this maturity for community which stimulates us for living Let me move toward a conclusion with r~gul~r pray.~r and regular reading of the elsewhere. We think of Eastern four appeals, which I will try to keep as Bible In addition to our common liturgy. ~rthodox churches as "other-worldly," but brief as possible: The famous theatre-piece Mass which it was a great theologian of that tradition, opened Kennedy Center sensed this 1. Grow Up Ale~ander Schmemann, who said it need of ours to grow up and assume straight out: 2. Build Your Local Church responsibility in a few memorable line:

3- and gay, contemplative and activist, smart and slow, good-looking and plain, mainstream and on the outside looking in, influential and without the currency of power. Where else but in the liturgy can you and I experience so strong and moving a witness to our commonness and to the possibility of a conversion that will make the freedom and the oneness (already given us) the spirit and the purpose of all our structures, institutions and ways? As Jesus never tired of teaching: this mixed lot is our family. 4. USE YOUR IMAGINATION We know how far we are from that baptismal and eucharistic vision. But we have imaginations, you and r. Humanity has proved its capacity to imagine and invent. Liturgy exceeds the limits of the merely verbal and rational, touches every sense and faculty which we possess, The real tragedy of Christianity is not its everyone else. and therefore evokes faculties which compromise with the world end-: The December 1988 issue of The may be diminished and even paralyzed progressive "materialism, - but, on the Catholic Worker had an article about in our military, money-centered contrary, its "spiritualization- and Thomas Merton which quotes his culture ...especially the faculty of transformation into a "religion. - And description of a memorable experience. imagination. "religion· came to mean a world of pure He had left his abbey to go into Louisville More than any other human faculty, it is spirituality, a concentration of attention on an errand, and found himself standing on matters pertaining to the "soul." imagination which frees us from the on a street corner simply looking at the heavy hand of our habits, our customary Christians were tempted to reject time throngs of people. He wrote about it altogether and replace it with what we ways of doing things, our status quo ...so later: that we can envision new possibilities - call "spirituar pursuits ...to insist that time has no real meaning from the point of The whole illusion of a separate holy in this case the liberation and reconciliation of God's reign. Those gifts view of the reign of God which is existence is a dream ... The sense of "beyond time." And they finally liberation from an illusory difference was do not and can not come all at once. succeeded. They left time meaningless, such a relief and such a joy that I almost Our steps - not only in opening indeed, although full of Christian laughed out loud ... ft is a glorious destiny ourselves to the formation God offers us "symbols." And today we ourselves do to be a member of the human race, in our liturgical source so that we too not know what to do with these symbols. though it is a race dedicated to many experience Merton's identification with For it is impossible to "put Christ back absurdities and one which makes terrible everyone, but also in accepting as faith into Chtistmes" if Christ has not mistakes ...I suddenly saw the secret communities the corporate mission to redeemed - that is, made meaningful- beauty of their hearts where ...sin, desire, work at changing the political, economic, . time itself. (For the Life of the World, self-knowledge cannot reach, the core of cultural structures of our world - our New York, National Student Christian their reality, the person that each one is steps are always tiny and we may not Federation, 1963, p.32) in God's eyes. If only they could see see results. Each step of progress .'.4 themselves as they really are. If only we makes us more sensitive to problems yet To be faithful then, 'both as individuals could see each other that way all the unsolved. Except in faith's vision, we will and as communities of faith, we are time. There would be no more war, no not see the goal. It is enough for us to supposed to be both at home in this' more hatred, no more cruelty, no more be a small, small part of such a process. world of ours and critical of it, both greed. (Conjectures of a Guilty CHANGE OUR HEARTS ... appreciative of its beauty, gifts and Bystander, New York, Doubleday, pp. progress, and protesting its injustice and 140ft). Most of the human race lives daily with violence. To love the world so much we hearts so burdened that only concrete want to change it and make it better - That experience of identification with changes in the economic and political that is our mission ...and that