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PAGE 5 - December 21,1972
Finding One Another in Body of Christ
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
We can hope to be one in Christ, because there is a Christ to
be one in! We celebrate the beginning of that hope when we
celebrate his birthday at Christmas.
Christian community is finding one another in the body of
Christ. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into the one body.
You are the body of Christ, and members one of another.”
The body of Christ is not something imaginary. Nor is it
merely a pretty name for the Church. There is only one real
body of Christ. It is the body of the baby for whom there was
no place in the inn, the body of the young worker and of the
unrecognized prophet and of the crucified man.
That is the body with which we must be one if we are to
become united with one another. When we re united in that
body, then we are the Church.
The perfect Christian community we long for may be still in
the future. But the center of its unity is here in the present,
because he was born for us in the past. The Christ who makes us
one and can make all men one is not a geometrical point toward
which the lines of humanity converge in some distant future. He
is a man; he is someone.
We can love him because we have seen him; because he was
once a child who could be cared for and comforted, a man who
worked and grew tired over his work. We come together around
a man who was hungry and thirsty, and sometimes alone and
afraid. He was a prophet and a preacher who found himself
frustrated in trying to get across the message that would save
the world. They flogged him and they laughed at his claims;
they put him in jail and they put him to death.
But he rose in that body, as we hope to rise, from the world
of the dead. When we believe that fact and recognize that man
as “Christ, Messiah, Savior, Lord,” we are on the way to
Christian community.
Faith in that man creates Christian community, and the more
real is the faith, the more real is the community. The faith
reaches a high point of expression in the Eucharist. As a result,
St. Paul can write, “Is not the cup of blessing we bless a sharing
in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a sharing
in the body of Christ? Because the loaf is one, we, many though
we are, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
Finally, to believe in him and to recognize him as Lord is to
accept his way to growth and life. That is the way of self-giving
-- from crib to cross. If the only way we can grow is to cut
others down and take what is theirs, then the human race will
never be one. Life will always be a warfare.
But, according to Christ’s way, giving ourselves away to
others is what makes us grow to the full maturity of Christ the
head. Through him the whole body grows, and, with the proper
functioning of the members joined firmly together by each
supporting ligament, builds itself up in love.
The Christian Community Today
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
Mahatma Ghandi, spiritual and political leader of India, was a
Hindu. Yet he admired and respected Jesus Christ, whom he
came to know through reading the Gospels. However, it is said
that contact with Christians led him to disdain Christianity.
Fyodor Dostoevski, world renowned Russian novelist, also
loved Jesus Christ. He too knew Christ through the Gospels. Yet
he came to despise Christians.
Today many comtemporary Americans are “turning on” to
| Jesus at the same time that they “turn off” the Churches. There
is even a growing movement of “Jews for Jesus,” although few
Jewish followers of Jesus join Christian Churches.
On the other hand the official teachings of the Second
Vatican Council proclaim that “by her relationship with Christ,
the Church is a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with
God, and of the unity of all mankind. She is also an instrument
for the achievement of such union and unity” (Church, 1).
There would seem to be a discrepancy between the ideal
described by the Council and the experience of many inside and
outside the Church. It would seem that if the Church is a sign,
its meaning is not being recognized. Some would even say that
the institutional Church as it is experienced in parishes,
dioceses, or even internationally, gives rather the appearance of
being a counter-sign to the unity Jesus came to bring.
To educate our people - from pulpit, at home, in school -- to
recognize and aspire to the ideals of Christian unity proposed by
the Gospels and Vatican II, is good. But the ideals will only be
appreciated if the reality is examined with equal honesty and
openness. By second grade today’s children are able to perceive
the distance between lofty ideals and often painful reality.
Meaningful ideals are only embraced when seen against the
backdrop of the real.
There is little educational value in teaching the young that
their parish is a community, even a family, when there is not an
honest dealing with their perceptions of that parish. To
repeatedly tell the young - or old -- that the Eucharist is a
joyful banquet or meal celebrated by the Christian community,,
may not ring true to their experience of Sunday Mass in their
parish. To suggest that Christians as a community are an
example of social justice, compassion, honesty or dedication
may appear either naive or false to many maturing Christians.
