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PAGE 5 — January 18,1973
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
You don’t show gratitude for a gift by letting it lie around
unused. Rust and dust are hardly signs of appreciation. The one
who gave us a present hopes we will use it and enjoy it and
think of him in connection with the pleasure and the happiness
it brings us.
God has given us so many gifts. Is it hard to believe he wants
us to enjoy them? He gave us the world and all that is in it. Is it
hard to believe that he meant us to be happy living in it? What
makes us afraid to smile and enjoy God’s world? Is there any
better way to show gratitude and appreciation to our loving,
generous Father?
Still, a funny quirk in human religious temperament tends to
make people afraid of enjoyment. Pleasure and fun and ordinary
human happiness don’t feel religious somehow. People hestitate
to link enjoyment with God, no matter how hard he tries to
signal that they should, that he wants them to.
This quirk appears in many religions. It is somehow natural to
man. It indicates perhaps his hatred of himself, his unwillingness
to accept the fact that he is, after all, a humble creature of flesh
and blood. Whatever the reason, the quirk showed up early in
Christianity too, and it has never gone away. Warnings against it
appear in the New Testament.
The first letter to Timothy, for instance, says that there will
come along members of the Church “with seared consciences,
who require abstinence from foods which God created to be
received with thanksgiving by believers who know the truth” (I
Tim. 4,2f.). These men will even “forbid marriage.”
The genuinely Christian approach is laid down immediately in
the verses that follow. It is the direct opposite. The Christian
principle is: “Everything created is good. Nothing is to be
rejected when it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made
holy by God’s word and by prayer.”
What about the problem that enjoyment doesn’t feel holy?
What about the fact that it always seems to feel more pious and
religious to take the path of the puritan? The Christians
rememberd that pious people had held it against Jesus and his
disciples that he “came eating and drinking and said ‘this man is
a glutton and a drunkard’ ” (Mt. 11,19). They had asked: “Why
do John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, while yours
do not?” (Mk. 2,18).
The letter to the Colossians sums up the puritan approach as:
“Don’t handle this! Don’t taste that! Don’t touch the other!”
And it adds that such an approach is a perversion of religion.
“Such prescriptions,” it says, “deal with things that perish in
their use. They are based on merely human precepts and
doctrines. While they make a certain show of wisdom in their
affected piety, humility and bodily austerity, their chief effect
is that they indulge men’s pride” (Coll. 2,22f.).
Over against this, \the Christian tries to follow the simple path
of loving gratitude. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you
do, do all for the glory of God.” “Give thanks to God the
Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” “All things are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is
God’s.”
Enjoying Our Gifts From God
Place of Enjoyment in Christian Life
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
“Does he ever laugh? Oh! Ho! Ho! Does God ever laugh? Ah! .
Ha! Ha! Does he ever laugh with glee? Hee! Hee! Hee!” - words
of a delightful song created for the religious education of young
children. To watch children laugh with real merriment as they
sing along with the record is a refreshing experience.
It is similar to the experience of enjoying the rock musical,
GODSPELL. A contagious joy emanating from the cast
gradually spreads through the audience. Person after person has
remarked to me about how full of Christian joy the experience
of GODSPELL was. Throughout the musical, Jesus -- dressed
like a clown - and the Apostles - clothed like children - really
enjoy themselves as they sing, dance and play. Their effusive
merriment does not hide the deep seriousness of Jesus’ life and
teaching. Rather it highlights how seriously Jesus took what he
himself described as the purpose of his life - to bring joy to
people! (Jn 17:13).
Religious education has often neglected to place sufficient
emphasis on the place of enjoyment in Christian life. It is
somewhat significant that a recent religion text for fourth grade
has an early lesson entitled, “God calls us to enjoy life.” This
was not a lesson in my own experience of learning God’s
commandments.
Jesus himself enjoyed friendship, work, food, drink, love, and
the other normal joys of life. As a devout Jew he was very
familiar with the place the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old
Testament, gave to enjoying life’s pleasures. God called his
people to enjoyment as a normal part of leading a good moral
life.
The joys of life are part of God’s promise to his people (Dt
28:3-8; Jer 33:11). He calls people to enjoy the pleasures of
married love (Qo 9:9), to take pleasure in the birth of a child
(Ps 113:9). God wants men and women to enjoy work and to
take pleasure in creative, productive labor (Qo 3:3).
He expects people to enjoy eating and drinking (Qo 2:24;
3:12). God gives man wine to help him be cheerful (Ps 104:15).
The Bible praises the joys that help a person forget his troubles
(Qo 8:15) and enjoy good health (Prv 17:22).
