Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 5
May 22,1980
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Mutual Giving And Sharing
BY FATHER CORNELIUS VAN DER POEL
Picture a young child on the lap of an old
person. A sense of happiness radiates from
both. The child is playful. The old man
reminisces, ponders the beauty of youth.
The picture makes one think about
openness to life and dignity beyond youth;
about growth and development; about a
fortitude beyond physical strength; about
the beauty of the inquisitive child and of
wisdom beyond knowledge.
The scene depicts the greatness of human
life at its beginning and in its maturity.
Between these two points, the lives of both
figures can intertwine and share in God’s
creative action.
This intertwining of generations is not
always achieved. Researchers indicate that
the care of older parents has become a
problem in society. Through proposed
legislation, some states would even allow
courts to decide that adults must assist in
the financial needs of their parents. This is a
sad commentary on our society.
Few experiences are more painful for
parents than being rejected by their own
children. Parents have invested much of
themselves in the formation and education
of their children. They cannot consider this
simply past history. Many parents can only
maintain a sense of dignity and full
happiness if they have a successful and
loving relationship with their children.
Scripture says something about all this.
For example, in the Book of Leviticus we
read: “You are to rise up before grey hairs,
you are to honor old age.”
Some time ago I met an old man in
Africa. He was sitting in front of his hut
while a 2-year-old child played near him. I
asked whose child this was and he replied,
“Mine.” Seeing the puzzled look on my face,
he explained that his son was the real father
but that the child was still his flesh and
blood. The old man and the young child
shared a unity in their concern and love.
The relationship between generations is
important for the old and for the young.
From the viewpoint of personal
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. Why does Father van der Poel consider the relationship between
generations so valuable?
2. What can the different generations teach one another? Have you
found this to be true in your family?
3. Why did the elderly African’s response surprise Father van der
Poel?
4. What is a Spectacular Christian, according to Steve Landregan? Is
this a complimentary description?
5. How are ministry and love learned in the family? Can these be
learned anywhere else?
6. St. Paul insists on the importance of unity for the Christian
community. Having read Father Castelot’s article, why do you think
this concept is so vital?
7. List the ways in which good relations among parents and children,
aunts and uncles and cousins are important. Do you find it difficult to
have good relationships with family members?
development, the young child needs parents
- and grandparents too if possible. For, the
child’s personal value is affirmed more
through the experience of love and concern
than through classroom teaching. Older
people too experience the need for
affirmation.
There is a gracefulness in elderly persons
who can discuss values and personal progress
with their adult children. For the younger
generation there is satisfaction and a sense
that serious discussions with their elders are
important.
In today’s world this kind of exchange is
very different from earlier times. The rapid
development of science and technology
makes it more difficult for two generations
to be on the same wavelength. Yet mutual
exchange is not always a matter of what one
knows; often it is a matter of mutual respect
and concern.
Respectful sharing within the extended
family has its repercussions in the
community as well, particularly in the
community of the parish. Older people
frequently are more attached to the church
and to church activities than are younger
people. This does not necessarily mean older
persons are piefistic or that religion is a
characteristic of old age.
Younger people can be concerned about
religious values. They have innumerable
reasons to show gratitude to the giver of all
good. But they may express themselves
differently. Healthy and strong, the use of
their capacities to achieve success in trades
or professions may at times be a form of
prayer for them. I do not say that young
people need not pray. But the best form of
gratitude to God is the proper use of one’s
gifts.
Older persons experience a shift of
emphasis in their lives and needs. So mutual
sharing is helpful for both the young and the
old. Younger people can share their
experiences and successes with older
persons, at the same time listening to them
and showing respect for their present
religious values. Older people can encourage
the success and respect in serious effort of
younger persons even where there is failure.
When this mutual appreciation occurs,
the seasons of life can blend and contribute
to a stronger society. The communication of
the young and the old can strengthen and
support both groups.
MINISTRY is love in action, learned first in the family and then reaching into the wider community. (NC Photo by
Chris Sheridan)
Christianity And Community
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
St. Paul had an overwhelming sense of
community, of what being a Christian
means. For him, members in the Christian
community enjoy a unity that surpasses even
the blood ties of a family. They are all one
in Christ. Because of its importance to St.
Paul, some scholars consider community the
central theme of his letters.
His interest in the concept may well go
back to the indelible impression he received
during his conversion experience. In his
vision, he heard the risen Lord say, “Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?” Paul
asked, “Who are you, sir?” And the answer
came back, “I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5, 22:7-8; 26:14-15).
Paul had never seen Jesus nor persecuted
him in person. But he had actively harassed
Jesus’ followers.
Reflection would have led Paul to the
unshakable conviction that the Christian and
Jesus were united. I am reminded of a saying
of Jesus as reported by St. Matthew: “L
assure you, as often as you did it for one of
my least brothers, vou did it for me.”
It is not difficult to see how this germinal
intuition could have grown, assuming a
central importance in Paul’s theology. A true
follower of Christ found meaning and
validity as a Christian not in isolation, but
only in community, in oneness with Christ
and with fellow Christians. Baptism into
Christ was incorporation into the
community.
