Newspaper Page Text
December 4,1980
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Who Are They?
BY FATHER PHILIP J. MIJRNION
The people of a parish are not all alike.
That’s a safe enough statement - not
likely to generate much debate. The fact is,
during the past two decades, Catholics have
grown increasingly aware of the differences
among themselves.
Ask any pastor about this. You will find
he is accustomed to hearing from the many
Catholics who think the church has not yet
changed enough. He also hears from the
many who think it has changed too much.
People do not agree across the board
about the way the church should live its life
in this world.
The best structure and leadership for the
church, the spirit in which to celebrate the
Mass and the answers to normal questions -
these are but a few areas where the people of
a parish have often found themselves in
disagreement.
Of course, people differ in other
important ways. Groups within a parish
often differ in ethnic background, in the
amount of formal education they have
pursued, in age, in economic means and in
other ways too.
The amazing thing about parishes is not
the many differences within them. It is that
they actually achieve so much unity!
the parish’s preaching or music, in
educational programs and other activities.
How can we account for both diversity
and unity in parishes?
This is a challenge. Basic to meeting it is
an attitude of respect for the “others” and a
desire for unity - a desire based on the
conviction that we really are all one in the
Lord. That sort of attitude is essential.
But what comes frist, the attitudes or the
behavior that will foster unity? Many people
today feel that the way to foster new
attitudes is by first encouraging some new
behavior.
The activities most likely to foster unity
are, of course, those that underscore things
people have in common. People share the
Mass or they share opportunities to perform
service for one another. In situations where
economic or even ethic differences are
profound, people can share the experience
of tackling together some problem that
touches all.
Ten years ago, three parishes helped form
a community organization in a changing part
of Cleveland. The organization’s goal:
maintaining a racially integrated
neighborhood and promoting the quality of
life in the neighborhood. Middle class and
poor, blacks and whites, were equally
committed to this goal.
FISH.
FISH (For immediate Sympathetic Help)
is a volunteer organization found in many
communities. It serves people who request
help - whether the help takes the form of
food supplies, looking after children,
assisting an elderly person or meeting some
other immediate need. In FISH, individuals
agree to be “on duty” briefly each month.
Involvement in FISH does not call for a
lot of preparation on the part of the
volunteers. The needs served by FISH are
clear, the demands are limited and yet each
person involved feels the support of all the
others. It is the kind of service that offers
people the opportunity to experience the
unity they already share.
If people in a parish differ in the kind of
Mass celebration they prefer, the problem
can often be solved by providing options:
the folk Mass and the organ Mass, a Mass
with singing and one without.
- When people discover that their tastes
and concerns are respected by others in their
parish, the likelihood increases that these
people will respond in kind.
- When people find an opportunity to
rise above differences by engaging together
in activities they are equally concerned
about, the likelihood increases that they will
allow for diversity, and, at the same time,
experience some unity in their parish.
A lot of people feel that the differences
among Catholics are part of their richness.
But differences also contribute to the
tensions in parish life. One group easily
concludes that another group - “they,”
whoever “they” may be - is being favored in
In another parish where there were many
differences among the people, the three
activities that were especially effective in
bringing people together were: the annual
Good Friday procession in the streets, the
annual picnic and the organization called
It often happens that one group in a
parish regards another group as “they.”
Whenever this happens, parishes and their
people need to start thinking - to discover
some creative ways of coming to regard
everyone as “we,” part of a unified parish.
IT IS NO EASY THING TO help sustain persons in a life Communities and others are recognition of the truth that
of prayer, service and openness to the power of God’s word people need one another. (NC Photo)
to change and direct lives. Small groups like basic Christian
New Steps To Faith And Community
BY RICHARD M. LAWLESS
My wife belongs to a small group - in this
case, six women - that meets at least once
each month. The agenda is simple: One
member reads from Scripture or some other
source. The group pauses for silent
meditation and prayer between readings.
The group also distributes a prayer list
with the names of family members, pastors
and other other people in special need. Each
person in the group promises to pray daily
for these people. Answers to earlier prayers
are noted.
The six participants rarely miss a meeting
because this time together has become such
a special part of their lives. Each member is a
busy person, involved, for example, with
work in a church office or in a jail ministry.
A small group I was associated with in a
Kansas town met weekly during Lent and
monthly at other times. Shared prayer,
which became quite personal over time, took
30 minutes.
A discussion followed, with participants
talking over a theme about Christian life.
Especially important: Intellectual bantering
was avoided; the group based its discussions
as much as possible on personal experiences.
Finally a simple ritural prayer celebration
was conducted, to tie together the evenings’s
sharing.
During the fall 1980 Synod of Bishops in
Rome, Bishop Francis Stafford of Baltimore
spoke movingly of how the small
community or parish “cell” is contributing
to the life of the larger parish today. Small
groups, he said, are helping parish members
lead lives of deeper personal faith and
service; the groups are very helpful to
families.
Small groups are found in scores of
parishes. At times they are called Basic
Christian Communities (BCCs), following
the Latin American terminology. Some
groups are organized within a neighborhood.
Others may simply bring together a group of
people who share some common interest or
need.
The groups, it seems to me, are
recognition that people need one another -
need the kind of sharing possible with
people who meet together repeatedly.
Whatever old or new name the groups
might be given, they represent both a
current reality in the church and a dream for
the church on the part of many Christian
communities.