It seems to me that the ideal must be taught and taught
clearly. As the Council affirms, “the future of humanity lies in
the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming
generations with reasons for living and hoping” (Church in
World, 31). Ideals give one reasons for hope and renewed
vitality.
But in painting a challenging ideal it is important to avoid
triumphalism or fantasy. The Christian community today - as in
every age - is often far from living up to its ideals. It has been
many centuries since whole nations were converted to Christ by
the example of “how the Christians love one another.” The
Council reminds us that “Christ summons the Church, as she
goes her pilgrim way, to that continual reformation of which
she always has need, insofar as she is an institution of men here
on earth” (Ecumenism, 6).
Paradoxically, a healthy balance between sharing ideals and
recognizing reality that perhaps falls quite short of those ideals
makes possible a deeper awareness of how much of the ideal is
actually present in real situations. Once the reality is
approached honestly, and people have an opportunity to
express their disillusionments, fears, and anger within an
understanding atmosphere, I have found that they begin to
recognize many positive factors they were blinded to before.
They can begin to recognize that while their community may
not yet be ideal, many seeds of that ideal can already be
noticed.
It can be quite surprising to many, once their disappointment
and anger are defused through understanding and honest
listening, how many good things are happening within their
local Christian community and within the Church around the
world. Instead of triumphalism, there can be legitimate pride. In
place of defensiveness, an honest humility can grow.
“CHRISTMAS is one of the few holidays observed
by almost all nations and honored worldwide both
religiously and economically.” (NC Photo)
The Christian
Community
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Are missalettes, leaflets, booklets and other participation aids
a help or a hindrance to good worship? Should the scriptural
readings be printed in these texts or omitted from them? What
about the eucharistic prayers and other so-called presidential
formulas designed for proclamation by the priest? Is it better
for a person to read along with the priest, deacon, lector or
watch and listen attentively?
Over 400 members of diocesan liturgical commissions in the
United States (plus representatives from Canada, Puerto Rico
and the Phillipines) held their annual convention in Detroit this
fall and gave these questions a fairly thorough examination.
They wisely, I think, invited three men from different fields
with opposing views to deliver carefully prepared position
papers on the subject of worship aids.
Father James Shaughnessy, a former pastor in the Peoria
diocese, first president of the National Federation of Diocesan
Liturigcal Commissions, and now director of a liturgical research
program at the University of Notre Dame, began the discussion.
He argued from pastoral, historical, and theological viewpoints
for the elimination of those texts in participation aids which are
not proper to the laity’s role in a liturgical celebration.
This would cover, for example, the eucharistic and other
presidential prayers (which belong to the priest) plus the
scriptural readings (which belong to the official reader).
Moreover, he would remove rubrical directions and the
celebrant’s private prayers during the preparation of gifts and
before Communion from the missalettes. At the same time, he
clearly stressed the need for publication of all these texts with
suitable commentaries in volumes designed for study and
preparation outside the service itself.
Father Shaughnessy maintained that aids complete with all
these items erect paper walls between the priest and the
congregation, that individualistic prayer instead of community
worship results, and that persons in the pews become slaves to
the printed page and fail to concentrate on the action in the
sanctuary. In a word, such missalettes or booklets place an
obstacle in the way of full, active participation.
Father Jerome Quinn, a Scripture scholar and seminary
professor, passed over the matter concerning retention or
elimination of presidential prayers and similar texts, but did
argue for the publication of biblical readings in the aids designed
for Sunday Masses.
Father Quinn cited the well-known and readily acknowledged
problems involved today in effective listening - large churches,
hearing difficulties among many over 45, poorly trained lectors,
inadequate public address systems. He also noted that Scripture
is by nature the written, not spoken word of God. Finally, the
biblical expert spoke about an individual’s freedom to read
along with the lector or listen to that person proclaim God s
inspired message. Omitting those passages, he felt, curtails such
liberty.