tension is everyone else on the planet is a conditions of their lives can lift despair. our life. necessary one for believers, because it ~ Living and preaching the good news, we is the beginning of justice as well as of People who are satisfied with the world are beginning to understand, is nothing reconciliation. It reminds us why the less than changing radically our hearts as it is cannot be believers in the biblical assembly is an essential part of eucharist tradition. For the Church, as the and our social systems and institutions. and why eucharist is an ecclesial rather The mission God has given us cannot be synagogue, is a pilgrim entity,-called by than a household feast -a gathering of God to prod and urge and give an defined, even in these pious all of us different types, different persons surroundings, by the likes of us. Our example so that all of us together may who are yet deeply, deeply one and who move in the direction of a bit more justice mission can be defined, as Jesus defines must learn to act like it. The vision of the it, only by ''the lowly: ''the and a bit more reconciliation all the eucharist is to bring together in a sharing time ...Iittle steps, but never satisfied, brokenhearted," "captives," "prisoners," more equitable than anything we have and "all who mourn." + always urging on. Only by social thus far achieved, in mutual care, female organization, by combining human ideas and male, old and young, rich and poor, Rev. Robert Hovda and resources and energies, can we be hungry and well-fed, sheltered and living faithful in this way. And by demanding on the street, educated and not, jobless and exp~~ting so much of human beings, and working, persons of every color, we feel better about ourselves and class and culture, straight and lesbian -4------LIVING THROUGH MYSTAGOGIA **Gettingto Heaven at Last"

have celebrated tons of weddings during my priesthood. perception is at times quite different from the image of the Each and everyone of them has been a beautiful and Church that many of our parishioners have, a quite different moving experience. Many months ahead of the wedding Church than we have known in the concrete day-to-day Iday, anxious brides-and-grooms-to-be call the rectory to experiences of our parish living-out of the Gospel. Maybe this is check on everything from the readers for the celebration to one of the reasons why many of our parishes have not taken the asking about the length of the aisle for the white runner. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults seriously over the past fifteen Understandably, everything usually runs smoothly and the bride years. To embrace the RCIA is to commit ourselves to a radical and groom eventually zip-off to their honeymoon rarely to be renewal of our life as the Church. seen by the celebrant again. However, on certain occasions, it is It is here where the Rite is right on target when it says simply yet always a great joy to see the couple again, especially at Sunday powerfully "Since the distinctive spirit and power of the period of Mass, a parish celebration or eventually the baptism of their first postbaptismal catechesis or mystagogy derive from the new, child. I was thinking however, how strange it is that after all the personal experience of the sacraments and of the community, its months of wedding details and preparation, no couples I've ever main setting is the so-called Masses for neophytes, that is, the married has returned from their honeymoon, asking me to reflect Sunday Masses of the Easter season (#247/40/235). All the with them on their wedding experience. Other priests may have neophytes and their godparents should make an effort to take had similar experiences that as humans we are very good at part in the Masses for the neophytes and the entire local preparing, anticipating and executing, but, we're not so great community should be invited to participate with them. Special about "reflecting." We're more concerned about "doing" than places in the congregation are to be reserved for the neophytes "having done." The art of remembering sometimes can be and their godparents. To close the period of postbaptismal painful, because we pick and choose what we wish to remember catechesis some sort of celebration should be held at the end of after a period of time has elapsed causing the memory some the Easter season. For us, here, in the Archdiocese of Newark it distortion. Early reflection can help memory lapses and allow our will be held as a day of recollection on Saturday, May 19th, 1990 new experiences to be the best they can be: solid joys and at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Maplewood, from lasting gifts. the hours between 10 am to 3 pm. It will be at that celebration This is why ''the third step of Ohristian initiation, the celebration of that the Archbishop will preside as the Rite suggests ''to show his the Sacraments, is