Newspaper Page Text
October 9,1980
PAGE 5
i
Formation For Transformation
BY FATHER PHILIP J. MURNION
Christians are people who look at a
troubled, agitated world and hope to change
things.
The concerns Christians have may range
from the threat to whole peoples posed by
nuclear weapons to the threat posed for
families by unemployment or consumerism;
from the challenges that face an entire city
to the problems of local neighborhoods;
from the need for nations to speak with each
other to the hope that the people of a parish
will get to know each other.
The British author Rosemary Haughton
has written about some of this in her book,
“The Transformation of Man.” Her point:
Christians are called to be people who will
transform their worlds as part of the effort
to extend the kingdom of God.
But to accomplish this, Christians need
preparation. We need a formation for
transformation.
Some people do not like the word
“formation.” For them it conjures up the
thought of leaders who might hope to
manipulate the ways people think and act.
But I think the word has value.
Through formation, people can be helped
to reflect on their own lives, they can learn
more about the meaning and consequences
of faith, and they can acquire skills that will
help them carry out Christian service in the
world.
-- In Kansas City, Mo., a new Center for
Pastoral Ministry is helping parishes train
people for increased parish responsibility
and for more effective Christian action in
their daily lives.
-- The Parish Outreach Project of the
National Conference of Catholic Charities is
an effort to get local charities’ agencies
involved in training parishioners so that they
can be more helpful to each other in times
of need.
-- The Interparish Adult Education
program on Manhattan’s Lower East Side
offers training for a variety of ministries.
What does ‘‘formation for
transformation” entail? What is required if
people want to transform their own lives or
the conditions of life?
First, people often seek guidance to help
them analyze and understand their own
personal lives. They may also seek insights
oh what is happening in society and why
events occur as they do.
A new way of looking at life is a second
goal of formation efforts. The perspective
offered by Jesus can seem very much at odds
with viewpoints dominating our culture. We
become better formed, therefore, to the
extent that we become more deeply aware
of the significance of his message.
. The kind of reflection that leads to a new
way of looking at life also leads to some
questions: What emphasis do we place on
personal possessions? What value do we
place on our relationships to other people,
to our jobs or to various forces in society
that are part of our lives? How much
responsibility do people have for one
another?
It is possible that the most powerful kind
of change that can occur in our lives is a
change in what things and people mean to
us.
Training in skills for effective action is a
third goal of formation efforts. People are
sometimes hindered in their attempts to
provide Christian service in the world
because they are not careful enough when
they set out. Therefore, formation programs
can be opportunities to focus on ways of
defining issues precisely and how to plan
action that actually will address peoples’
concerns.
Formation efforts have a fourth
dimension - the community dimension. We
form ourselves not simply as individuals but
as part of a group that will share the tasks of
transformation. We begin to think together
about the meaning of our lives, the thrust of
Christ’s message and the skills needed for
effective action.
All baptized Christians have a priestly
kind of task to perform: transforming the
stuff of life in such a way that the
relationship between human beings and God
is deepened. Appreciation of the significance
of that notion requires new reflection in
each age. And there is a constant tendency
to let this task of all baptized Christians slip
away, to lose sight of it.
Christians are called to take their
collective lives and to change them in such a
way that their relationship to God is
deepened and that it is expressed in their
lives -- so that their lives become more
grace-full.
The hope is that formation will lead to
transformation of ourselves and of our
worlds; that it will help to activate the
power of our baptism.
WE ARE CALLED to be people
that will change things, who will
transform our worlds, as part of our
efforts to extend the Kingdom of
God. Parishes throughout the country
are training parishioners in ways that
enable them to respond to the needs
of their neighborhoods. In Detroit, a
'member of a parish outreach program
drops in at a neighborhood gym to
talk with a youth. (NC Photo by
Dwight Cendrowski)
How The Gracious Christian Lives
“AS A CHILD,” Theodore
Hengesbach writes, “I imagined that
grace was like the dust particles that
are caughty by the sun’s rays,” as
“they seemed to be coming down
from heaven onto the earth.” But
“Grace describes a special relationship
between God and humankind and
forms the basis for our love of God
and of one another.” (NC Photo by
Tom Dermody)
BY THEODORE HENGESBACH
Christians are people who believe that, in
a sense, they can be like God. God is
generous and compassionate.
Christians are enlivened - given new life -
by a relationship with God that is always
developing. They hope, in turn, to enliven
others.
Chnstians believe their lives are motivated
by the life God shares with them, by grace.
Christians believe that their relationships
with others can reflect the relationship they
have with God. And God’s life and love
includes his graciousness.
The gracious person is sensitive to others,
gentle and solicitous. A gracious person goes
out of the way to make others feel
Aghast Over Community Of Corinth Factions
BY FATHER JOHN CASTELOT
It is not difficult to see what St. Paul
considers the fundamental problem in the
church at Corinth. For him, community,
mutual love and sharing are of the very
essence of a truly Christian life.
Not surprisingly, the body of the letter
known as First Corinthians begins with this
urgent plea: “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”
(1:10).
Paul appeals to the people as brothers
(and sisters). This brings into focus the kind
of relationship he thinks the people ought to
have: that of a family, a unique family with
God as their Father.
This is what the relationship should be,
but it is not. Paul is astonished,
disappointed, hurt: “I have been informed,
my brothers, by certain members of Chloe’s
household that you are quarreling among
yourselves” (1:11), he writes.