As a resut of his conviction, Paul cannot
stand divisions in his communities. Whatever
their cause or nature, they are a denial of
Christ himself. In the first letter to the
Corinthians (1,10-13), Paul says: “I beg you,
brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to agree in what you say. Let there
be no factions; rather, be united in mind and
judgment. I have been informed . . . that you
are quarreling among yourselves . . . Has
Christ, then, been divided into parts?”
Paul continues, “I hear that when you
gather for a meeting there are divisions
among you.” For this reason, when the
Corinthians assemble, it is not the Lord’s
Supper they eat (1 Cor. 11,17-34).
On the positive side, Paul urges the
Corinthians to share their various talents for
the good of the community. He recognizes
that they have differences; all human beings
do. But the soqrce of all gifts is the same
God. “There are different gifts but the same
spirit; there are different ministries but the
same Lord; there are different works but the
same God who accomplishes all of them in
everyone. To each person is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common
good” (1 Cor. 12:4-7. 11,13).
If what Paul says is true for the Christian
community, it is true also of the basic-
community, the family. Members of a
Christian family enjoy a unity which
transcends that of blood. They too are one
in Christ. They contribute to each other’s
well-being and happiness by sharing the gifts
each possesses individually.
Their oneness is so profound that it can
transcend even the physical separation that
is so much a part of the mobility in today’s
world. Because of this, families separated by
miles can often be more lovingly supportive
than next-door neighbors.
FREQUENT visits to the nursing
home keep a daughter and her father
in close, loving communication. (NC
Photo by Frank Methe)
The Spectacular Christian
BY STEVE LANDREGAN
There is a little of the Spectacular
Christian in each of us.
For those who do not know what a
Spectacular Christian is, let me quote a
passage from “The Way,” a book by the late
Msgr. Jose Escriva. “Many who would let
themselves be nailed to a cross before the
astonished gaze of thousands of spectators,
won’t bear with a Christian spirit the
pinpricks of each day,” he writes.
.The Spectacular Christian in me surfaced
early when as a boy I had visions of
becoming a foreign missionary and saving
pagans. My fantasy centered particularly on
the departure ceremony where the bishop
presented me with a missionary’s cross while
astonished and admiring friends and relatives
wept as they bade me goodbye, possibly
forever. Like all such fantasies, mine did not
include back-breaking and frustrating
missionary labors — only glamor.
Other Spectacular Christians do not have
time to teach a sixth-grade religious
education class because they are saving
themselves to become the Bishop Sheen of
the 1980s.
When it comes to ministry, to reaching
out in Christian love and compassion to
others, especially in family relationships, the
Spectacular Christian syndrome is
particularly evident.
The Spectacular Christian is the busy
coordinator of the parish youth program
who has no time to be a loving parent to his
own children. Or she is the sparkplug of the
parish program for senior citizens who
somehow cannot find time for her own aging
parents.
Think about the Spectacular Christians in
your own home and parish. Start with
yourself. Are you so available to everyone
else that you own family’s needs escape your
notice?
Yet ministry can be called love in action.
The family offers many opportunities for
learning to care and minister to others. For
many people, both love and ministry are
learned in the family first, from parents and
siblings, from aunts, uncles and cousins.
Parents learn to serve through the varied
experiences of raising children. Some
develop the ability to comfort while sitting
with mates through anxious hours waiting
for a teen-ager to return with the family car.
How many parents become less selfish when
they unhesitatingly give up a cherished
outing because a child becomes ill?
Children learn to respect the rights of
others in the give-and-take of everyday
living. Younger children come to respect the
needs of older brothers by learning to play
quietly during homework hours. Adolescents
reluctantly use earphones so their rock
music will not disturb elderly aunts’ naps.
Many adults grow when they assist a
loved one during a lengthy illness or at the
time of death. Family love also involves the
enormous adjustments which occur when
family members marry, bringing new persons
into the family network. This often requires
sensitivity and tact.
The Second Vatican Council discussed
the role of the family in the Decree on the
Apostolate of the Laity. This states: “The
family has received from God its mission to
be the first and vital cell of society. It will
fulfill this mission if it shows itself to be the
domestic sanctuary of the church through
the mutual affection of its members and the
common prayer they offer to God, if the
whole family is caught up in the liturgical
worship of the church, and if it provides
active hospitality and promotes justice and
other good works for the service of all the
brethren in need.”
Familial love mirrors divine love. The
unselfish and forgiving love between
husband and wife and between parent and
child is the human analogy of the
unconditional love that found
personification in Jesus Christ, the God-Man.
People learn to love in particular so that
they can love in general. By learning to love
and to accept family members, in spite of
imperfections, people learn to love and
accept others. If self-giving love does not
happen in families, it probably will not
happen outside the family. Likewise, if
self-giving love is not learned in families,
ministry probably will not be learned either.
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(AM Articles on this page Coprighted 1 980 by N. C. News Service)