The positive biblical attitude to healthy enjoyment was part
of Jesus’ religious education at home and in the synagogue.
While he undoubtedly was a deeply serious person, there is
every indication that he was a joyful, happy person, very much
at home with people enjoying life’s simple pleasures. His
followers have no reason to be other than Jesus.
One of the serious tasks of Christian education, in my
opinion, is to help people, young and old, to grow in their
ability to truly enjoy life. Many a good Christian experiences
guilt when he has days of vacation. I have known many
Christians who find it much easier to enter into Good Friday
than Easter Sunday. Some feel uneasy when they enjoy success,
sex, or a delicious meal. There is the lurking suspicion that it is
somehow wrong, at least less good, to enjoy life’s pleasures.
Actually when pleasures are sought after and enjoyed with a
good moderation arising from respect for one’s own good and
the good of others, then their enjoyment manifests and leads to
the deeper joy that Jesus came to bring. Pleasure moderated by
love is creative of that joy which the Holy Spirit brings (Gal
5:22). God wants us to have fun, to enjoy ourselves, to have
good times. Doing so with proper moderation and respect can
be a concrete way of expressing love for self, for others, and for
God.
Religious educators might well take to heart the instructions
of St. Augustine who wrote the first textbook on religious
education back in the 4th century. He wrote that joy was an
essential ingredient of Christian education. To preach Christ in
any but a joyful atmosphere was to falsify his message, for he
came to bring joy.
It might be good to reflect for a moment on your home, your
religion class, your parish liturgy. Are they characterized by
joy? Is a smile on your face more often than a frown?
Do your students - young or old - enjoy their religious
education? Do you enjoy being with them? What image of
Jesus, of Mary, of Christians is conveyed - a joyful or a somber
one? How do you feel about Jesus’ enjoying life? Do you
enjoy life and its legitimate pleasures? Do you feel you should
or should not?
What do you think . . .does God ever laugh?
“People hesitate to link enjoyment with God.”
Children in Shullsburg, Wis., circle a sign which joins
goodness and happiness. Streets in the city were named
by a priest. (NC Photo by Ray Barth)
some of what our hands, minds, and hearts have created each
day is the source of more enjoyment.
“Being able to enjoy the good things in this world is to share in the good things Christ came to bring
Enjoyment
BY SISTER JAN A AN MANTERNACH, OSF
In Saint John’s gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying, “I came that
they might have life and have it to the full” (10:10). To have
life is to possess all that there is to be enjoyed. This was
expressed in a comprehensive way by two professionally
involved young women who are also wives, mothers, and
homemakers.
This is what they said to me when I asked them to give me
some thoughts on enjoyment as they personally experience it.
“Peace and people are the real sum and substance of our
enjoyment. We generally “enjoy” so much that it’s difficult
actually to enumerate every experience significantly. The source
of our enjoyment is hard to locate or identify. However, we
really couldn’t enjoy much without being at peace - at peace
with ourselves and with those around us. Enjoyment is within
us, it’s our life!
Enjoyment is people; communicating with them, caring and
sharing with them, interacting with them on every level and in
every way - in our families, through civic involvement,
catechesis, industry, politics, etc.
Enjoyment comes to us through human things like hugs and
kisses, closeness, smiles, cuddles - both giving and receiving
these physical expressions of love bring enjoyment to our daily
lives and are indispensible to it.
Creating everyday is enjoyment for us and being able to share
Church Liturgy and the Theater
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Would you be delighted or infuriated - or neither - to watch
and listen at Mass while the cast from “Godspell” sang “All
Good Gifts” and danced around the altar as ushers took up the
collection? How would you feel about the same talented group
of professional performers acting out the parable of the seed at
the gospel? What would your attitude be toward members of
this theatrical company as they made the church ring out with
“Light of the World” and moved through the congregation
extending the sign of peace?
%
Based on letters from readers over the past two years, I know
some would throw up their hands in disgust and bemoan this as
a further step in the process of turning Catholic churches into
“circus” arenas. However, I am also confident many would
applaud the development as a desired integration of a classical
tradition into contemporary worship.
This, of course, really happened - last July at old St. Mary’s
Church in San Francisco, the site of the Jazz Mass with Turk
Murphy and his musicians which I described in these pages
several months back. One participant, a physician from the Bay
area, called this a “truly moving and jubilant celebration of the
Mass.”
He then observed: “Not since medieval times have Northern
European Catholics been privileged to see the liturgy that
combines music, acting and mime in the celebration of the
Eucharist.”
