From "I" to "We"
Have you had your I’s examined lately? In other words, have you ever noticed how often you use the words “I,” “me” and “my” in a conversation, email or text message? Psychologists tell us these small pronouns give us a big glimpse into who we are. Researchers say that those persons who use the “I” words less frequently are generally those who tend to be leaders, more comfortable with themselves and less self-conscious.
If you’ve ever looked at the words we use in the Mass, you will find that 99% of them are “we”, “our” and “us.” For example,
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…be with you all.”
Introductory Rites
“We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory.” Glory to God
“Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”
Preface dialogue.
As researchers suggest, this indeed gives us a glimpse into who we are. We are a people who are a part of a long communal tradition. Throughout Biblical history, God has called a people, a “we.” God has called individuals, but only so that they can contribute to the “we”: Abraham to be the Father of Nations, Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt, etc. So it is with us today, we are called as a people and we respond as a people. This weekend, we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the founding of the Church, the great commissioning of the “we.” St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for Pentecost Sunday sums it up: “To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Amen!
Commencement
This month, hundreds of thousands of students in high school and college will don their graduation caps and gowns, gather in an auditorium or stadium and listen to a commencement speech that attempts to empower, encourage, motivate, stimulate and inspire. The best commencement speeches are those that challenge the graduates to think beyond their academic blackboards and halls of ivy. Here’s a snippet from two addresses given in the last decade:
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, 2008
What’s worth spending your post-Penn lives trying to do or undo? It might be something simple. It might be something as simple as our deep down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth… …That’s what this degree of yours is, a blunt instrument. So go forth and build something with it.
Bono, University of Pennsylvania 2004
This week, Catholics around the world will hear what we could call Jesus’ commencement speech, challenging words meant to empower the disciples.
Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15, Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
Like an education, liturgy schools us and tools us. It forms us in the ways of being and gives us the tools to live out our faith. Like a commencement speech, each liturgy sends us forth with challenging words: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your lives. Amen!
Common Ground
An interesting winter has made way for an interesting spring. Two weeks ago, I was in western Pennsylvania where the high temperature was 38 degrees and the sky was spitting snow! This winter, the western United States experienced warmer than normal temperatures prompting scientists to study its effects on wildlife. Researchers for the United States Geological Survey and the University of Montana explored the influence of the earth’s rising temperatures on animals. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change were this: A lack of snow in the mountains of Arizona has enabled elk, who normally would stay away from higher snow-covered elevations, to descend to lower levels and to eat vegetation year round. This in turn has destroyed the habitat for certain songbirds. Once again, we are given a glimpse into the interdependence of nature.
Interdependence doesn’t only apply to animals. We humans are more interdependent than we would like to believe. Our actions, no matter how small, can seep through the boundaries of geography and culture affecting other human beings. Our readings during the Easter season give us insight to what can happen when we acknowledge our interdependence:
The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as their own; rather everything was held in common. Acts 4:32
Recognizing what they had in common, rather than what made them different enabled the first Christian community to move beyond the limits of race and religion. Likewise, our liturgy calls us to gather as one recognizing our shared beliefs and common humanity over our differences. Liturgy reminds us how dependent we are on God and how intertwined our lives really are:
I am the vine, you are the branches. John 15:5
Thou shall not leave early
Here are the top ten reasons for NOT leaving Mass early:
10. You may get a scolding from Sister Mary Masspatrol.
9. Your voice may be discovered during the closing hymn by a talent scout for American Idol.
8. You won’t have to read the bulletin because the closing announcements
will give you the highlights.
7. You are likely to be recruited by the hospitality ministers to hand out the bulletins.
6. They don’t put out the fresh donuts until after the final blessing.
5. You might meet your future best friend or spouse walking out of Mass.
4. You will be forsaking your “right and duty” to participate fully, consciously and actively in the Mass.
3. You’ll miss the final blessing and let’s face it, who couldn’t use an extra blessing?
2. You won’t be commissioned to go forth. Just think, if the Apostles left before Jesus finished the
Great commissioning (“Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations…”),
we wouldn’t have a church.
Seriously folks, things have gotten way out of hand. Are those five extra minutes really worth leaving early? So many people just get communion and run, as if the Eucharist were a take-home commodity. We live in a consumer-driven grab-n-go society. It cannot be this way with liturgy. We are a community, or at least that’s our claim. That means we stay and pray together until the end. AMEN!
Jesus is risen -- so what?
I remember going to Ireland to cover travel stories for CNN. Our enthusiasm was bubbling over as we sailed across the Irish Sea from Scotland to Belfast. Our first few days were spent in Northern Ireland. We were awed at the beauty of the Antrim coast, overwhelmed by the hospitality of the people and astonished with the history. Stupefied by the stupendous castles and lured by the luscious green landscapes, our camera crew couldn’t wait to start rolling. After more than a week of working long-hour days, our enthusiasm started to wane. As the country became more familiar, the newness wore off and our initial excitement faded. The coastal beauty seemed to have lost some of its glimmer. The emerald countryside appeared a little less striking. Even the castles seemed less spectacular. In the final days of the trip, there were times when we had to practically beg our photographers to get a few shots.
Life is often like the trip described above. The longer we stay in one place, one job or one relationship, the greater the challenge to sustain our initial passion and fervor. Honeymoons never last long enough. We long for newness, yet become quickly bored. And, boredom often seduces us to take for granted all that we have been given. Like life, liturgy is something that for most of us has become familiar and comfortable. And all that the liturgy represents can too easily be taken for granted. Four weeks ago, we celebrated the incomprehensible reality that a God-Man rose from the dead. Jesus died and rose that we might have life to the full--not sometime in the future--but today. As the Easter Psalm reminds us, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.” The newness for which we long is ours for the taking every moment of every day. If we really lived as though this were the truth, our “Alleluias” would be heard ‘round the world. Amen!