followed by the final period, the period of pastoral concern for these new members of the Church." post-baptismal catechesis or mystagogy. This is a time for the Seemingly the period of mystagogia is the most difficult to community and the neophytes together to grow in deepening execute because there is no true "blueprint" of execution or their grasp of the paschal mystery and in making it part of their implementation in the Rite itself. All it gives us are the principles lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the eucharist, of catechesis for us to draw our own implications and creative and doing the works of charity. To strengthen the neophytes as opportunities to give the Rite flesh and blood. they begin to walk in the newness of life,the community of the faithful, their god-parents, and their pastors should given them As we wrestle with the mystagogical period of being the ultimate thoughtful and friendly help" (#244/37 RCIA). rite of passage, there are two areas which we would always establish in our catechesis. First, is the need for the neophyte to This growth which the Rite speaks of is rooted in the realize the imperative to become involved in the ministerial life of understanding of the "new perception" which the neophyte has the Church. It is an opportunity to emphasize the basic liturgical received through their initiatory experience. Perception by its principle that all ministry in the Church flows from our common definition has to do with "having or showing insight and sensitive baptism, not from seniority or any status one may hold within the understanding". "Out of this experience, which belongs to Christian community. This is such a basic right of the neophyte Christians and increases as it is lived, they (the neophytes) that it needs to be mentioned at this time. There may be some derive a new perception of the faith, of the Church, and of the members of the parish who may not understand how a neophyte world" (#245/38 RCIA). This new perception is not (nor should it can teach CCD, be a member of the parish council, minister at be) indigenous not only to the neophytes but to the entire Church the altar or become a minister of hospitality. This attitude is a as an initiating assembly. very important pastoral principle which is the spirit of Father Aidan Kavanagh hazarded a guess in 1974 that when evangelization which should pervade all parish activities, historians look back at our era, they will see the RCIA as the especially during the time of the mystagological experience. This single most important result of Vatican II. He said this not spirit of evangelization challenges any sense of smugness or because of its ritual changes but because of the robust vision of complacency, and constantly raises the questions: Who is the Church contained in the rite. Perhaps this is especially true missing? Who does not feel welcome? Who has yet to hear the in our own country, because we were for so long an immigrant good news of God's love and mercy? Church whose time was taken up with caring for our own. We The second concern for us who work with neophytes during the have not had a very vital sense of being the Church for the sake mystagogia is allowing them the luxury of choosing a spiritual of others, for the salvation of the world. We need to recover that director. God nas called us to be instruments for the salvation of others. The most important question the Gospel asks us is not whether "Instead of getting to heaven at last, I'm going all along!" we are saved but whether God can use us to save others. This We normally don't turn to an American poet like Emily Dickinson ------~------5- for spiritual advice. But in these effective listening and effective final lines of one of her popular . response and the capacity to be poems, I see a terse, modern and genuinely one's self in the wholesome summary of the spiri- relationship. One current book tuallife. In fact, our best spiritual The Practice of Spiritual Direction writers today are echoing Emily by William Barry and William Dickinson's sage formula, written Connolly, develops several over a century ago. For they chapters on "Aspects of the don't see "heaven" or the coming Relationship between Director and of the "Kingdom" simply as the Directee." end of a long search but Individual spiritual direction can something found "in the going" as serve the individual and the entire well. Neophytes are in their community of faith by respecting spiritual infancy. We as priests, the individual's freedom and as directors, sponsors and team one loved and called by God. It members need to help them mold can provide lived experience of a spirituality. After the jour-ney, the truth that the ongoing just experienced, the neo-phyte development of faith is not for the may wish to settle awhile and elite but for all Christians. It can rest. Developing a spirituality contribute to the