Newspaper Page Text
December 17,1981
PAGE 5
Saints Of Our Time
BY DOLORESLECKEY
Christians throughout history have
searched for ways to make Jesus’ teachings
alive and dynamic for their own culture and
their own time. Jesus challenges every age.
St. Catherine of Sienna, a woman of the
Middle Ages, lived a life of intense political
and religious activity.
St. Thomas More struggled with the
delicate balance of family and public
responsibilities against a complex
international background in the court of King
Henry VIII.
St. Therese of Lisieux, in the late 19th
century, was a young French woman who
developed the gift of active contemplation in
the midst of the ordinary tasks of daily living.
She left as her legacy the “little way” of
Christian discipleship.
We call Catherine and Thomas and Theresa
saints, not because they were miracle workers
in their day, but because they understood the
Gospel as a serious immediate matter, and
made it effective in the context of the
concrete details of their personal lives.
What about our own time?
Where are today’s saints? Some, of course,
come readily to mind: Mother Teresa of
Calcutta or the late Dorothy Day -- women
who have worked hard to make sure that
destitute people in this world receive care. But
there are others too, though less well known.
They are the people who, in families and
neighborhoods and parishes, express concern
and take action to do something about
destructive forces in the world. They may be
people who do little things: eat less meat, own
one car, live with fewer luxuries.
They may be people whose hope in Jesus
does not allow them to be numbed by the
loneliness that can become part of life for the
elderly or by the damage that can be inflicted
on individuals and families by drugs.
Hope is reborn in the world when men and
women join together - make covenants -- to
do something for the world. As long as women
and men are capable of entering into
covenants of whatever kind, I think we will be
reminded of the words of Jesus: “I am with
you.”
Here I think of Father Bruce Ritter who
established a center called Covenant House in
New York City. There he, and others who join
.him, work to save the lives of young people
whose life situation has deteriorated almost to
the point of hopelessness, often because of
drugs. At Covenant House, young people can
rediscover hope.
Covenant House, you might say, is a
life-saving center.
We’re living in a time of many shortages. A
popular slogan proclaims: “Running out of
everything!” It points to the current
precariousness of life in a world where the
future availability of just about everything has
been turned into a question mark - energy,
clean water and air, economic stability, food.
And, just as shortages were developing in
important areas, the world’s potential for
destruction was expanding.
Against this backdrop, 20th century
Christians try to fathom the implications of
what it means to be a follower of Jesus here
and now.
I took notice recently when some people
concerned about peace decided to make their
belief known by joining in what they called
the New Abolitionist Covenant.
The purpose of the covenant is to take
action for peace in the world. The covenant
was announced in Sojourner magazine last
August.
People who join in the covenant don’t have
to sign a statement or petition. Rather, they
pray for peace and they try to communicate,
in their own environments, about the need for
peace and the danger of nuclear weapons.
Basically, the covenant is a way of taking
the message of the world’s need for peace in
the nuclear age into the marketplace, to
community and civic organizations, to the
media and to the government.
The New Abolitionist Covenant is just an
example of faithful and hopeful Christian life
in the face of darkness and despair. There
could be other examples too, showing people
who move away from self-centered concern to
the kind of selfless love which is at the heart of
Christianity.
As long as there are covenants, the human
spirit, created in the image of God, can grow
and flourish.
KNOW
YOUR FAITH
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1981 By N.C. News Service)
)
Mark Tells About Jesus And
BY FATHER JOHN CASTELOT
Mark dramatizes the growing tension
between Jesus and the religious leaders by
telling a story in the second chapter of his
Gospel about laws regarding the observance of
the Sabbath.
The Sabbath observance
was something the Pharisees tended to be
particularly sensitive about. Jesus and his
disciples are walking through a field of grain
on the Sabbath and, as they go, they pull off
some of the heads of grain, roll them between
their palms, and eat them.
Some Pharisees, we are told, objected.
They had listed 39 activities which were
forbidden on the Sabbath, and reaping crops
was one of them. The fact that they could
interpret random plucking of a few heads of
grain as reaping is an indication of how far the
legalistic mindset can go - in any age.
If it had not been the Sabbath, there would
have been no problem. The law permitted
casual sampling of a neighbor’s grain. In fact,
reapers were expected to leave enough
standing to satisfy the poor who would collect
the leftovers.
But this was the Sabbath and they
challenged Jesus to justify the disciples’s
actions.
He answers in true rabbinic fashion by
asking a question. How come even the ideal
king David and his men broke the law to
satisfy their hunger? They actually ate the
dedicated loaves from the tables in the
sanctuary of the tent, loaves reserved by the
law to the priests.
The case is not exactly parallel, but such
exactitude was not required in rabbinic
argumenation. In David’s case it was not the
Sabbath’s rules that were broken. But the
principle was the same:
Positive law must give way to a higher law,
in this case human need.
At this point the Pharisees’ objection had
been answered satisfactorily. But Mark added
two final sayings.
The first saying is simply a statement of the
principle embodied in the answer: “The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath.” The original intent of the Sabbath
rest had been quite humanitarian: to ensure
that workers had one day of relaxation a
week.
Unfortunately the legalists had forgotten
this. But even so, the rabbis recognized the
validity of Jesus’ principle and actually used it
themselves in this form: “The Sabbath is
delivered unto you and you are not delivered
to the Sabbath.”
