Spring Cleaning

Every year around this time, my mother would rearrange the furniture in the living room.  Along with that, came the changing of the drapery.   Then, she would open the cupboards and drawers  in the kitchen and take out all the dishes, glasses, cups, goblets, plates, pitchers, platters, bowls, casseroles, china, and silverware for cleaning.  It was as if we were preparing for the biggest banquet of the year.   She called this cleansing fury spring cleaning. 

Every liturgical year around this time, the Church gives us the opportunity to do our own inner spring cleaning.  In fact, the word “Lent” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning spring.  Lent is a prime time to rearrange our priorities, to open the cupboards of our hearts and hold our egos to the light to see those areas that need cleaned and polished.    This idea of inner cleansing or conversion has always been at the heart of Lent.    From the earliest times, Lent was the final leg of the journey for the catechumens preparing for baptism.  It was also a time when penitents, isolated from the assembly because of their sins, would be reconciled to God and community.    Both catechumen and penitent were related in that both underwent a significant conversion.    As the catechumen looked forward to baptism, the penitent looked forward to reconciliation, often seen as a second baptism.   Even today,  the focus of Lent remains both baptismal and penitential.    

It is easy to rearrange chairs and to clean dishes.  Inner change is more of a challenge.   Therein lies the good news.  It is God who calls us to conversion,  and it is God’s transforming grace that accompanies all of us on the journey of conversion.  Let us pray for the courage to be open to this grace, that we might come to Easter, the biggest banquet of the liturgical year,  with clean hearts and renewed spirits.  Amen!

A clean heart create for me, O God and a steadfast spirit renew within me.   Psalm 51

Community

In the past several weeks, a large number of common dolphins have beached along the southern shore of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.    Scientists are calling it the largest beaching by a single species in the history of the region.  More than 100 have died.  Scientists are stumped as to why so many dolphins are swimming so dangerously close to shore.   But, they do understand why they tend to beach in groups.   Dolphins are very social animals and when one of them gets into trouble, they stick together.   Their social bond is so strong that they would even abandon the waters that give them life for the sake of staying with one another.

Dolphins are one of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and we humans, especially those of us who bear the name Christian, can learn a lot from them.  God has called us as a people, a community, a body.   The Eucharistic liturgy bonds us together.  It strengthens us so that we too, like the dolphins, can stay with one another in good times and bad, even to the point of dying.  This is because the Eucharist is a commemoration of the God whose social bond is so strong that he sent his son Jesus, to be with us in good times and in bad, even to the point of dying. 

Lent is upon us.  As we anticipate the waters of new life at Easter, may we, like the dolphins, be willing to leave the waters of our own comfort in order to die a little, with and for each other, for the life of the world.  Amen!

The deaconate

The Mormon Church has been in the press a lot lately with the “I’m a Mormon” advertising campaign on television and on billboards, a smash Broadway show called “The Book of Mormon,”  and the hype surrounding the Mormon faith of Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John Huntsman.   Mormons are known for encouraging their members, specifically young men,  to go on missions, preaching the gospel and proselytizing their faith.

Long before the Mormon Church, Christ called his followers to be missionaries of his Word and servants of the poor and those in need.  The growth of the  early church summoned the need for certain individuals specifically dedicated to the preaching of the Word and the service of the poor.   These individuals were called deacons, and included both men and women. 

Though the permanent diaconate in the West declined after a number of centuries, it was revived by the Second Vatican Council.  The seeds of that revival, however, likely began much earlier with the help of Frs. Otto Pies, SJ and Wilhelm Schamoni, SJ, who were imprisoned in the concentration camp at Dachau. Their experience of the terrors at Dachau helped them to realize the need for a more effective witness of Christ in the world  and they believed that a revived diaconate was the answer.

The word deacon comes from the Greek work diakonos which means “servant.”   Service to the Church and to the People of God is the primary essence of the diaconal ministry.  Deacons aren’t junior priests, nor does their ministry usurp the gifts of the laity.  They are called to bridge the gap between the Church and the marketplace as evidenced by their role in the liturgy:  preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Gospel, announcing the community’s needs  in the prayer of the faithful, ministering the cup of salvation and sending the community forth to love and to serve the world. 

This weekend, my community welcomes another deacon in our midst.    May all deacons be strengthened in their call to selflessly serve the afflicted and to proclaim and preach the promises of the Gospel.  Amen!