development of may be the last thing on his or her an integrated spiritual life which mind. That is why, it is up to us to unites the personal, the pose the question to the neo- interpersonal and the societal with phytes: What is spirituality? Is it uwwna if>SSWj1 I WItS the neophyte's experience. simply the "art of growing closer iUJ I mill IW; Finally, it can guard against the to God"? For the Christian that Its;; j liW individualism illusion and means following Christ's footsteps ;In ; I Iii! i IWItS! i IIIIIi& overenthusiasm which to the Father in the poem of the Jim occasionally accompany religious Spirit. It is important that we inte- experience. Thus, in that journey grate our journey to God. Unless we so unify our lives that they of faith which is the RCIA, individual spiritual direction can offer a are a simple going toward the Father in Jesus' footsteps, there is loving strengthening support for each individual and a wise and a split, a kind of schizophre-nia between our day-to-day living faithful discernment for the individual's response to that call. and our so-called spiritual life. If I am always doing things in order to get to heaven, I have failed to make my life a joyful Emily Dickinson'S poem concludes with "instead of getting to "going all along". I have not embraced my getting there as heaven at last, I'm going all along!" is a poem about the real lovingly as I have embraced my final destination. division between a false piety and true religion, between external shell and inner heart; and trying to keep body and soul separate Spirituality, for me, is the slow work of God' grace bringing in my mind leads precisely to that, a false piety acted out by the together body and soul in each of us. When the two merge in body that is not really in touch with who I am inside. our consciousness as they are in reality, and we embrace that merging and love it, then we are on the way; and our going to It would be a shame if all of our efforts on behalf of the heaven is as beautiful as our arriving there. It falls upon us to neophytes throughout our parishes would end in naught because open the neophyte's world to the power of this reality called: we didn't take our mystagogia to its logical conclusion: "Getting spiritual direction. to Heaven at Last". + Several contemporary views of spiritual direction can illuminate Rev. Michael A. Merlucci this ministry's particular value and place within the RCIA. In Director RCIA, Inviting the Mystic, Supporting the Prophet, Kathryn Dyckman Worship Office, Archdiocese of Newark and L. Patrick Carroll, define spiritual direction as "an interpersonal relationship in which one person assists others to reflect on their own experience in the light of who they are called to become in fidelity to the Gospel". The very structure of the ministry, an interpersonal relationship in which one person assists others to reflect on their own experience in the light of who they are called to become in fidelity to the Gospel. The very structure of the ministry, an interpersonal relationship, well suits the RCIA. It evokes as well the model of interpersonal relationships found in the Gospels through which women and men came to believe and then continued to grow in their faith.

The relationship is one of assistance. The specific ways in which spiritual direction resembles and can learn from other contemporary helping relationships include the primacy of a mature commitment on the part of the director, the need for - 6------~------_ Perspectives: Communion in Spirit & Song

nce upon a time, the administration of a large and famous why those who propose the Tridentine Mass as the "traditional" university hired a landscaper to plan new walkways forn; of Catholic worship are badly in need of a history lesson!) O across the campus. The grounds committee of the Personal, Communal - A Balance university became increasingly impatient with the landscaper, however, because she delayed so long in submitting a design. In fact, the "vertical" dimension of the sacramental moment, She spent several weeks living on campus, mingling with the which articulates my individual, pEh'sonal encounter with the students and apparently producing none of the work for which Risen Eucharistic Lord, must be balanced by the "horizontal" she had been hired. Finally, the chairman of the grounds dimension. It is only in the communal context that the personal . committee called in the landscaper and demanded the reason encounter takes place, and our celebrations, if done well, help to for this delay. The landscaper wordlessly handed the chairman a form us into a community. Then too there is the theology of blueprint and explained that there was no point in planning pilgrimage, which reminds us that the community en route to the walkways until she knew where the students usually liked to walk reception of the Eucharistic bread and cup is precisely a pilgrim on