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Daily Scripture

+ 5th Week in Ordinary Time

It still has meaning.

1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 Psalm 132:6-7, 8-10 Mark 6:53-56

The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple. There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel. [1 Kings 8:6, 8]
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In recent years there has been much discussion in liturgical circles about the proper location of the tabernacle in the worship space. The directives implementing the Constitution on the Liturgy by the Second Vatican Council prescribed that the tabernacle be located in prominent location in the church or chapel, preferably in a chapel dedicated to the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and appropriate for veneration. In any case, it was not to be located on the altar table used for the celebration of the Eucharist. As a result in many churches renovations, the tabernacle was moved to the ‘side altar’ previously used for the veneration of the Blessed Virgin or St. Joseph and in some churches, it was placed on the old altar previously used for Mass. In situations the old altar was replaced with a permanent pedestal on which the tabernacle was placed.

In liturgical matters, nothing is simple. Those of a more conservative disposition insisted that the location of the Tabernacle on the side altar reduced the status of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist thereby diminishing its meaning in the devotional life of the faithful. Others of a more liberal persuasion opined that in fact, the location in a separate chapel within the church assigned to the sacrament greater prominence thereby increasing the devotional aspect. Moreover, in as much as an emphasis of the ‘action’ of the Mass as the repetition of the “Lord’s Supper” was promoted by the Council, it seemed to liturgists that the location of the tabernacle in the main sanctuary behind the free standing Eucharist table would compete with the ‘action’ of the Mass as a sacred meal.

The most recent prescriptions in the United States provide that the tabernacle be located in the main sanctuary on suitably ornate pedestal. It is ironic that in the major basilicas including the basilica of St. Peter in Rome, the tabernacle is located on a side altar that is not very prominent.

Whatever the location, it should not be a bone of contention worthy of a liturgical battle. The public and private devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is rooted in the long tradition of the Church and should not be disparaged. In the same way in which the tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments was symbolic of God’s presence in the temple, so too, the reservation of the Eucharist Bread has been one of the longest-standing practices of the devotional life of Catholics. It is intended to extend the meaning and the effects of the Eucharistic celebration into the life of the faithful who continue to spend time in prayerful meditation on the mysteries of the life of Jesus not the least of which is his faithfulness unto death on the cross for the salvation of the world. The two aspects of Eucharist need not be in competition. The ‘Mass’ continues to be considered a “sacrificial” meal. But we need to be clear that its connection with the passion and death of Christ even as the lamb of God is not to suggest that his death was mandated to satisfy and angry God. That in my opinion is not an appropriate application of Old Testament sacrifices. No, Jesus sacrificial death was the completion of his entire sacrificial life of unqualified and indiscriminate love in the same way as the sacrificial love of partners in marriage offer their sacrificial love to one another or in the manner that Mother Teresa offered her live in sacrificial service to victims of poverty in the streets of Calctta. It is in this sense that devotion to the Eucharist in the tabernacle takes its extended meaning.

During the celebration of the Eucharist, we become what we eat. Through our devotion to the Eucharist reserved in the tabernacle, we are reminded that the Eucharistic presence in our mind, heart and soul extends into all the good works of our lives with the hope that we too will always think and act with the same sacrificial love as did Jesus in his earthly life.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'C'

Sunday July 4, 2010

Holy Mother Church

I can still hear the associate pastor in the parish of my boyhood years, referring to the Church as “Holy Mother Church”. I recall asking myself, “How can the Church be a woman, much less a mother, and still be the ‘Body of Christ?’”—In hindsight, a simplistic question, to be sure. However, in those rather simple times, we were not encouraged to question or express our doubts. If the priest said the Church was a mother, so be it! Otherwise, I have no recollection of this title having had a significant impact on my elementary understanding of the Church or my embryonic experience of Church life.

Many years later, however, Pope John XXIII wrote an encyclical entitled, Mater et Magistra — Mother and Teacher. The title of papal letters is taken from the first two or three opening words of the document. This encyclical pre-dated the Second Vatican Council but was one of Pope John’s monumental works. In it, he summarized the Church’s social teaching from Leo XIII to the late 1950s but rooted it more emphatically in the teachings of Jesus Christ. In essence, Pope John was making very practical the teaching of Jesus Christ that the love of God cannot be separated from the love of neighbor. Moreover, he stressed the reality that the Church must be the first not only to proclaim the message but also to live the message in the same manner in which a mother is the first to practice what she teaches her children. A woman’s love — is proactive. So too must the Church be proactive in works of justice, mercy and charity.