David Kraehenbuehl, director of the education division for
the J.S. Paluch Company, publishers of the widely used
Missalette “Celebrate,” and now “Praise,” took no sides, but,
claiming to speak as a representative of the participation aids
publishing industry, urged the production of diverse materials
by which “the maximum number of American Catholics can
participate to the fullest extent in any liturgical event.”
Kraehenbuehl insisted that disposable, relatively inexpensive
and short-lived leaflets, booklets or missalettes make it possible
to serve with a variety of styles the highly diversified liturgical
congregations we have in the United States. They offer, in his
view, flexibility, and a viable method of testing, especially with
music, new compositions and rites before they are produced in
permanent and more expensive hard cover books.
The convention delegates, in a confused, lengthy and
exhausting session after the presentations, voted to approve a
resolution which urged the elimination of rubrics and
presidential texts in participation aids, but accepted the
inclusion of biblical readings.
We are a Pilgrim Church. What matters is that we continue on
the way, admitting our failures, but rejoicing in the great things
the Lord continues to do for and through us. As we struggle
toward translating the ideal into reality with God’s help, it may
be that we and others come to recognize more readily the
presence of Jesus Christ within our communities.
“ARE MISSALETTES, LEAFLETS, BOOKLETS good worship?” A young woman sings a hymn from
and other participation aids a help or hindrance to “Celebrate,” a participation aid. (NC Photo)
BY DOCTOR LAWRENCE LOSONCY
As Christmas approaches, the warm glow of Christian
community once again begins to preoccupy the minds of men.
For some men Christmas is a reminder of the fact that we are
none of us alone, none of us an island, all of us interrelated and
sharing the same destiny to some extent.
We realize that by becoming man, Jesus became personally
involved in the history of this world, bringing each of us who
love him that much closer to one another. The birth of Christ
becomes in this sense, and for some people, a reminder of our
various relationships to one another.
For other people, Christmas is the best time to let friends
know they are appreciated and still not be embarrassed. The
beauty of mistletoe is that it allows a no-strings-attached kiss:
the Christmas card simply says we love you; the office party
says you are OK; the gift says thanks for being you; the toast
says you deserve esteem.
For those in love, Christmas is a feast of love; for families
Christmas is what everyone remembers best. Children, parents,
grandparents - all remember Christmas and all look forward
each year to yet another Christmas. Christmas is never quite as
good as we expect, but we always remember it better than it
was. Even into the very last years of life, people remember
clearly the Christmases they enjoyed with their children and
even the Christmases they experienced in their family as
children.
For civil society and international society, Christmas is one of
the few holidays observed by almost all nations and honored
worldwide both religiously and economically. Because a child
came from God and yet was dependent upon other men, the
world goes down on its knees, Christmas after Christmas, even
twenty centuries later. Christmas is the one feast and the one
season which brings about, year after year, increased interaction
among all forms of human community and among nearly all
people.
A modern European philosopher who spent much of his time
and energy criticizing organized religion, finally concluded about
God that: “Even if there were no God, people would invent
one.” Should the inventing of God ever be attempted by the
human race at Christmas time, our new God would be one of
great love.
The sad part of all this is that the human race still hardly
knows that there is no need to invent a god because God really
lives. Even sadder is to note how few people, relatively speaking,
believe the good news that God loves us to an extent even
beyond invention or imagination! We are reminded each year
upon hearing the Christmas Gospel, that for many people,
Christmas is only a story, too good and too remote to be true.
If we, as a Church, wish to bear witness to the reality of
Christmas, then Christmas must be real for our lives. The
Church is international and universal as a sign of unity among all
men. The Church includes friends, lovers, families, children,
grandparents, young, old, rich, poor, sinners, prisoners,
everyone. The Church is truly a sign for unity among all men
because Jesus dwells in the Church.
It remains for us, however, to make that sign which is the
Church tangible. There is no other way to do it besides
increasing the love we manifest to all the people with whom we
live. Christmas, if it means new love in our lives, will mean new
love in the Church. Then the increased interaction with all
forms of community, which reveals the Church more clearly as
the universal sacrament or sign of unity among all men, will last
all year and go on every year.