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PAGE 5 — December 14,1972
g (Ail Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1972 by N.C. News Service.)
[Know Your F aith)
Society and the Kingdom of God
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
The only international society known to the people of the
New Testament times was the Roman Empire. As an attempt to
organize hundreds of different nationalities into a single
functioning unity which spanned the civilized world, it was
probably the most successful in history.
Even so, the reality was different from the ideal description,
and different as well from the golden memories of later ages.
The first Christians had to live within the reality. So they lived
in the world-wide Roman Empire, but they dreamed of - and
prayed for - the coming of the kingdom of God.
The Roman Empire united all nations by force. God’s rule
and kingdom would unite them all in love.
The Roman Empire achieved external law and order and
obedience. God’s kingdom would bring about the liberation of
the spirit of man.
The Roman Empire was built on the exploitation of the weak
for the profit of the strong. The kingdom of God was for
Christ’s little ones, the meek, the disinherited, the hungering,
the poor.
The Roman Empire could tolerate all crimes, just so they did
not interfere with external law and order. The kingdom of God
concerned itself with even the secret thoughts of the inmost
hearts, and inspired men to the fulfillment of all possible good.
The Roman Empire found an ideal in the concept of justice:
pay what you owe. The kingdom of God was built on
forgiveness and mercy. Those in prison, those who were
persecuted for the sake of justice were its special concern.
The Roman Empire rested on the strength and the wealth and
the fallible wisdom of men. When these faded, it died. The
kingdom of God would come as a gift of God and would stand
as strong and everlasting as God’s holy word.
The Roman Empire was one of many possible arrangements
men might make for international law and order and what may
look like peace. The kingdom of God would be only one -
singular, inimitable, unique - the pearl of great price, the
treasure hidden in a field, which the man of sense would sell all
he had to obtain.
The Roman Empire was for those who were willing to
compromise with the forces of evil, and let others die so that
their own lives would be spared.
God Under Many Guises
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
“Phantom India” is a superbly sensitive documentary film on
life in modern India. Seven one-hour episodes explore the major
aspects of Indian life, culture, politics and religion. Skillful
photography and extraordinarily compassionate and respectful
direction combine to draw the viewer into a quiet
contemplation of the uniqueness of India.
For me this movie was a richly rewarding experience. I was
able to wonder at the deep beauty revealed in a land so different
from our own. Clothes, rituals, customs, language, were seen as
they are: expressions of the common human longing for peace,
love, communion, faith and worship. While so remarkably
different from American life-styles, the ways of Indian life
reveal dimensions of humanity often unrecognized in our own
culture.
The sensitivity, compassion, and respect of the French
director, translated into the film medium through skillful
camera work and editing, made possible my appreciation of a
previously little-known world. I was enabled by this
documentary to come to recognize more vividly that man is
admirably human under what appear to be the strangest guises. In
fact the apparent strangeness of some customs intensified the
insight into what it means to be human.
Unfortunately it is all too easy to identify as the ideal of
humanity the cultural ways with which one is familiar. A good
man is thought to be one who embodies our* values and
life-style. We easily equate being human with being American,
or white, or black. As a result our appreciation of the richness
and depth of human nature is impoverished.
An impoverished appreciation of the mystery of man risks
creating an equally limited idea of God, one narrowed to our
Western notions. As Christians we believe that man is made in
God’s image and likeness. We also believe that God took flesh,
becoming a man like us, in order to enable man and woman to
know him better. It would seem then, if we take our doctrines
of creation and incarnations seriously, that our knowledge of
God is influenced by our acquaintance with man. Through
knowing people we come to know more about God.
This has important implications for religious education. We
might ask ourselves questions like these about our approaches to
Christian catechesis: “To what extent are we encouraging
knowledge and respect of others who come from different
backgrounds, races, nations?” “Are we expanding our people’s
awareness of the values and ideals of those in other cultures?”
“How do we feel about ‘foreign,’ ‘strange,’ customs and
habits?” “What is our attitude toward other religions?” “In our
lives as well as in the classroom are we growing in respect and
compassion toward all peoples?” “What is our attitude to those
who challenge and question our own ideals or values?”
