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Saint Ann Parish Renewal 2002
Summary
"The goal of Saint Ann Parish is that each member
grow in Grace through Jesus Christ,
and in so doing
cooperate with the Holy Spirit
in giving glory to God,
in experiencing the salvation of their soul,
and in building up the Body of Christ."
Have You Ever Been Arrested?
When I was stationed in Southwest Philadelphia, I used to
be arrested regularly by Reggie. Reggie was a man in his 50's
who spent a lot of time roaming the streets. He walked with
difficulty, struggling with the gait folks with Parkinson's Disease
exhibit, and he seemed ever on the verge of falling. It was hard
for him to walk a block without falling at least once, always falling
hard on his knees and then breaking the rest of his fall with his
hands. Sometimes Reggie would come to Sunday Mass at Most
Blessed Sacrament, and it wouldn't be unusual for him to fall on
his way up the long aisle on his way to his seat or on his way to
Holy Communion. I'm about as over-stimulated and desensitized
as the next American, and I loose interest in something that gives
me pause pretty quickly; however, (thank God) this never
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happened to me when it came to Reggie. Whenever I beheld
Reggie, I was arrested .... taken ... drawn out of the flow of
whatever I had been doing. Through Reggie I came to know what
it means to "Behold", because when I saw Reggie I was held ...
suspended .... out of time ... out of space .... struck and stuck.
Visio Dei
For five weeks now you have been given a handout as you
were sent forth from Sunday Mass. These handouts have to do
with the goal of our parish and with the chief means for us to
achieve our goal. The icon on the front of each handout depicts
Christ, with his wounded hand, trying to break through our
resistance to give us the power to be able to see Him right in front
of us. The quote on the front of each handout is a translation from
St. Irenaeus (+ c. 200 AD) who wrote: "Gloria Dei, Vivens Homo;
Vita Autem Hominis, Visio Dei." The point is that we cannot be
fully alive unless we have received the capacity to see God, and
that we are fully human only to the degree that we are capable of
seeing God as we go through the events of each day. We grow in
Grace through Jesus Christ when and to the degree that we are
able to see Jesus Christ, present and acting, in our lives.
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Beatific Vision
A classic Catholic image for the mystery of complete union
with God we call Heaven is the phrase the Beatific Vision. The
first meaning of this expression is that we are able to see God as
God is because our resistance to God's light and love has been
worn away. Further, in seeing God as God is, we are
transformed, and our attachment to our sins breaks down. An
extended meaning of the image of Beatific Vision is that we are
graced to be able to see as God sees—ourselves, others, our
experiences. Heaven is the experience of Eternal Beholding.
In this life we are offered the gift of sanctifying grace, a gift
that offers us a real sharing in the life of God. To the degree that
we can accept this grace, to that degree we already have the life
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of God within us. However, due to human limitation, and due to
our own sin, and due to the sin of the world, we can catch only
occasional glimpses of the glory of God.
The Stewardship Way of Life is the chief instrument
chosen by St. Ann Parish
to help its members open themselves
to the Holy Spirit—from Whom alone comes the Grace
to live our motto,
to realize our goal,
and to fulfill our mission statement.
God-Struck & God-Stuck
By means of the Stewardship Way of Life, our parish is
leading us to be able to a vision of God—that is, to be able to see
Christ in Person and in Process in the events of our day. To
become able to be occasionally God-struck, though, is a long way
from being able to maintain the vision of God that lifts us up to life
that is more fully human. In order to maintain and to sustain the
vision of God, we need a way to become more disciplined
spiritually. The Stewardship Way of Life is a practice that can help
us be moved from being occasionally God-struck to being more
habitually God-stuck. As the African-American Spiritual prays,
"Fix me, Jesus"---that is fix my heart on You.
Seeing the Truth, Parting the Veil
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Cardinal John Henry Newman (+ 1891) wrote that the
invisible world of the spirit envelopes us, but that there is a veil
between our visible world and the Spirit of God in whom we "live,
and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). How are to pierce
the veil? St. Paul puts it, "May the Lord enlighten the eye of your
heart, that you may know the great hope to which he has called
you, the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among
the members of the church, and the immeasurable scope of his
power in us who believe. It is like the strength he showed in
raising Christ from the dead .... He has put all things under
Christ's feet and has made him, thus exalted, the head of the
church, which is his body: the fullness of him who fills the
universe in all its parts" (Ephesians 1:18-23).
Liturgy Lights Up Life
The Second Vatican Council (1963-65) intended to lead to a
renewal of the entire Church. One of the hallmark expressions
from the Council was that the lay members of the Church are to
become "full, active, and conscious" participants in the liturgy, and
so now we have quite an array of folks involved in helping the
congregation participate in Mass more fully, more actively, and
more consciously. However, liturgy is supposed to light a path
unto our feet (Psalm 119:105) and to show us how to live in ways
that are more vibrant and more fully human. The way we live in
liturgy is the way we are to live in life—as active participants who
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are fully conscious.
Conscious of What? Participants in What?
Last March, during the Mass of Christian Burial for our
pastor emeritus, Cardinal Bevilacqua prayed: "All powerful God,
by this Eucharist may Richard Griffin, your servant and your
priest, rejoice forever in the vision of the mysteries which he
faithfully ministered here on earth." A mystery is something we
can see only with the eye of our heart, and blindness to mystery
is largely responsible for our culture's blindness to meaning in
human life.
We, are called to become full, conscious, and active
participants in Christ-Christ the Person and Christ the Process
which our Tradition terms "The Paschal Mystery." As St. Paul
teaches, " .. .in my own flesh I am making up what is lacking in
the sufferings of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church,
of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship
given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the
mystery hidden from ages past ... but now made manifest to his
holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the
glory of this mystery .... .it is this: Christ in you, your hope for
glory" (Colossians 1 :24-29).
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Reggie's Siblings
Again, St. Paul instructs us, "We hold this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and
not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
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perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not
abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying
about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
also be manifested in our body. For we are constantly being given
up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be
manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:7-11).
We, like Reggie in Philadelphia, stumble, fall, impact,
collapse, rise up, and continue our staggering spiritual journey
every day. In our lives, as in the life of Reggie, there is manifest a
mystery. It is the mystery of God, who in Christ made the
Passage from Divinity into humanity. It is the mystery of God, who
in Christ has taken humanity on the passage from sin to grace
and from death to life. It is the mystery of God, who in Christ
continues to be present to us in Person; and who in Christ
continues the process of bringing his Passover Mystery to it
completion in us.
Ministers of the Mystery
Last March, during the Mass of Christian Burial for our pastor
emeritus, Cardinal Bevilacqua prayed: "All powerful God, by this
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eucharist may Richard Griffin, your servant and your priest,
rejoice forever in the vision of the mysteries which he faithfully
ministered here on earth." Each of us is called to become through
grace full, active, and conscious ministers of the Paschal Mystery
of Christ. I urge all of our members to adopt The Stewardship
Way of Life, because it is an excellent way for us to become more
fully human, more capable of seeing Christ in our daily lives, and
more transparent windows for the glory of God shining through
us.