Friday, August 24, 2018

Outside the Comfort Zone (continued)

If we are going to fulfill the commandment  to love one another , then we are going to have to step outside of our comfort zone. Jesus did it. The ultimate example of stepping outside your comfort zone must be the Incarnation, when God lay aside glory and took on human nature.

If I say this in front of children, I like to ask them: “Would you change places? Would you be willing to become a cockroach?” “Oh, no!” But the distance between us and a cockroach is miniscule compared to the distance between us and the almighty God.

One of the things that Pope Francis has encouraged, at least informally, is be willing to go out and risk. It is okay if you make a mistake. He wants the shepherds and evangelizers to smell like the sheep. We do not smell that way if we are separated from them. Get out there. Bring the gospel. The motivation for doing that is that our God came to be with us. Every time we celebrate the eucharist, we are reminded of how much God was willing to empty himself.

There is a beautiful line in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John. We often translate it this way: “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

If we go back to the Greek, it actually says, “The Word became flesh and  pitched his tent among us.” I would love to find that translation used. “He pitched his tent.” It may not mean much to us in our day and culture, but to our ancestors, it certainly would because they would remember that pitching a tent was what they did when God led them out of the slavery of Egypt until they wandered into the Promised Land. For 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, trying to find their way.

Throughout it all their God was in the midst of them. They erected a tent where the ark of the covenant was placed. They thought of God being there, that this tabernacle was his dwelling place, and when they moved on they struck that tent and continued on until they set it up again wherever they would stop. It was a constant reminder that God was with them on this journey. When we say that “he pitched his tent among us,” we are encouraged to hold onto the conviction that he has promised to be with each one of us in the journey that we take. You know as well as I that if you are on a journey with God, you are not going to be able to stay where you are very long.

That is one of the characteristics of a Catholic Christian spiritual life—the acknowledgment that God will let you rest in an oasis for a little while, but he is always saying “Let’s go.” When the disciples came to him and said, “Where do you stay?” He didn’t tell them. He said, “Come and see.” It is meant to be an adventure.
Pope Francis likes to say, “Be open to the God of surprises, the God who enters into the life of the church at large and into the life of individual persons. I have to believe that you have had that experience, that several times you found yourself doing things and saying later, “I never thought I would be doing this.”

That is the response to the God of surprises. That is the call to step outside your comfort zone. Jesus not only taught it in word, he showed us an example, did he not? For example, Jesus was confronted by a leper. Had Jesus touched him, he would have been rendered impure. The lepers were told to cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” But the New Testament says that Jesus touched him. Jesus was willing to risk the impurity of the law for the sake of doing what his Father wanted—to reach out and to love.

At times, I understand the statement of Lucy Van Pelt (Charlie Brown’s friend): “I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand.”

To be in the world or to be in a community means you are rubbing shoulders day in and day out with differing people, with differing ideas and differing temperaments, and you have to struggle with that. There is always a reason to close the door. And indeed, a spiritual life is going to have to have times to do as Jesus did when he went off to the mountain to be alone and to pray. You have to have those times in which you are energized. The energizing is to open one up to go back again.

That is the whole purpose of our repeatedly coming to the liturgy we call the eucharist. We have an extraordinary nickname for it—we call it the “Mass.” And what does “Mass” mean? It means “dismissal.” We come every Sunday morning—some of us more frequently than that—to celebrate the eucharist so that we can be sent out into the world again. “Go back out there. You are not finished yet. I’ve got something else for you to do.”


Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Outside The Comfort Zone

It takes courage to step outside of one’s comfort zone.  Jesus did it, and he clearly expects his disciples to do the same. The lives of the saints are biographies of people who dared to risk  being at ease and feeling comfortable in order to be and do something that threatens their security and tranquility.

Jesus left his carpenter shop and went out on the road, with no place to lay his head, in order to preach the values of the Kingdom of God. He risked being rejected by the very people he had come to serve.  He challenged the status quo in his own religion, and compared his mission to carrying a cross.  The ultimate price for stepping out of his comfort zone was death by crucifixion

The list of those willing to follow his example and eschew their comfort zone is long, but for the sake of example and encouragement reflect on the sacrifices undertaken by three of his followers:  Francis of Assisi, Blessed Mother Frances Schervier, and Pope Francis.

St. Francis of Assisi obviously went out of his comfort zone when he told his father, “I am not living according to your custom, your rule, your way of life anymore,” and, according to the story, stripped himself of his clothes. That would be going out of your comfort zone.

Bl. Frances Schervier of Aachen, Germany, (1819-76), in imitation of Francis of Assisi, left her comfortable home, went out to care for the sick, and with three other like-minded women established the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.  Even as a youngster she shared her school lunch with those that she saw poor and miserable along the way.

And now there’s Pope Francis, calling on Christians  to go out to the periphery, urging ministers to take on the smell of the sheep, and challenging  clergy, religious and laity “to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way.’” In his Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (Gospel Joy) he invites “everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities” (#33).

Prior to the conclave that elected him as the successor of Pope Benedict,  Cardinal Jorge Bergolio of Argentina  addressed his fellow cardinals and said that what we need is a leader who will take us out to the periphery, a leader who will help the church be what the church is supposed to be.

His words had a powerful impact  on that select audience, and they elected Cardinal Bergolio, to be the successor of Pope Benedict XVI.  Coming out on the balcony at St. Peter’s in Rome, Pope Francis, before blessing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square, asked them, “Bless me. You bless me.”

Since that time, he has said again and again, “We are all in this together.” He holds fast to one of the truths reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, namely that  the Holy Spirit was given to all the people of God.
Prior to Vatican II, many in the hierarchy and among theologians  had given in to pyramid model of Church -- that somehow the pope, the bishops and the priests got the message from heaven and they would give it down to the people who were often called called the simple faithful.

But when the document on the church, Lumen Gentium, was put together, there was aggiornamento, a return to the understanding  that the Holy Spirit is given at baptism and in confirmation the baptized are sent out.  The two-fold rite is the sacrament of initiation --baptism and confirmation-- because baptism makes you a Christian; confirmation authorizes you to go forth and bear witness to what you have become.

The baptized have been sent to be apostles to the world and have been given the gift of the Spirit.  The baptized have share in the priesthood, in the prophetic mission of Christ, in the ministry of servant-leaders.
From the very beginning of the Christian gospel and the development of the church, this is a foundational reality. Pope Francis is intent on bringing that awareness of that reality back into the mainstream of the church of this day.

It was a rather exciting and I am sure somewhat startling presentation that he gave to the curia just before Christmas in 2013 when he suggested to them that there are certain maladies and illnesses, and temptations that need to be resisted. He explained that a Church that focuses upon itself is a sick institution, not living up to the purpose for which it was created.

He urged the Curia staff to be careful. They must not allow themselves to succumb, for example, to what he called “spiritual Alzheimer’s” where you forget your beginnings, your struggle with the gospel and living it. You can get yourself into an institutional setting and forget about your spiritual struggle of growing in faith and personal discipline. Others have spiritual mountains to climb;  not all are the same, not all can climb at the same pace. You have to be wary of taking on judgmental/condemnatory attitudes about others who are still climbing the mountain.

His warning is reflected in a bumper sticker that said: “Before you offer a criticism, tell me if you’ve ever volunteered.” Have you been there? Have you been in it? Pope Francis is asking us to get into that world, particularly into the periphery of it and learn from those who are broken.

                                                                                                                                                                     (to be continued)