A mother’s love is uniquely sacrificial. Who but a mother can accurately describe the pain that accompanied the birth of a child. It has been noted often that a man could never bear the pain of childbirth. We men need not be dismayed by that observation. It does not mean that a man’s love is superficial or that we cannot bear willingly the pain of sacrificial love. Jesus as man surely demonstrated the totality of a human sacrificial love, male and female. However, a woman bears not only intense physical pain as in childbirth but also a unique anguish of soul as she identifies with the life-struggles of her children.

This may be demonstrated even further in an image popular in medieval art and poetry — the pelican with her brood of chicks. This symbol is represented in one of the stained windows in the sanctuary of St. Joseph Church in Mendham and in the nave of our own Assumption Church. In the process of feeding her young, the pelican presses her feed sack full of fish against her neck in such a way that she seems to pierce her breast with her bill. The redness of the tip of her beak extols the notion that the pelican actually draws blood from her breast so that her young might live. Hence it became not only a powerful image of the maternal instinctive but also of thesacrificial love of God manifested in Jesus’ life-giving death on the cross.

This symbol was adopted by the founders of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth at Convent Station to demonstrate the sacrificial love to which they are called as a religious community. The large number of sisters who have given their life through martyrdom is of historic record.

In his short-lived reign of thirty days as Pope, John Paul I reintroduced the image of mother when he affirmed the multiple facets of God’s personality. He said: “God is our father, even more, God is our mother… if children are ill.. or if they are sick with badness and are on the wrong track… they have an additional claim to be loved by their mother…”

In any event, I think the Scriptures this weekend suggest that we revisit the title and it’s application to the Church as woman and its mission to the world in an age of excessive individualism and increasing narcissism.

The first reading from Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as woman and mother. In later times, the Church will be called the new Jerusalem. “Rejoice with Jerusalem in joy, that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast… and you shall be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees.” Isaiah, however, is inferring more than this. In the name of God, Isaiah goes on to state: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” In other words, he is applying feminine qualities to God with great ease.

Saint Paul’s understanding of the preaching of the Gospel was not restricted to male preachers or teachers but applied to the entire Christian assembly, especially to those who gather as ‘church’ for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries. He was promoting nothing more or less than what Jesus himself promoted as an itinerant preacher: “Love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.” If you do that, you will indeed be preaching the Gospel, using words when necessary. This is true sacrificial love.

As members of the Church, we are being sent forth with the courage of a warrior but with the strength of a mother. We are called as men and women not to dictate or dominate but to enlighten and edify. This calls for nothing less than sacrificial love and the assurance that God will uphold us even in the face of criticism and rejection. In essence, this is a call to true Christian discipleship.

Soon after I began my service as diocesan secretary for parish ministry, among many of my responsibilities was the formation of priests, deacons and lay ministers in the art of collaborative ministry. I became very aware that this could not be a ‘lone ranger’ effort. In order to teach the skills that promoted collaboration, I had to partner with other ministers, male and female in the formation program and I found just the right person to develop and implement the program as my primary partner. Sr. Marie and I were a great team and complemented each other during our formation sessions. She brought to these sessions a unique wisdom that I could not impart on my own.

Women played an essential role in the infant church but as it evolved, males became more dominant and eventually led to what I would call a discriminating tone to ministry in which women was relegated to an inferior role as a structured hierarchy developed.

At a recent retreat I met a sister who spoke eloquently of the sacrament of Reconciliation. I took the occasion to remind her and and the other retreatants of how often sisters, deacons and lay men and women have been instruments of reconciliation at the bedside of the dying and on other occasions through healing touch and the healing of memories, assuring them of God’s merciful love and forgiveness when a priest was not available.

On this Fourth of July, we need to be reminded hat collaboration rather than competition will yield more effective results in the healing of our country than demonstrations that divide. The lack of civility and the incessant bickering and war of words exchanged in congress and from the White House must give way to an un patronizing patriotism that leads to solidarity on which we can build bridges and partnerships with one another in our search for lasting solutions to national global challenges that threaten to destroy us.

Freedom is a terrible gift to waste.

John Paul I was correct – “God is our Father and even more our Mother…’ For God and country, let us move forward with the wisdom that only God can reveal to the Churches and to our nation at every level.

Men and women, young and old, let us become partners with God in the ongoing work of the Dominion of God.