The Gift of Our Catholic Faith

Transcription

1 Saturday 20 August, 2016 Catechists Formation Day Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Atlanta The Gift of Our Catholic Faith Our valued Catholic Faith is a most precious gift that no one of us ever manages to truly merit or ever to be capable of fully appreciating nor is it ever subject to our managing or determining. Each one of you who are present here this morning may well look deeply into your own heart and there you will probably recall the faces and hear the voices of lots of the wonderful people and the personal circumstances that lead you to and continue to shape and influence your own Catholic Faith. And you will, I pray, note that I

2 have used the present forms of those verbs lead and shape since all of us must continue on the journey of Faith until we finally reach that Kingdom that the Father Himself has prepared for us. We all must also continue to witness our Faith in the Lord and in the Church that He Himself established. That is the most important gift that you provide for the students entrusted to your care. Even we Catholic bishops and some might suggest in today s environment that especially we bishops, need to recall that our own faith journey is also a gift that has come to us by the gracious providence of God Himself and ultimately mediated through the extraordinarily cherished faith witness of many Page 2

3 people in our own lives. We who are the ordained and the apostolic teachers of our Catholic Faith also remain its recipients through God s grace. We have all come to Faith through the good example of parents, grandparents, teachers, catechists, spouses, children, neighbors, priests and sisters who by their own witness inspired us to believe as they have managed to believe, to pray fervently as they have prayed, to serve the needs of others generously as they have graciously done and to keep a spirit Christian hope in spite of obstacles according to their own good example. Even for those people who may have been baptized as infants, the witness of others encourages them to appreciate and to embrace the Page 3

4 faith that the Sacrament has already planted in their heart. We know this to be the case since those infants who may have received the Sacrament of Baptism at the very beginning of their lives but whose own circumstances denied them the witness of devoted parents and family frequently can and usually do fail to realize and to bring to fulfillment the gift of Faith that the Sacrament had already planted within them. Thus several years ago, I now embrace a sweet sorrow and yet the very good fortune to make a oneday trip to Los Angeles, California to preside at the funeral liturgy for one of the significant persons who had been pivotal in my own journey of Faith. His Page 4

5 name was Father Gerard Peter Weber, a Priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and one of the former priests in my childhood home parish. He baptized me and continued to serve as a mentor and father-figure for me throughout the years. He was 91 years old when he died and he had spent his final years in residence at Saint John s Retirement Center in LA. Gerry Weber was a grand old man and the year before when I had telephoned him to wish him a happy 90 th birthday and best wishes on his 65 th anniversary as a priest; he concluded that conversation with the statement: Wilton, I would love to see you one more time before I die. With that phrase, I immediately began my own plans to Page 5

6 visit this magnificent priest during the summer of Father Gerry Weber along with the then-pastor of my home parish Monsignor John Michael Hayes were central figures in my own journey of Faith. Although, I suspect that neither they nor I realized what the of their significance in my life at the time when I was a youngster at that parish school on the Southside of Chicago. They were simply admirable parish priests and I was only one other kid in the parochial school probably not very much distinguishable from the dozens of other students who filled those desks in the late 1950 s. Yet those wonderful men in conjunction with the equally Page 6

7 generous Adrian Dominican Sisters who then staffed the school suggested through their very lives of faith that the Catholic Church was indeed a very special institution a community of believers who were very worthy of joining. It was that lived witness of enthusiastic endorsement of Catholicism that led me then as a non-catholic student to pursue Baptism. Even as a child, I sensed that something wonderful was present in this community that has proven to be so instrumental in my life and in the lives of countless millions of other people before me. Faith, I believe, is born in all of our lives through the good example and the prayers of the people that God sends our way. Page 7

8 On March 28 th of this year, I quietly but very proudly celebrated 57 years as a Catholic. I have never regretted one moment of being a member of this wondrous community of faith. Even though these past 57 years have included many moments of question, confusion and even uncertainty. Faith is never a journey devoid of its bumps, surprises and detours. If any person boasts that she or he has never questioned or doubted their faith then I suspect that they may never have reflected seriously upon the gift of faith that they claim to possess. Is there a spouse here present who has never entertained a serious hesitation about the wisdom or the prudence of those wedding promises that they Page 8

9 may have already made I am not now asking for a display of hands? One of the common questions that youngsters always seem to like to ask me is whether I have ever had any doubts about my faith. Even at a tender age, these young people have already begun to experience that true faith cannot exist without its challenges and moments of doubt. I certainly always acknowledge before them that I have had many such doubts and qualms. The gift of Faith is never free from moments of hesitation and frequently very serious questions. You will recall the controversy that surrounded the publication of Blessed soon to be Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta s biography several years ago in Page 9

