Vatican II at 50: "People of God"
A death in the family took me home to Western Pennsylvania last week. The longer I am away from home, the stranger it feels to return. The places that shaped my childhood now seem like a flicker in a distant past. Many of my high school friends are gone, forced to find work outside of a town that never recovered from the demise of the steel industry; but, many of my mother’s friends and acquaintances are still there. Though my mother has been gone for many years, I am remembered mostly for being the “daughter of Violet.” It is through the memory of my mother that I remain connected to the people and place of my home.
In the same way, the term “People of God” is designed to help all of us remain connected to one another by remembering whose we are. The term was first used in the book of Exodus to describe the intimate relationship God desired with his people. “People of God” was given greater prominence by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council who devoted the second chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium to the “People of God.” In this document, the Church was attempting to bridge ecumenical gaps by recognizing that all people, “Jew and gentile” belong to one human family: “…though there are many nations there is but one people of God, which takes its citizens from every race.” This signified a departure from previous thinking. Rather than trying to flex its ecclesial muscle as the “One, True, Church,” the Council leveled the playing field, affirming that all people belong to God.
Fifty years later, this term and its underlying theology has huge implications for our world, as wars rage over and in the name of God. It says that all of us, man, woman, Hispanic and Anglo, yes, even Democrat and Republican are called to remember whose we are, to affirm our commonality, to build relationships with and for each other so that the world can live in peace.
Vatican II at Fifty: The Year of Faith
Growing up we had two kinds of window attachments at home: storm windows and screens. We knew winter was on its way when the screens were taken down. And, we figured spring was around the corner when the screen windows were being prepped to be put in. Those soft spring and summer days, windows open, a gentle breeze blowing into the house are etched in my memory. The sounds and smells of rural Western Pennsylvania that wafted in our home helped me to connect to my roots and to reaffirm my identity. Somehow, that gave me the strength to face the world that lay beyond those screens.
Opening windows is one image that was used by Pope John XXIII as the rationale behind calling the Council known as Vatican II. When asked why the Council was needed, John XXIII reportedly opened a window and said, "I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in." Thus, the stage was set for the Church to be more in touch with the world that lay beyond its fortress-to be in dialogue with the world, including other Christian denominations and other faith traditions, instead of over and against it. As a result, windows were opened as the Church sought to redefine itself. The Council officially opened fifty years ago this week on October 11th, 1962. Commemorating the Council’s 50th anniversary, Pope Benedict has called this “A Year of Faith,” intended as a year of renewal. With the words which Pope John used at the council, let us pray that the coming year blows in a new breeze of hope.
Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do." AMEN!
Sunday
At first glance, a recent trip to the mall on a Sunday didn’t seem any different from any other day of the week. There were hundreds of shoppers, browsing, buying and bargain-hunting.
But, in one corner of the food court sat a darkened fast food restaurant. Chick-fil-A has been closed on Sundays since the chain first opened in 1946. Founder Truett Cathy believes that employees should have the day free to rest, enjoy their families and worship if they so choose.
These days, most people use Sundays as a catch-up on all the work that didn’t get done the rest of the week. Sundays have become filled with scheduled school and sporting activities, leaving little time to observe the special nature of Sunday, as directed in the book of Deuteronomy:
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter. Deuteronomy 5:12-13
Scholars of the Talmud say the reason the Sabbath was created was not because God needed rest but in order to make rest holy, to demand rest of us so that by regularly resting in God, we could ourselves become new people. The Church calls Sunday the first holy day of all, because the first time Christians began to gather on a regular basis happened on Sunday. We are encouraged to keep the day by setting aside weekly routines, and giving ourselves permission to relax, be still, and partake in only those things which refresh our spirits. Our work, after all, will never be complete. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art—The Sabbath teaches all beings whom to praise.” Amen!
Real Presence
Modern medicine often gives us a new lease on life. Friends have experienced this recently: a quadruple heart bypass surgery that has promised many more years of living; chemotherapy that has wiped out threatening tumors. Fear has yielded to relief and the gift of new life has overcome pain and suffering. For these individuals, life is forever changed. They are renewed in energy and determination. The bar of living has been raised leaving them eager to give back the new life they have been given.
Each Eucharistic liturgy offers us the opportunity for new life. By partaking in the Eucharist, we share in the very life of God, who continually offers us new life. This is summed up in our opening prayer for this Sunday’s celebration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ:
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament
have left us a memorial of your Passion,
grant us, we pray,
so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood
that we may always experience in ourselves
the fruits of your redemption.
This prayer was written by Thomas Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi. Aquinas also wrote that “The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God.” This is expressed in our Eucharistic prayers. We invoke the Holy Spirit not only to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ:
Make holy, therefore, these gifs, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall
But also, and more importantly, to transform ourselves:
Humbly we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.
What does it mean to share in the divine life of God? It means that each time we participate in the Eucharist, the bar is raised. Gifted with the new life of God, we are challenged to continue the work of Jesus. Picking up where Jesus left off could be as easy as picking up our hymnals and participating fully at the Eucharistic liturgy or as difficult as picking up the pieces when our lives become shattered. Sharing in the divine life, we become the real presence of God. If we were really present to God’s real presence, not only in the Eucharist, but in ourselves, there would be no need to continue to defend the “real presence” of Jesus in the Eucharist. Our actions would say it all. For, Eucharistic people are the Gospel in action. Amen!
It's a mystery to me!
My friend was grieving over the death of someone close to her. She was trying to explain the mystery of eternal life to her inquisitive three year old son. After what she considered an erudite explanation, her son replied, “Mom, is Spiderman dead?” Children ask the most amusing and often the most profound questions. Their questions can challenge our supposed knowledge and cause us to ponder life’s greatest mysteries.
Like children, the liturgy can engage us in the deepest questions of life: Why do we exist? Why do we suffer? What happens when we die? Is there a God? Is God good? The liturgy doesn’t give us textbook answers. In fact, it often prompts us to ask more questions.
This weekend, the Church celebrates one of the greatest mysteries of our faith: The Holy Trinity.
We won’t hear a textbook explanation of this doctrine during Mass, for how could anyone offer an adequate explanation of our belief that God is three persons in one? Yet we celebrate this mystery by praying it. We pray to God in the power of the Spirit “through Christ our Lord.” It is ultimately by faith that we embrace the mysteries of our belief and the mysteries of life. Sometimes, there are no answers, only more questions. The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke in his book, Letters to a Young Poet, summed it up best:
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. AMEN!