P
PA650
Guest
A very insightful reply.This is such an easy thing to do. The toils and disappointments of eveyday life, along with our aspirations for the better, can often distract us from the big picture. It happens to all of us and the more passionate that we feel about something the easier it is to lose focus.
It’s rather interesting. We not only lose sight of the Church’s mission, but even worse, we lose sight of our own sinfulness.
I have worked for many bishops, for many years and a few a personal friends. Whenever this issue of the EF and the OF comes up, I cringe when I see or hear people propose that the bishops have some sinister plot or desire to extinguish the EF of the mass. I cring for several reasons.
Having worked with many bishops and having a number of them among my friends, I know them to be human beings just like me. Some feel very passionately about the EF. Others feel very passioantely that it’s not necessary in their jurisdiction. Others have no attachment to it, because their spiritual needs are met by the OF. However, they are not going to do anything to stop it and may not do much to promote it, either. Then there are those bishops who feel that this has to be done and they will brainstorm to make it happen. In all of this, I don’t see evil or sinister planning. I see human beings with an opinion on something. That opinion may be valid or invalid. Those who believe that the local bishop’s opinion is an invalid one have a challenge to face. They have to persuade the bishop to consider another opinion. That’s not an easy thing to do. I’ve been in that position with some bishops.
I’m not a good salesman. What has always helped me has been my attitude. I always state the facts when I walk in. “You’re the bishop and I’m a no body. You have every right to decide what you believe is best and I have a moral duty to obey whatever you decide and I’m willing to do that. Having said that, I’m grateful for the chance to get to speak to you about what I’m thinking. Feel free to tell me that I have no right to think that, if that’s the case.” Then I proceed.
St. Francis taught me not to look for faults in those who are better than I am, but to look for faults in me and then approach those who are better with a submissive attitude. The popes and bishops of his time loved him and respected him, because he did not judge them, nor did he question them or challenge them. We know that the 13th century was probably much more chaotic than the Church of the 20th century. However, those bishops were dealing with a man who have a very clear vision of the Church’s mission and of his insignificance in that mission.
Francis never approached authority with the idea that he had rights. He discouraged his brothers and sisters from doing so too. He always told us that the only right that we had was to own our sinfulness and atone for sin, everything else that we received from the Church was through her mercy and the mercy and compassion of the hierarchy. Who’s going to turn away a man who expects nothing, who believes that whatever you give him is a gift, not a right and who is grateful that you honored him by listening? Even if they did deny him anything, he would still walk away happy, because he knew that he had no right to expect anything from them, because he was a sinner. Any suffering and rejection that he might suffer at the hands of the clergy, the bishops and the popes were opportunities for penance. In other words, they were gifts from God. God had taken compassion on him and had given him the opportunity to do penance in this life and spare him from suffering in purgatory.
I cringe when I feel that we foget that bishops and faithful are human beings who are imperfect, but are not necessarilly evil and have no evil intent. Mistaken . . . maybe, but not evil. Who of us has never been mistaken? When we forget that we too are mistaken in many ways, we project an air of authority that is foreign to the saints when they deal with the Church and Church authority.
To begin to make things better, we have to begin by admitting that we are also human and sinful. Then we proceed with the belief that bishops are not evil people, even when they’re mistaken. We are open to the possibility that we may have to accept what we don’t want. However, that can be a sign of God’s love for us, which allows us to do penance here rather than there. If we look a the saints who were great reformers, they usually got the Church’s support, because they were tenacioius AND humble. Some of them were very clever, such as Teresa of Avila and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, but they were non threatening and non confrontational. If there was a confrontation, St. Teresa and Mother Teresa would back off. Mother Teresa had a wonderful saying when things rose to the level of confrontation with the hierarchy. “If it’s that much of a problem, God must not be that interested.” Like St. Francis, she was very convinced that she had no right to demand from God or the Church. Yet, we look at her and St. Francis, their influence in the Church and the world and how admired and respected they were by Church authority and we have to wonder if we’re missing something in our approach.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