We have no further information about
Chloe. Evidently her home was one of the
little “parish churches” where Christians
gathered for the liturgy and other functions.
Whether her home was at Ephesus, where
Paul was at the time, or whether she actually
lived at Corinth, there is no way of telling.
Paul is aghast! Not only are his converts
having minor and inevitable disagreements;
they are actually quarreling, which implies
hostility, anger, bitterness. This was pagan
conduct, diametrically opposed to the
fellowship to which they had been called,
and therefore a blow to the very heart of
their Christianity.
KNOW
‘ ni
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles on this page Copyrighted 1980 by N. C. News Service)
Paul has specific details on the situation.
The community in Corinth is split into
cliques, each with its own battle cry.
“I belong to Paul.”
“I belong to Apollos.”
“I belong to Cephas.”
“I belong to Christ.”
Paul can hardly credit the report. If there
is a group claiming allegiance to him, the
implication is that they are defending him
against assailants of one sort or another -
probably people who compared him
unfavorably with Apollos.
This gentleman named Apollos was really
quite innocent. He was a Jewish convert,
schooled in the city of Alexandria, very
accomplished and urbane. With his skill in
speaking, he wowed the crowd. He was a real
spellbinder. When he arrived at Corinth and
began addressing the community, many
people got so carried away as to form a sort
of Apollos Fan Club. Apollos appealed
mightily to their pseudo sophistication.
Other people proclaimed allegiance to
Cephas (Peter, the Rock). They were
probably Jewish Christians from Palestine
who were intensely devoted to the man
Jesus had designated as the rock on which he
would build his church.
Finally, rising above all this petty
factionalism, others haughtily insisted on
their allegiance to Christ.
Paul’s reaction is swift and devastating.
“Has Christ, then, been divided into parts?”
This question, as Paul wrote it, calls for an
affirmative answer: “Yes, he has.”
For Paul, the community is Christ; in
tearing the community apart the people are
tearing Christ apart. Horrendous!
Focusing on the so-called “Paul Party,”
he asks: “Was it Paul who was crucified for
you? Was it in Paul’s name that you were
baptized?” The answers are obvious, and so
are their implications.
These implications will be developed by
Paul as his letter to the Corinthians
continues.
comfortable and at home. Often, the
gracious person is able to share a sense of
well-being with others.
A gracious person, even by dictionary
definition, is “marked by kindness and
courtesy ... by generosity of spirit.”
Think of some especially gracious people:
a friend, a spouse, a mother, perhaps even
yourself! I recall the delightful graciousness
of Pope John Paul II who pleaded with an
audience in Chicago, at the end of an
especially long, fatiguing day, to “go to bed
now.”
Mother Teresa seems an apt example of a
person who is gracious. Her’s is a life spent
in kindness and generosity with India’s
outcasts and the sick.
Jesus himself was gracious. “He felt
compassion for the crowds that had
followed him into the wilderness.” Even in
pain and misery he thought of the others. To
the women he said, “Do not weep for me
but for yourselves and your children.”
From the cross Jesus prayed for the
forgiveness of those whom he judged did not
really know what they were doing and so
should be given special consideration.
The foundation of Christian behavior is
God who has been and continues to be
gracious toward us, his people. God gives
and sustains life. God treats us with respect
and courtesy by never removing our capacity
for free choice.
God does not overwhelm our sensibilities
by gaudy display. God is unpretentious, as
Jesus revealed by refusing to give in to the
devil’s request in the wilderness to turn
stones into bread or to leap from the
pinnacle of the temple. God does not force
his hand on us, but draws us to him by
kindness.
God’s generosity of spirit is displayed
throughout religious history. According to
Old Testament accounts, God formed what
really amounted to an unorganized crew of
slaves - the Israelites - into a people. He did
this, not because they were so great but
because he was so gracious.
In Jesus, the bond between God and the
people is manifested in a special way, one
that even led to suffering, death and
resurrection. This relationship is celebrated
and renewed in the breaking of the bread. As
a current, popular communion hymn
expresses it: “God and man at table are sat
down.”
As a mere child, I imagined that grace
itself was like the dust particles caught by
the sun’s rays, drifting down from heaven
onto the earth. But now I sense that grace
describes a special relationship between God
and humankind and forms the basis for our
behavior - our love of God and of one
another.
God is truly the source of grace. To be in
a relationship with God is to be enveloped in
his graciousness. The more grace shapes
one’s life, the more one is in tune with God
and sensitive to his demands regarding
human life.
So the person in grace is generous,
unpretentious. Such a person is being asked
by God to follow the example of Jesus, to
live a life of kindly service, “to love one
another as I have loved you.”
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. Father Philip Mumion refers in his article this week to author
Rosemary Haughton. What point does she make?
2. What are two areas in which Father Murnion says Christians seek
change?
3. Theodore Hengesbach says that God’s life is at the foundation of
Christian behavior. What does he mean?
4. Think of a person you know who is gracious. Why do you
describe this person as gracious?
5. Father John Castelot describes St. Paul as extremely upset by the
behavior of the Corinthians. Why?
6. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he indicates that people in
Corinth formed into separate groups, following separate leaders. How
do you think this could happen?
7. Having read this week’s KYF articles, describe what
transformation entails. Why is transformation important?