Father Joseph Quinn, pastor of this Paulist-staffed parish,
made a similar remark in his homily. He pointed out that the
pantomime of the gospel was very much in keeping with a
practice in the early middle ages of portraying scriptural events
at Mass through mime. These led, he noted, to later day
morality plays and acting out of our Lord’s Passion during Holy
Week.
There was little advance publicity given to the “Godspell
Mass,” but the famous church was packed both upstairs and
down. In addition to items already mentioned, the cast led the
entrance song “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord,” sang “Day by
Day” plus “On The Willows” at Communion, and ended leading
the four concelebrants out to the tune of “Long Live God” and
a repeat of “Prepare Ye.” The congregation joined in on the
final song.
Critics might quote in support of their observation the new
document, “Music in Catholic Worship,” issued by the U.S.
Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, which states that great care
should be taken to insure the Mass “is a prayer for all present,
not a theatrical production.” But the San Francisco liturgy was,
in the judgment of 99 percent of those present, very moving,
very prayerful, very much a celebration of faith.
Worshipers on that day were not silent spectators, mute
observers, inactive persons merely enjoying a mangificent show.
They joined in responses, sang the “holy, holy, holy Lord,” the
memorial acclamation, the great Amen, and united in singing
the Our Father - singing, by the way, louder and with more
feeling in the opinion of one participant than at any previous
Mass in this Church. It was truly prayer for all present.
One can find ample official documentation in support of
liturgies like the St. Mary’s “Godspell” Mass. “Music in Catholic
Worship,” for instance, citing an earlier decree of our bishops,
notes: “In modern times the Church has consistently recognized
and freely admitted the use of various styles of music as an aid
to liturgical worship.” In another paragraph we read: “Good
music of new styles is finding a happy home in the celebrations
of today.”
This Mass produced an added joyous result for one member of
the cast. The girl’s parents had for some time resented her
entrance into the theater. However, after experiencing this
unique Mass, hearing pulpit words about the Church and the
arts, learning of religious drama in the medieval tradition, they
changed attitudes and now accept their daughter and her
profession.
Permeating our lives is the tremendous enjoyment we
experience in just knowing God’s plan is unfolding through us
and right in our midst. When a particular human situation is not
enjoyable, the challenge of accepting it, trusting, caring, and
managing it as part of all the reality God chose to give us is
actually part of our everyday enjoyment which opens us up to
greatness and adds to our capacity for joy.
Having material things like a car, a dishwasher, a can opener
and a book around and available to continually and
conveniently and competently work out God’s plan is
enjoyable, too!
Some of our favorite things are the piano, two packages of
yeast and a cookbook, a kiss good-bye, buttered popcorn, a
hand to hold, cotton candy, two bright shiny eyes. It is good
earth and a package of seed, the last day of school, a gentle rain,
the first day of school, snowmen, a puzzle with 500-1000
pieces, earthworms, an empty canvas, building a castle, finding
the brightest star. Also, playing house with a little girl, cherries
jubilee, winning a good argument, a Redskins football game, a
son’s new baseball uniform, the “Grand Canyon Suite,” baking
a cake, skipping stones on a quiet lake, a good cup of coffee,
marbles and geraniums.”
What became evident to me from the thoughts they
expressed, is the marvelous fact that these two women are able
and willing to enjoy the good things of their world.
In listening to or reading their descriptions it is easy to be
fooled into thinking that their circumstances are so ideal it is
easy for them to enjoy. To some degree this may be true, but in
large part it is not. To cite only some of what could place a
damper on a sustained attitude of joy, one of them has a young
daughter who was born without an esophagus. Surgery and
doctor bills are a constant drain on any resources that she and
her husband manage to build up and acquire. Besides this, at the
time I was asking her to illustrate the reality of joy in her life,
she had just learned that her husband must have surgery for the
removal of a growth the size of a golf ball introducing the
possibility of cancer (hopefully slim) into their lives.
Hardships, no matter what kind, that are creative of anxiety
and suffering, need not rob us of a positive outlook - an
attitude of hope and joy. Whatever there is in our lives that we
have fun doing, or that provokes anticipation, or that causes us
to smile, chuckle or laugh, or that brings out the best in us, is
something that is ours to be enjoyed. Being able to enjoy the
good things of this world is to share in the good things Christ
came to bring and is an important prerequisite for
understanding Christ’s joy.
The early Christians are remembered as a happy people. St.
Augustine described Christians as an Easter people whose song is
“Alleluia.”
Our Lives may be such that our “Alleluias” are rare, yet there
are days like Mark Sawyer’s “Kite Days.”
A kite, a sky and a good firm breeze,
And acres of ground away from trees,
And one hundred yards of clean strong string -
0 boy, 0 boy! I call that Spring!
Let’s enjoy everyone of them.