Sometimes parish leaders express concern
that small groups will become cliques,
dividing members from the parish as a
whole. However, in my experience, the
people who get involved in small groups are
not just people with a special attraction to
such groups. People already involved in
parish councils or liturgy and education
committees also get involved. And the
groups attract people who would not usually
join any group.
Often parish catechists or members of a
finance committee find they profit by
participation in a small group. A person
already active in a parish may become more
closely identified with parish life after
participating in a small group. Small groups
have been known to refresh parishioners
who felt burned-out after several years of
parish service. I have seen people move out
from small groups to larger roles in the
parish.
Some people fear that small groups will
drain off the time of priests, Religious and
other parish staff members for the sake of a
relative handful of parishioners. Yet many
have found the investment worthwhile. In
my experience, efforts to sustain the
spiritual lives of parishioners in small groups
have paid off for the whole parish.
Indeed, if the small community does not
lead to benefits for the larger parish and the
wider community, its motives and objectives
need to be looked at seriously. The fruits of
such communities ought to be visible sooner
or later.
We are nearing the threshold of the 21st
century. As we do so, some people think
small groups are among the ways parishes
and their people can renew faith and
discover ways to live out the Christian
message.
Ig§§
:
■: I
NUMEROUS NATIONALITIES,
differences in age and financial status,
educational background, singles,
marrieds and divorced all add up to a
great deal of diversity in parishes.
With such a mixture, it is not just
amazing that parishes are able to
achieve a degree of unity but that
they can achieve so much unity. (NC
Photo)
A Difficult Situation
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
The letters of St. Paul serve as a rather
sobering corrective to our very natural
tendency to idealize the first Christians. It is
so easy to transform the old days into “the
good old days.”
This happened in the New Testament
itself, with the writing of the Acts of the
Apostles. Its author, St. Luke, looking back
late in the first century, painted a
consistently rosy picture of life among first
generation Christians. He had his own very
good reasons for doing so.
f —— * >
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles on this page Copyrighted 1 980 by N.C. News Service)
V )
What a way to carry out their mission to
transform society! As for Paul, he would
brook no further delay.
Under the circumstances, Paul can only
cast an absentee vote, but he leaves no doubt
what that vote is. He may be physically
absent, but he is very actively present in
spirit. “I . . .have already passed sentence in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ on the
man who did his deed.” (1 Cor. 5:3.)
But another translation of the passage
could be suggested, based on the order of
the words in Greek: “I have already passed
sentence on the man who did this deed in
the name of the Lord Jesus.” This could
We may ask with a sigh why we can’t be
like the first Christians. We have the same
Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, the
same Eucharist. Paul reassures us that we are
not all that different.
Paul’s converts were not overnight saints,
but real flesh-and-blood people, struggling to
meet the challenge of the Christian ideal in a
pagan, often hostile world.
Paul’s correspondence with the church of
Corinth reflects a real-life parish with more
than its share of problems. The case he deals
with in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5, is a
first-class shocker. A man in the community
is living in an incestuous union with his
stepmother. Paul can hardly believe his ears!
Not even their pagan neighbors, bad as they
were, would countenance such behavior -
and the Christian community was supposed
to be an example!
Apparently some Corinthian Christians
had been so carried away that they
considered themselves free from society’s
ordinary restraints. This attitude reveals
itself more than once in this letter.
If the man’s actions upset Paul, the
reactions of Corinthians upset him even
more. They have done nothing to correct the
situation; they actually seemed quite proud
of their sophistication: “Still you continue
to be self-satisfied, instead of grieving, and
getting rid of the offender!” (1 Cor. 5:2.)
indicate that the fellow, with tacit approval
of the community, had been so audacious as
to think he was entering a Christian
marriage!
Paul’s decision is clear and he expects the
community to concur. “I hand him over to
Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that
his spirit may be saved on the day of the
Lord.” (1 Cor. 5:5) To us, thinking as we do
today, this suggests physical punishment for
the sake of spiritual salvation.
However, Paul was not that simplistic.
Thinking in Semitic categories, he would not
have tended to split the human person into
flesh and spirit, body and soul. A person was
an integral person.
Within the community the man enjoyed
protection from the pressures of a
disoriented society (Satan) and experienced
love and moral support and peace.
Cut off from society, the man would be
handed over to his own resources, at the
mercy of all sorts of hostile pressures. Paul
hoped this separation from the community
would bring the man to his senses.
The awakening would be painful: In this
sense it would involve “the destruction of
the flesh.” But Paul’s unexpressed hope is
that the man would return to the shelter of
the community, where he can “be saved in
the day of Lord.” ,
Discussion Points And Questions
1. In what ways does Father Philip Murnion feel that people in
parishes differ?
2. What kinds of behavior does Father Murnion think will lead to
unity in parishes?
3. Why does Father Murnion say that people often refer to others as
“they?” What does he mean by this?
4. Richard Lawless tells about his wife’s small group experience.
What is the point of this story?
5. List two advantages of participating in small groups. Have you
ever belonged to such a group?
6. How does St. Paul tell the Corinthians to deal with the scandalous
behavior of the man living with his stepmother? What is Paul’s
unspoken hope for this man, according to Father Castelot?
7. Have you ever seen action in a local community that contributed
greatly to restoring unity among divided people? What happened?