One of the modern criticisms of Christianity is that our God
is too small. Many people today criticize Christians not because
their idea of God is too lofty, too demanding, but that it is not
challenging enough. It is a real danger: forming an idea of God
that is smaller than God, smaller even than man. We tend to put
God into a box, neatly defined and easily grasped.
In so doing we actually betray our own tradition which
recognizes God as so good, so beautiful, so mysteriously
attractive so incomprehensible, that he cannot be contained in
any one single expression or form. Even Jesus, the fullest
expression of divinity, pointed beyond himself, to the Father.
It seems to me one good way to challenge our tendency to
constrict God to comfortable categories is to honestly try to
appreciate the values and ideas of peoples other than ourselves.
The movie “Phantom India” jarred me into the realization that
our own tradition is not too distant from the Hindu scriptures,
the Vedas, which proclaim: “Truth is One. They call him by
different names.”
God may be found under many guises.
The kingdom of God would be for those who would dare
with Christ to lose their own lives that all might live. It would
find its truest strength in its faith in the Lord who was risen
from the dead. He had promised to those who were willing to
enter with him into his kingdom: “I am with you always - until
the end of the world.”
“ALL OF US DEPEND on the sailors, truck drivers,
and engineers who daily probably haul a greater
tonnage of food and materials than the whole world
consumed during the entire 19th Century.” Trucks
join the flow of cars on a freeway as dusk arrives.
International
Society
BY DOCTOR LAWRENCE LOSONCY
A key theme of the twentieth century has become
interdependence. If Suez shipping is stopped, Europeans are
short of fuel. If the American stock market dips, Japanese
financiers panic. Famine in China means war in Indochina or
trade agreements with Canada. And so it goes. One nation needs
another. No nation enjoys interedependence and yet no nation
can survive alone.
A second key theme of the twentieth century might be called
working through groups. Just as nations can no longer “go it
alone,” so, too, individuals can no longer survive alone. The
growing interdependence of nations is but a reflection of the
growing interdependence of people upon one another.
Urbanites can no longer eat unless the farmer produces; the
farmer cannot farm without the urban-manufactured machinery
and the fuel produced from afar which runs his machinery. All
of us depend upon the sailors, airline pilots, truck drivers, and
engineers who daily probably haul a greater tonnage of food and
materials than the whole world consumed during the entire
nineteenth century.
Even penguins in the South Pole and bears in the North Pole
suffer from the DDT poisoning which drains off into the seas
from North and South America. Penguins and polar bears
depend upon you and me for their ecological survival! How
much more so people around the world! For many people, the
growing awareness of international interdependence, even at the
very personal day-to-day level, is shocking. A feeling of
helplessness or powerlessness seems to be the first reaction upon
realizing the great extent to which our well-being depends upon
individuals and groups of people whom we have never met and
whom we are absolutely powerless to control.
The bigger shock occurs seconds later, when we realize how
much other people, even as far away as the Arctic or China,
depend upon us. Our politics, our economics, our beliefs and
values, our life style, and our entire life will make a difference
for other people in the world. It will make their years in this life
longer or shorter, their standard of living higher or lower, their
level of pollution cleaner or dirtier.
The way we live will allow other people in othe’- countries to
be happier or less happy, healthier or less healthier, more human
y or less human. They too, are powerless to control us. Like us,
they reach out through the U.N., through religion, education,
culture, business, and communication media, trying to influence
our decisions.
Nations, like individuals, experience shock at needing other
nations, the same deeper shock and unbelief upon realizing how
much other nations need them. Rooted deep in human
experience, and therefore in the history of nations, seems to be
fear of interdependence. What drives nations and individuals
onward is the desire, the false hope of becohiing independent, of
controlling one’s destiny, of not needing help. At the same time,
a shudder of fear seems to occur at the thought of being needed,
for with being needed comes responsibility, risk, acceptance of
the unknown or untried.
We need and want so desperately to believe in the
brotherhood of all men, a common sonship to a color-blind
God, a destiny of the human race which transcends any national
destiny; we so desperately need and want to think of ourselves
as people internationally related to one another. It will happen
if we are to survive. It is happening. As it happens, we will
realize that the growing interdependence of all nations on each
other helps us discover the universality of God’s love, which
forms the basis of realistic hope for the formation of an
effective world community.