10 which she openly made known the struggles that she endured and the enduring spiritually dry moments that plagued her throughout her own long extraordinary life of holiness. It seems that true believers, deeply holy people, yes even great saints regularly suffer profound periods of doubts, fears, and questions regarding the gift that they find so precious and compelling. Even those blessed ones who inspire and glorify the heritage of the Church by their heroic virtue and extraordinary lives of holiness may often spend long periods of deep doubt and serious anxiety. So my Faith has never been disturbed because of the many Page 10

11 doubts and questions that I have entertained and I hope that is true of you as well. I have and I continue to feel the sorrow and the embarrassment however that has come to our Catholic community because of negative representations that we and all other organized religions more and more have had to endure in the recent past. I have experienced the sorrow of scandals that have touched and seriously damaged our own Catholic Church. And I continue to endure the humiliation that has visited my life because of the disgrace that religious intolerance on the part of many supposedly dedicated Christians have imposed on Jewish and Islamic faithful people. I have been Page 11

12 ashamed because of the flawed example that we Catholics have given to the world because of our increasingly harsh treatment of and petulant attitudes toward one another. This hostility in some respects causes me the greatest sorrow because both extremes within Catholicism today have managed to come together in an unusual wicked alliance in their condemnation of the Church whether because of its liberal or conservative positions the condemnation is the very same in its impact on Catholicism. Catholics on both sides of the ideological spectrum have heaped vicious and cruel condemnations upon Page 12

13 all those who do not have the same view of the Church as they themselves have decided to be the only valid vision of the Body of Christ. Such horrible infighting has caused many others outside of the Catholic Church as well as many within to throw up their hands and turn their backs on the possibility of ever wanting to become a member of such an obviously dysfunctional family. And while the ideologues may believe themselves to exist at opposite poles of the ecclesial spectrum, they are joined at the hip in the damage that they have inflicted upon this Church that Christ Himself founded. We bishops and priests have played more than our own share in bringing shame to this precious Page 13

14 Church of Christ by our sinful weaknesses and lack of courageous and effective leadership in response to the sins of clerics against our precious children. Because of the clearly criminal behavior of some priests and equally the lack of effective, swift, and corrective disciplinary action on the part of some bishops, the entire Church has been thrust into a great moment of anger and self-condemnation. We have brought much of this sadness upon ourselves as the Holy Father himself suggested several months ago when he cautioned us that the real sin of the Church may remain within. It is difficult to lay the ultimate blame for our sorrow at the feet of others, without acknowledging that if had Church Page 14

15 leadership acted more decisively, honorably, and quickly, the entire community would have been spared much of the sorrow that still confounds and distresses us. To be sure, those outside of the Church who may hold an ancient and virulent animus against the Catholic Faith have found these times simply too delicious to ignore. The hostile reaction that is found in far too many venues would have no foundation, however, were it not for the sins of those of us within the household of Faith. These times seem so unlike that experience of the Church that I discovered when I was a child in that Page 15

16 south side parish school that witnessed a love for the truth of the Church that both fascinated and beckoned me to the baptismal font. As I grew to know about this Church of ours, I discovered that every age has produced its conflicts, its disagreements, its controversies, its theological and spiritual differences. Occasionally those differences ultimately led to the cleansing witness that only a martyr s sacrifice can provide so serious had they become. Yet there is a difference in our world. We live with the gift of instantaneous and ubiquitous communication. Every thought, every opinion, every capricious insinuation, every flimsy accusation is Page 16

17 immediately available and the widespread hostile attacks from both sides of the theological divide and from those with a score to settle with the Catholic Church or her clergy are spread abroad without any need for proof, verification or facts. In such a climate, the work of evangelization is made even more difficult and awkward. This has been a sorrow for me and I suspect for most other Catholics as well. The divisions among the world s religions are another source of great personal sorrow. Ecumenical dialogue is very difficult work but it is the desire of the Holy Spirit to bring about the unity for which Christ Himself prayed on the night before He died for us. Admittedly some events within the past Page 17

18 generation have brought great hope to the hearts of believers, but there have also been a lot of recent obstacles placed before this important work. Many people look at the divisions that separate the Christian religions and they must question how these people can dare to refer to themselves by the name of Christ Himself. These divisions have saddened me and have caused me to lose heart at times. I have been troubled by the loss of too many Catholics from our Church. Some sources like to trumpet that the second largest group of religious adherents in this nation of ours after those who profess Faith in the Catholic Church are those who claim to be former Catholics. The recent survey Page 18

19 reports by the Pew Foundation and its counterpart studies from CARA have attempted to offer some statistical analysis of the numbers and the motives that have driven people from the religions of their childhood. We all know many of them Marriage problems, insensitive pastoral encounters with ministers of religion, widely publicized church scandals, lackluster parish worship and the heartless pastoral attention to the spiritual needs and aspirations of people. I have heard too often of former Catholics who have abandoned our Church for other religions because they have felt more comforted and better served therein. Leaving Christ for other non-christian Page 19

