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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1989)
Supplement to The Georgia Bulletin, January 19, 1989 □ Faith Toda A supplement to Catholic newspapers published by Notional Catholic News Ser vice, 1312 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. All contents copyright© 1988 by NC News Service. Where past and present meet By Father Robert Kinast NC News Service W hen Jimmy was 10 years old, his parents were killed in an automobile accident. I was asked to tell him the tragic news. Over the next few weeks I became aware of how doubly traumatic Jimmy’s loss was. Jimmy was adopted. The death of his adoptive parents whom he loved dealt him a severe blow. But suddenly, too, he began to experience anxiety regarding his biological parents, wondering who they were. I am sure that in many ways Jimmy’s feelings were similar to those any child might feel when parents die. He felt pro foundly disconnected from other people, from those who located him in the net work of life. A similar experience can affect groups. When a founder or leader dies, the group can feel lost. Jesus anticipated this kind of reaction among his disciples at the time of the Last Supper. John’s Gospel says Jesus promised, “I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you” (John 14:18). □ □ □ One way Jesus keeps coming back to us is in the liturgy. The liturgy connects us to our origins. It reminds us where we have come from and who we are now. The liturgy does this by using resources familiar to all of us — stories and symbols. When my mother tells about the snow that fell the night I was born and how my father and grandfather couldn’t find their car when they left the hospital, she is rooting me in the story of my origins. I know I belong to those events. When the liturgy tells about the night the angel passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt or the morning the angel announced the resurrection of Jesus, it is rooting us in the story of our salvation. We know we belong to those events. The same thing happens with symbols. When I look at my father’s watch 20 years after his death, I feel like I’m touching the "When I look at my father's wotch 20 years after his death, I feel like I'm touching the man who wore it, who taught me to tell time by it," writes Father Robert Kinast. In much the some way, he soys, the symbols and stories Christians use in the liturgy help to put them in touch with their spiritual roots. The liturgy reminds us of where we come from and helps us to know who we are now. man who wore it, who taught me to tell time by it, who was as quiet and reliable as the hands which still tick around the surface. Likewise the tangible things we use in liturgy put us in touch with our spiritual origins. Blessed water renews our baptism; bread and wine re-enact the Last Supper; oil seals us deeper in the Spirit. Sometimes we have a greater need for these stories and symbols than at other times. For example, when we experience the death of a loved one we can feel cut off from the very source of our own life. That’s why the funeral liturgy and Mass of Resurrection retell stories of the life which continues after death and of new life arising from death. These stories do not displace our own. Instead they place our own stories within this special context. For example, at the vigil service the priest prays, “Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, by dying for us con quered death and by rising again restored life. May we then go forward eagerly to meet him and after our life on earth be reunited with our brothers and sisters where every tear will be wiped away.” The symbols of the funeral liturgy put us in touch with this same belief. The paschal candle helps us imagine risen life; the blessed water and white pall on the casket remind us of the life of baptism which clothes us. □ □ □ Another time when we feel the need for the stories and symbols of the liturgy is dur ing a serious illness. A person who is seriously ill can be cut off — at least partial ly — from the people and events that make up that person’s life. There is a danger of feeling isolated and alone, of losing contact with one’s roots. * The instruction before the anointing of the sick recalls the practice of the first Christians who summoned church ministers to pray over sick members and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:14). The instruction situates the present anoin ting in a continuous history. And the oil itself links us with our spiritual ancestors who used oil in the same way. The anointing on the head by the priest consecrates the person and the minister’s touch physically connects the per son with the community. Through these stories and symbols the liturgy keeps us rooted in our spiritual origins and fulfills Jesus’ promise not to leave us orphaned. (Father Kinast teaches pastoral theology at Washington Theological Union in Silver Spring, Md.)