A Beautiful Wisconsin Parish
“ON ONE OF HIS MANY VISITS to people’shomes,he
will drop off a basket (of food) for those who could
use it.” Msgr. James Finucan of Stevens Point, Wis.,
gives a food basket to one of his parishioners. (NC
Photo by George Sroda)
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Last week en route to the Central Wisconsin Airport at
Wausau, I had a pleasant half-hour fall drive through the hills
and valleys, the farms and forests of that state. It was a
beautiful experience - beautiful day, beautiful colors, beautiful
scenery and a beautiful driver - companion, Msgr. James
Finucan, shepherd of St. Joseph’s Church in nearby Stevens
Point.
Like most pastors in similar situations, we swapped stories,
talked shop and exchanged ideas. Stealing practical suggestions
and programs from one another is a commonplace practice
among parish priests. Msgr. Finucan has been doing this for 25
years and openly, unashamedly admits it.
He gives credit for many of the successful spiritual activities
at his church to Holy Cross Father Joseph Payne, the founder
(1937) of Little Flower parish in South Bend and author of
“Together at Baptism,” a booklet designed to help prepare
parents for the baptismal ceremony. Msgr. Finucan says: “He is
just a beautiful person. Father Payne looks like a meek, humble,
holy harmless old man. But he walks in with all these new, wild
ideas and parishioners both love him and accept them.”
This Wisconsin pastor also acknowledges the wonderful
creativeness and energetic efforts of curates who have labored
with him at St. Joseph’s. Delighted with Father Robert
Kulinski, his present associate (“Best priest in the diocese. The
plate collection went up $30. each week when he hit town.”),
the silver jubilarian sees him as part of a tradition. He speaks
about a “beautiful” group of younger clergy who have inspired
him with their imaginative recommendations and their
willingness to work hard in carrying these out.
These programs illustrate the kind of activities taking place at
this 500 - family parish:
- First Communion. Adult education at St. Joseph’s centers
around parents who are preparing their boys and girls for first
reception of the Eucharist. Fathers and mothers meet in homes
(six couples for six sessions with the priests) and study subjects
like sin, revelation, the Church, salvation, First Confession, First
Communion. The sixth and concluding conference is a Mass
with the children sitting around the altar and the priest making
explanatory remarks as he proceeds with the celebration.
Parents receive (under both kinds), but not the First
Communicants. After the sessions are over and when the parents
judge a child is ready, then they bring the young one to the
rectory for an interview.
Msgr. Finucan believes this particular procedure is the real basis
for their progress, the secret behind community spirit in the
parish at Stevens Point.
-- Gifts for the poor. I noticed during the brief trip two
baskets of food wrapped in plastic coverage on the back seat of
the pastor’s car. He explained that they were gifts for the needy
presented by brides and grooms at recent marriages. Almost
every couple now makes that kind of offering (using staples like
flour, sugar and canned goods which won’t easily spoil) as a sign
of their concern for others and as a sharing of their wedding
reception with the less fortunate. On one of his many visits to
people’s homes, he will drop off a basket for those who could
use it.
-- Symbolic stole. At Baptism the parish presents each child
through the parents with a plain, deacon stole which crosses
over from shoulder to opposite waist. They are then asked to
sew, paint, stitch or otherwise fix an appropriate symbol of
Baptism to this wide garment large enough for a 10-year-old to
wear. Later, at First Communion, First Confession,
Confirmation (even marriage - one bride and groom wore their
handsome satin stoles over the typical wedding outfits), the
person will wear it again. This time, however, another figure or
sign pertinent to the sacrament at hand will have been added on
to the baptismal stole.
- Marriage preparation discussions. Instead of referral to a
large area-wide or parish pre-Cana conference, engaged persons
at St. Joseph’s are assigned to one of 14 specially trained
married couples for three sessions at home. Aided by tapes and
records, the married and engaged couple discuss these topics
(communication, love, sex and parenthood) expected in a
marriage preparation course.
Afterwards, the fiances see a priest for an explanation of the
wedding ceremony (filmstrip plus book) and the rehearsal.
This started as a pragmatic, experimental measure to help one
troubled couple through a difficult “mixc^ marriage” situation.
Both parties engaged and married ' } fVv at
all the 50 or more young men and -j_ c«ui year
at St. Joseph’s now are prepared in such individualized,
home-style fashion.