their way from building to building. Otherwise, the university community - and pilgrims tend to sing on the journey I would pay for new sidewalks and the students would continue to Problems begin when one takas the individual or horizontal walk on the lawn! Her wisdom proved correct. aspect (my encounter) and thinks of it as a "private" moment. It Singing a Priority is surely personal for me as an individual, but it is not private. To view communion as "Jesus and me" while the rest of Mass is At times, we may wonder if liturgical "designers" forgot to watch "Jesus and us" is to upset the balance rather severely . . the congregation when making liturgical directives, and we may Communion is, after all, both personal and communal, both find this particularly a concern at communion. Songs are taught vertical and horizontal. _ and scheduled into the celebration; people are encouraged by documents and by liturgists to sing on their way to receive the There is a healthy tension which rightly belongs to our sacrament; and yet somehow it doesn't seem to be working. sacramental experiences. The sacraments, after all, take Why is singing at communion considered such a priority? And if ordinary words and objects (bread, wine, oil, water) and create a it is such a priority, why don't Catholics, by and large, like to sing sort of suffusion of the transcendent within these very immanent at communion? Finally, what can we do about the whole thing? objects. To look upon Eucharist purely as a fellowship meal is to exaggerate the immanent; to look upon Eucharist as a That singing is the rubrically "correct" thing to do during the . transcendent experience of hushed awe is to exaggerate in the communion procession is easily seen by a quick look at the other direction. General Instruction on the Roman Missal: During the priest's and the faithful's reception of the sacrament the communion song is sung. Its function is to express outwardly the communicants' union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to give evidence of joy of heart, and to make the procession to receive Christ's body more fully an act of community. ...the communion song should be ended in good time whenever there is to be a hymn after communion (GIRM, 56i). The Instruction then makes provision for use of antiphons from either the Graduale Romanum or the Simple Gradual, "by the choir alone or by the choir or cantor with the congregation." A This same tension is present, and should be present, at the brief paragraph follows in which the document allows for moment when we approach the Eucharistic table in procession. recitation of the communion antiphon "if there is no singing." It is not an either-or proposition; there is no magical line of If one is accustomed to reading liturgical documents, one can demarcation between vertical and horizontal. Eucharist is both easily glean from this that the preferred practice, the norm, is communal and personal, both immanent and transcendent, both certainly congregational singing at communion. Our own US horizontal and vertical, and we must give simultaneously due bishops have integrated this understanding into their document honor to both sides of the contrast. Music in Catholic Worship when they cite the communion song So much for the theology of the issue; what about music itself? as one of the "principal texts" during the Rite of Communion. To look at the place of music during the communion procession Both our theology of Church and theology of liturgy, intimately cannot be done without looking at the place of music in the related, have moved in a direction that validates such an liturgy as a whole. We are told by conciliar documents and by understanding. subsequent letlislation from our own US bishops that music is Postconciliar theology has been enriched by an increased both integral (belonging to the nature of liturgy) and ministerial awareness of the sacramental experience as a community (existing for the sake of the liturgy and the assembly). Music is event. This is hardly an innovation; like so many of the not a frill, therefore; it does not exist as an embellishment for "changes" wrought by Vatican II, this communal awareness is festive occasions. At the same time, it must serve the demands less a "modernization" than a return to a more traditional of the rite and the needs of the worshiping community. approach to liturgy - a tradition that comes not from the 400 We need some creatl\te and adaptive solutions to a sturdy year old mandates of the Council of Trent, but from the 2000 resistance to singing that is still operative at communion time. A year old approach of the earliest Christians. (This, by the way, is combination of factors undoubtedly creates this resistance and a 7- combination of solutions is surely needed to counteract it - to 3. We need to look at the overall structure of the liturgy to see if maintain the communal-musical