God's handwriting exists in history

Catholic New Times, Oct 24, 2004

It is obvious to many people that we are moving through a sea change in the relationship of church and society, clergy and the people of God.

As Jack Shea points out in his article on Models of Priesthood (p.10), there is massive conflict coming as laity and priests are heading in different directions. The retrogressive move by church authorities towards a strongly cultic model, a move which has been prevalent under this 25-year pontificate has no resonance among young people today. This is perhaps the reason that many men recently ordained, are finding themselves in treatment centres. Few parishioners are buying their ecclesiology.

A Rubicon was crossed at Vatican Il which redefined the church as the "people of God," lay and clergy together, the priest moving with the people into the holy muck and mire of the world. The church would be incarnated in the world as the healing sacrament of prophetic engagement and ultimate reconciliation. It was based on the belief that the signs of the times, potent with God's grace were not movements to be feared.

Generous young people, many of whom would have chosen religious life in decades past are now assuming dramatic and idealistic roles in the "secular" world. Energized and validated by the call to universal holiness at Vatican 11, the best educated generation of Catholics have intuited Lord Acton's observation in the 19th century: "God's handwriting exists in history independent of the church."

The Kielburger brothers (p. 14) are typical of the many selfless young people in touch with the pulsating call of the Holy Spirit in history. We encounter legions of these young people in the great social movements of our time but, sadly, to many of them, the church has the odour of embalming fluid. The institution is the worse off.

One should only look at the lack of energy in parishes today. Staffed by aging priests and surrounded by people of similar age, not of progressive mindset, they are not players in the major issues of the day. One senses a low-level depression, people shuffling through lifeless liturgies, only to repeat them the following week.

There is no sense that the gospel is the great adventure, the leaven in the loaf or the light on the hill. A new Babylonian captivity of suburban predictability, periodic charity and numbing normality represents a badly truncated gospel.

On the other hand, few parishes are in trouble for taking strong stands on behalf of the voiceless. So few are these, the God who energizes seems to have left the building. In other secular communities who are attempting to alleviate human suffering, the young are meeting the Holy Mystery.

In many ways the genie is out of the bottle. What appears to be ecclesial chaos and diminished church attendance is in reality the people of God finding their voice and, as Mary Rice suggests in her article, (P.16), their baptismal legs. Like the Markan story of the paralytic (Mk 2:1-12) they are heeding the voice of their Lord "Stand up, take your mat and go to your home."

The parishioners of Martin of Tours (CNT Sept 26 and p. 6) are doing this. Faced with an institution where lay people are merely tolerated and often patronized, they leave. Dawn Bazely's letter on page 2 is typical of the women of this generation. Too many have picked up their mats with the values the Church gave them and moved on. A patriarchal church is the loser: as one United church minister told us, her parish is filled with ex-Roman Catholics.

John's gospel reminds us that "the Spirit blows where it wills" (3:8), As we sat around our editorial table recently, we described the signs of life we saw. One member who went to Fr. Thomas Keating's recent seminal- on Christian meditation discovered a vibrant lay movement, well-organized and non-hierarchical. Another person pointed out that Bishop John Shelby Spong attracted 600 people to a United Church in Peterborough with his prescient warning that Christianity must change or die. Moreover, hundreds of believers came out to the launching of a book challenging corporate globalization.

In an ice age, there is so much to be grateful for, the unquenchable Spirit.