Pentecost
May 10-11 2008
"Forward"

I spent this past week reading a book written in the early 1870’s. Why? Because I’m trying to understand better a council that happened in the 1960’s. Again, why? Well, over the past few weeks, many of you have shared with me, either personally or through the internet, your fears concerning Archbishop Kurtz’s letter to all the parishes on the liturgy. You’ve shared with me in particular your fear that we may be taking a step backwards; whereas Archbishop Kurtz taught us last weekend that the miracle of the Ascension is that we are closer to Christ today than ever before. So I want to retrace our steps to see, if indeed, what direction we as a church are moving.

You know, it seems counter-intuitive, really, to think that the farther away from something we get, the better we can see it. But life teaches us otherwise. Anyone who has had to take a piece of paper and to do this (holding paper at arm’s length) as you get old, like me, knows that there are times that can be true. Or take that very popular picture of Jesus that’s made up of all the little faces, you know the one of which I speak? When you are right up on it, you look at all the little faces in it. But when you step back and get farther away from the picture and look at it, you can see Jesus’ face made up of all those little faces. Again, there are times, even though it seems counter-intuitive, there are times when the farther away from something you get, the better you can see it.

John Henry Newman, the author of Conscience, Consensus and the Development of Doctrine, the book I’ve been reading, picked up on this truth. He writes that our church doctrines develop through time into fuller, deeper, more encompassing articulations of Christ’s gospel. This means that we have a fuller understanding of Christ’s gospel today than those of yesterday; and those tomorrow will get it better than us today. Far from being the enemy of truth, time is the medium by which Christ’s gospel is brought to greater and greater bloom as it interacts with new minds through history. That is all minds with which the gospel interacts. Hence, the 1870’s roots of our 1960’s council’s understanding of the active participation of the laity in the development of Christian doctrine.

But how do we discern a true development from a false one – a step forward from a step back? Newman explains that this ability to authenticate genuine doctrinal development grew alongside of the very growth of the doctrine from its beginning in the form of the magisterium in union with the Pope. Think of it like a line judge in a tennis match. Someone had to tell McEnroe from time to time that his shots were over the line. He didn’t agree with it. He would get mad and he’d bounce his racket all over the place and curse at the umpire, but the call had to be made. Or take NFL referees. They have to make a call right there on the spot in the midst of the game. Now, upon reviewing videos, they can reverse their call if a better call can be made; but even then, they still make the call. Otherwise the whole game would come to a screeching halt. This authentication of true doctrinal development moves slowly, conservatively. But that’s only natural. We don’t want to lose anything valuable entrusted to us.

You know, I see this same dynamic playing out in our own parish decision-making. And our own dynamic of creating plans for our own future. It may seem to some like we’re taking a very long time to discern our decisions for our parish future. I mean, it’s been a year and a half now. But our process is slow out of our caution not to lose our past foundation as we move into our future. Moving slow is only natural. The development of doctrine will always outpace its authentication. It’s just the nature of things.

I’ve got to tell you, when I first caught wind of the Archbishop’s letter as it was being composed, my first reaction also was denial. I just thought it was some rumors that some priests had started. Priests start rumors all the time. But right after I got past the denial for myself, anger and fear settled in. They kind of go together. Only my anger and my fear centered not so much on the letter, but on why, of all the parishes I could be assigned to in the archdiocese, why did I have to be assigned here when that letter came out. I told the priests I live with, and I was quite serious, they’re going to beat me up. I hope they remember that crucifixion is now illegal.

I remember back in chaplain school up in Newport running in formation with the other chaplains. There was always this one chaplain, this Episcopal chaplain, who always lagged behind. And she would, as she was lagging behind, keep repeating to herself, over the encouragement of the gunny sergeant who would go back to try to get her to catch up with us, she just kept, in her fast paced walking, saying, “I compete against no one but myself. I compete against no one but myself.” Each time this happened, and this happened every time we went for a group run, the rest of us in the group would simply run in circles until she would catch up. Such is the Marine way. You don’t leave anybody behind. Sometimes those in front have to run in circles until the others can catch up. It’s just part of being a team. It’s part of being a family. But to run in circles is not the same thing as to go backwards.

My late spiritual director, Fr. Jerry Newfelder, once drew me a picture of the spiritual life, a picture I believe I’ve shared with you before. He told me that the spiritual life kind of looks like a tornado line, a spiral that keeps going like this – up and up – as we develop our spiritual life with God. And he said that sometimes when we’re on that journey, on that spiral, if you’re at a certain place in it, it can seem like you’re going backwards, you’re losing ground. But if you step back and look at the whole picture, you’re really always moving forward. Sometimes, though, it seems otherwise. So it is with the spiritual life, so it is with the development of doctrine, Cardinal Newman says.

Today we celebrate our Pentecost conviction that the Holy Spirit remains with us, guiding the church as it has done from the beginning. And we celebrate, as Cardinal Newman taught in the 1870’s and Vatican II corroborated in the 1960’s, that there is only one direction of movement for God’s spirit, and that is forward.

So to those who are afraid, I say trust in that spirit … trust in our foundation … trust in the Lord.