nature of Eucharist and yet to it suggests alternative procedures that honor both pastoral need minister to the varying needs of our assemblies. and liturgical correctness. For one thing, the difficulty may really be less the existence of music than the non-existence of Some Suggestions sufficient silence at key points in the liturgy. When this writer Perhaps a few suggestions could be made in order to honor all hears people bemoaning the lack of "mystery" in our aspects of the Eucharistic experience: contemporary liturgy, it often really translates into a lack of 1. We need to educate our congregations and liturgical ministers substantial shared silence. So greater attention to silence, more thoroughly in sacramental theology, in particular, the especially after the communion song, may be helpful. integral/ministerial function of liturgical music. There is no perfect liturgy because there is no perfect 2. We need to provide pleasing and effective congregational congregation and no perfect community experience. There are, music that follows the suggestion made in both documents and however, the wise and authentic traditions of a 2000 year old liturgical handbooks; the communion processional should always celebrating Church and many creative ways to make these have a responsorial structure, enabling the assembly to sing traditions consistently operative in the worship experience of our easily and without hymnal in hand during the procession. Verses assemblies. Like the landscaper at the university, we need to can be sung by cantor or choir so as to facilitate this. Unless our respect both realities of objective structure and of human need. people consistently experience communion as a musical The communion processional song seems an ideal place to moment, they will never perceive it as such. Lex orandi, lex start! + credendi. Sf. Marlene Milasus, aSB

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(With the vast amount of new music available today, it is often 9164 "Our Lady of the Snows" Dufford difficult to review each piece personally. Sr. Marlene Milasus\ Eucharistic Acclamations OSB, our music editor performs this task for us occasionally. (melodically interesting, and an especially We hope you find the information helpful.) . challenging but not inaccesslole Holy. Memorial departs somewhat from Sacramentary text. Amen includes plain and ASSEMBLY/CHOIR SELECTIONS festive settings with Lenten adaptations.) From. Oregon Catholic Press 7124 Sing to the World Sands (interesting melodic turns, PSALMS various performance possibilities) From Oregon Catholic Press 7161 All That is Hidden Farrell 7147 Taste and See (Psalm 33) Walker (Lent-Easter) (effective but challenging melody) 7167 God of the Living Tamblyn 8997 Song of Forgiveness (psalm 51) Loomis (Easter) (quite singable, although the rhythm 7175 Alleluia! Hurry the Lord is Near Sands does not seem to match the mood) (Advent) 9062 I Will Praise You, Lord (Psalm 30) Ridge 7195 Prepare Ye Dean (interesting melody on verses) (Advent) 8137 Come and Praise the Lord DeEJruyn From World Library Publications 8413 In Perfect Charity DeBruyn 7678 Give Thanks to the Lord Ward (based on Prayer of St. Francis) (Psalm 117) 8718 There is One Lord Alstott 8512 Trust God (Psalm 62) Chepponis (Initiation, Easter Vigil) (sturdy melody, challenging verses) 8810 Father of Mercy Alstott (SATB or 2 voices, trumpet) 8967 God's Holy Family Schiavone HISPANIC/BILINGUAL MUSIC (festive setting) From Oregon Catholic Press 8888 Soy Feliz (Joy is Mine) Mateu From World Library Publications (melody perhaps a bit tiresome) 7961 We Shall Be Changed Ward 9110 Pan de Vida Hurd 7962 The One Same Spirit Ward (good Communion choice both 8509 We Gather Together arr. Schiavone structurally and textually) (familiar tune, arr. SATB - trumpet) Collection: Eyerlasting Ym.!r~ Hurd 8510 I Will Sing to the Lord Goemanne (music for Eucharist, worth looking into) (sung as a round) 8511 Jesus Still Lives Toolan (fine melody) MUSIC FOR LITURGY OF THE HOURS 8513 Descants for Easter Joncas From Oregon Catholic Press (alleluias in abundance!) 7160· We Shall Draw Water Inwood (Isaiah 12 canticle) 8969 Magnificat: God Who is Mighty Schiavone SERVICE MUSIC (challenging verses for cantor, From Oregon Catholic Press tuneful refrain for assembly) 9053 Glory to God Ford (an assertive little piece! Good for the one-time crowd that OTHER needs a repeating refrain) From Oregon Catholic Press 8985 Our Father Bridge 7122 litany of the Spirit Inwood (cantor/choir/assembly; should this (Confirmation, Pentecost, etc) be taken out of the assembly's domain at Eucharist? Does the elaborateness of the setting make it overshadow more significant musical moments like the. acclamations? Would this piece be better suited to a non-Eucharistic setting, perhaps a prayer service?) ------~------9- •••••••••••••

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