8TH SUNDAY IN GREENTIME
AGAIN, FOR THE FIRST TIME
Recently, a lady who has attended daily Mass for most of her life commented on the fact that she heard new ideas from the Letter of St James, read during weekday Masses the past few weeks. She said that the inspired letter hit her in a special way. The biblical text had not changed in 2000 years; the lady had!
Religious psychologists speak now of various stages of the human journey through life. The first stage is “Roots and Wings”, extending from conception until the young person leaves the home. The second stage is “Make Your Mark on the World” (Where We Build Our Tower), which usually corresponds to early adulthood. The third stage is “The Leap of Faith,” which usually corresponds to later adulthood. We hear the Scriptures differently at the various stages of life.
In addition, there are things that we are incapable of grasping at certain ages.
Today, Jesus hints at this in the Gospel in which He speaks of the new wine in old wineskins. Our hearing of God’s Word depends on what stage of life at which we hear the Gospel.
The sad bargain that so many have lived by is that religious education is something one does until one gets his or her sacraments. How many families have bargained with children about holding in on religious education until one makes Confirmation? Then, one is off the hook until it is time to marry in the Church. Sadly, childhood is not enough time to foster one’s religious imagination. Yet, for the vast majority of USA Catholics, serious religious formation ceases at Confirmation. Most adult Catholics deprive themselves of adult formation that they will need someday!!
Indeed, young adults, in the “Make Your Mark” phase of adulthood need to remember to make that mark with the realization that every moment of their day is lived in the Transcendent Presence of God. May all of us live each day with the realization that, as Pope John Paul said, there are no moral free zones, for any individual or group or nation. We all stand under the Gospel in all of human living. Sad that so few avail of opportunities to hear the Gospel again (for the first time, in early adulthood).
In the pattern of all the universe, each of us experiences what has been called the liminal, viz., threshold, moments of life, when our reality changes and things are not what they once were. Catholics call these “Paschal Moments” when we experience a death and rebirth that is part of our sharing in the universal process. We feel what we Catholics call the Cross in our lives. Our lives are much different now.
We then enter into the stage of the “Leap of Faith”, when the mature person is called upon to bear the pain, to surrender, let go and trust the Mystery.
We realize that we are, indeed, not the center of the universe, but part of God’s universe, in which death and rebirth is the basic process. We can only let go and let God, as the bumper sticker says.
You cannot teach that to a child preparing for Confirmation. We need to hear the Gospel again and again. The Gospel does not change; rather we change.
Let us make use of Lent 2006AD to open ourselves to the Call of the Infinite hidden in the Gospel of Jesus. As the lady recently commented, she heard the reading her entire life, but she never got what it was saying. The Gospel does not change; she changes. We all change! Take adult religious formation seriously. We all will need it some day. Let us not pour new wine into old wineskins. 022606AD jfq