The final saying is much more to Mark’s
immediate point, and that is the superiority of
Jesus to the law. “That is why the Son of Man
is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
It is no longer a question of a specific law
yielding to human need, but of the Sabbath
itself yielding to the authority of Jesus. This is
what infuriated his adversaries.
Who was he to place himself above Moses?
Here is where the conflict really lay.
This lesson seems to have been of some
importance to the early Christians. By what
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. Dolores Leckey says the saints of today often can be found among
our neighbors. Do you know anyone who does what she says saints do?
2. According to Mrs. Leckey, what can happen when people enter into
covenants?
3. In Katharine Bird’s story, what are some similarities between the
fictional world of Morris West’s novel and our own world?
4. Why have the U.S. bishops established a special committee to study
issues of war and peace? Do you agree that such an effort by the bishops is
valuable?
5. What would Christians, even though they be of different political
persuasions, share because of the existence of nuclear weapons?
6. Father John Castelot says that the story of Jesus and the disciples
plucking grain on the Sabbath makes more than one point. What points
does it make?
7. The pressures exerted by the world around us can be a source of
problems and a spur to action. Why are both points true?
WITH A MISSILE, flower and radiation sign painted on
her face, a young woman demonstrates against the nuclear
arms buildup at a march in Brussels. Belgium. At a time when
the essentials of life are shrinking, the potential for
destruction is expanding with more and more nations building
their nuclear arms capacities. Against this backdrop 20th
century Christians try to fathom the implications of being a
follower of Jesus Christ. (NC Photo from UPI)
If A Prophet Should Appear
BY KATHARINE BIRD
“I was alone, on a high, barren peak. All
about me were jagged mountains, black
against a lurid sky. The place was still and
silent as the grave. I felt no fear, only a
The Sabbath
right had they changed the Sabbath from
Saturday to Sunday? Here was the answer. It
was by the authority of the risen Lord.
WE LIVE IN AN AGE when many
urban dwellers - especially older
people - are afraid to venture out of
their homes or to open their doors to
strangers. Crime has condemned us to
life of fear and anxiety. The fear we
terrible, bleak emptiness, as if the kernel of
me had been scopped out and only the husk
remained. I knew what I was seeing, the
aftermath of man’s ultimate folly -- a dead
planet.”
Then, “in a moment of exquisite agony,”
Jean Marie Barette, the former Pope Gregory
XVII, explains, “I understood that I must
announce this event, prepare the world for it.
I was called to proclaim that the Last Days
were very near and that mankind should
prepare” for the second coming of the Lord
Jesus.
Barette is the central character in “The
Clowns of God,” a current best seller by
experience is not so far from the fear
author Morris West describes in his
futuristic novel. “The Clowns of God”
about an ex-pope who tries to
prepare the world for its ultimate end.
(NC Photo by Ed Carlin)
Morris West, known to millions as the author
of “The Shoes of the Fisherman.” The
preceding paragraphs describe the scene of a
vision Barette had, a sort of private revelation.
West’s novel focuses on what might happen
if a modern John the Baptist were to appear
before a largely disbelieving audience.
In the novel, the Soviet Union is
confronted by a famine; her troops are ready
for war if better-off nations do not sell her
sufficient quantities of grain.
The nations of the world are dividing into
armed camps, mobilizing the troops.
Leaders of the major nations secretly are
preparing contingency plans for making the
first nuclear strike at the enemy.
Individuals and families are anxious and
untrusting, reflecting accurately the stress
hovering over their nations. Young couples
are unwilling to marry, fearful of making
commitments in an uncertain world.
Acts of terrorism carry fear into the
smallest towns of the universe. In several
appalling instances, individual heroism is
rewarded with violence.
That’s the scene set in the novel.
Obviously, it is a scene of great world stress
and pressure.
Against that background, Barette - as a
pope - takes his private revelation to his
colleagues who react with suspicion and
distrust, thinking that he has gone mad.
Ultimately he is forced to resign from the
papacy.
The bulk of the novel then follows Barette
who goes out into the world as a private
citizen, disguised as a retired priest. Altered
irrevocably by his revelation, Barette is
confident the Lord will give him a way to
reveal his message.
Along the way Barette enlists an intriguing
assortment of helpers: a sculptor; a despairing
politician; an old friend and his family. Like
Christians in other times, Barette and his
friends discover that the cost of discipleship
includes anxiety and pain and, sometimes,
unexpected rewards. Several surprises lie in
store for the reader as the novel approaches its
conclusion.
That brief summary of West’s novel may
make it sound rather frightening. But it is also
thought provoking. And it is a novel that
reflects some of the stress society experiences
today because of what a modem war could
mean.
Nuclear war is not just the concern of
novelists. It is also the concern of many
church leaders. And while not all church
leaders agree on some specifics - e.g., the
morality of maintaining nuclear weapons as a
possible deterrent to war - they do agree that
nuclear weapons exert a pressure on society as
a whole and challenge the people of the
church to become peacemakers.
The U.S. Catholic bishops have appointed
a committee to study the issues of war and
peace and nuclear weapons. Their committee
has already begun its work.
Recently, in a report on the work of the
bishops’ committee, its chairman, Archbishop
Joseph Bemardin of Cincinnati, said: “We
who believe that we are stewards of life and
creation, not its masters, must use all the
religious and moral vision we have to prevent
a threat to what God has created, what we
could destroy but never recreate.”