20 religions because they have discovered a depth of prayer and spiritual meditation therein is a sorrow that tears at my very soul. How have we how have I failed to witness to Christ effectively so that my sisters and brothers are strengthened in their faith rather than driven from it? Is it that we have failed to pass on the extraordinary rich spiritual heritage of Catholicism adequately? Have we not taught the intense legacy of mystical experiences that are so much a part of the lives of the great masters of the spiritual world? Have we neglected to share the prayerful journeys of those great saints who have inspired the Church for two millennia? Page 20

21 Interfaith exchange and dialogue in today s society have only grown more important as people from many of the world s great religious traditions are now our neighbors, colleagues, and hopefully even our friends. There can be no room in any Christian heart for religious bigotry that is essentially fueled by a lack of knowledge and ignorance on the part of peoples who may consider themselves deeply religious but whose behavior and rhetoric violate the basic tenets of most of the great faith traditions of the world. Our world has grown far too small for small minded people. One cannot possibly call himself or herself a good Catholic and be bigoted against people of another faith, race, or cultural heritage. And the very nature of our Catholic Church itself demands Page 21

22 that we recognize and welcome our diversity and the universal character of our communion. As I often recall the enthusiasm and joy of my own youthful first encounter with Christ in the Catholic Church in that small Catholic School on the Southside of Chicago, I am constantly renewed and reaffirmed that Jesus has brought me to share in His Priesthood and more recently to embrace the Episcopacy for His own purposes. I have never for one moment doubted that I have made the correct journey of Faith within Catholicism, but lately I have become deeply distressed by the state of things in the world in which the Church must bear witness to the Risen Lord and the errors that we Catholics have Page 22

23 made as a Church in addressing some of those issues that we must confront in that same world. I lament the fractious state of intolerance that too often infects the Church that I love with all of my heart. Coming to serve the Catholic Church as a bishop in the Deep South has brought special and intense joy to me because we are experiencing an explosion of growth throughout this region. The Archdiocese of Atlanta and all of the dioceses within this ecclesial province are clearly in a hyper-development mode. Our ordinary challenges today are to provide facilities and institutions where our people can be properly served. Page 23

24 We are blessed not only with a far more benign climate than many of our northern or eastern local churches, but we are also living in a spiritually active and affirmative environment nevertheless we do so as a minority Christian community. Religious faith is a cherished value in our region. We necessarily therefore must be engaged in ecumenical and interfaith outreach and dialogue, occasionally we must also defend and/or explain our faith to those who may not share it, and we need to develop more creative evangelization tools and opportunities for those who would like to know more about our Catholic Faith and perhaps even to become a member of our religious family. Those are wonderful Page 24

25 possibilities that we face and I welcome them as I know so too do my neighboring brother bishops. Our Church today embraces and promotes a number of social issues that do not always enjoy universal acceptance and their promotion often brings us scorn and ridicule. We reverence the gift of human life from its beginning to its natural end. We include under that same banner a deep and enduring respect for the lives of even those who may not be particularly accepted, positive members of society or even legally documented. Life itself is a gift that comes from the hand of God and it never loses its intrinsic value no matter what its Page 25

26 condition or circumstance. We believe in the sanctity and the unique nature of the traditional marriage union between one man and one woman nevertheless in the very same breath we also believe and profess that every person has an intrinsic human dignity and worth irrespective of the first language that they may speak, their race, their social status, gender or sexual orientation or any other distinguishing personal characteristic or condition and we cannot and must not ever hate, harm or denigrate them. To cherish and live the Catholic Faith today means that we must love and respect one another even those with whom we might have real differences of opinion or attitudes because we share the same Page 26

27 Sacraments, belong to the same family, and are all children of the same Father. To be a Catholic today is proudly and publicly to embrace the values of the Gospel and the full heritage of our religious principles and teaching. To be a Catholic today is to acknowledge the errors and sins of our past and simultaneously to take heart in the promise of an even brighter tomorrow. To be a Catholic today is to live in such a way that we seek to share our Faith with all those who might find hope and acceptance within this particular family of believers. When I stop to consider the fortunate experiences of my childhood that brought me to this blessed Catholic Faith, I understand that it was the witness of Page 27

28 wonderful men and women who then lived the faith in such a way that it inspired a youngster from the Southside of Chicago new to a Catholic School who was intrigued by the wonder and the joy of this Church. I saw them pray and worship with a passionate sincerity. May we all live today in a similar way so as to invite others to join us at the Lord s Table and in that way to continue the heritage of evangelization and welcome that the Jesus Himself would have us all pursue. Page 28