A Holy Conversation instead of Grumbling

Raymond Hunthausen, Archbishop of Seattle
from 1975 to 1991

A Holy Conversation instead of Grumbling

August 2, 2009, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 Ephesians 4:17, 20-24 John 6:24-35

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Exodus

There in the desert the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “We wish that the LORD had killed us in Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I can test them to find out if they will follow my instructions. “

The LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them that at twilight they will have meat to eat, and in the morning they will have all the bread they want. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am their God.” In the evening a large flock of quail flew in and covered the camp, and in the morning there was dew all around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there was something thin and flaky on the surface of the desert. It was as delicate as frost. When the Israelites saw it, they did not know what it was and asked each other, “What is it?” Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Glory to you, Lord.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and fishes and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God that you believe in the one He sent.” So they said to Him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in You? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written, ` He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst….”

Then the Jewish authorities began to grumble against Jesus because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” So they said, “This man is Jesus the son of Joseph, isn’t He? We know his father and mother. How, then, does He now say He came down from heaven?”Jesus responded, “Stop your grumbling!”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction
The eighth month of the year

Here it is the first Sunday of the eighth month of the year. Noticeably the days are shortening and nights are lengthening. The pages are falling off the calendar like autumn leaves falling from trees. In northern climes crickets will soon be singing of summer spent, and kids will soon be back to school. Labor Day will be here before we know it, and those of us who are fortunate enough to be employed in these hard times will be very grateful to go back to work. This time of the rolling year puts some of us in a pensive and, at times, a melancholic mood.

Grumbling at Jesus

In the scripture readings for this Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (cycle b), the Israelites are grumbling against Moses, and the Jewish authorities are grumbling against Jesus. The Jewish authorities were good at grumbling. When Jesus attended a banquet in the house of Levi, a tax collector, “some Pharisees and teachers of the Law began to grumble and say to Jesus’ disciples, `Why do you people eat with tax collectors and outcasts.’’’ (Lk 5:29-30) That wasn’t a question; it was a statement. On another occasion when many tax collectors and outcasts came to listen to Jesus, “The Pharisees and teacher of the Law began to grumble and say, `This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them.’”(Luke 15:1-2)

Not only the Jewish authorities but also the crowds at times were good at grumbling. When Zacchaeus, a tax collector, climbed a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus passing by, Jesus looked up and told Zacchaeus to come down, for He intended to stay at his house. “The crowds seeing it started to grumble and say, `This man has gone to the home of a sinner.’” (Lk 19:1-6)

Grumbling at Bishop Untener

Jesus’ day had no monopoly on grumbling. 1993 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae vitae (1968) reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control. When Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, MI (1937- 2004), took the occasion to invite the church to a new and open discussion (or as one theologian put it: “to a holy conversation”) on birth control, people in Rome grumbled greatly at his audacious suggestion. And Untener died a simple bishop and not an archbishop or a cardinal of the church.

Grumbling at Bishop Gumbleton

When retired Bishop Thomas John Gumbleton (b. 1930) of the Archdiocese of Detroit openly claimed that many bishops don’t believe that every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil but aren’t willing to say it publicly,[3] Rome grumbled greatly at his audacious claim. And when Gumbleton, despite Pope John Paul II’s definitive stand against the ordination of women, predicted that “Priestesses will inevitably come,” and pointed out that “Already, female parochial administrators are proving their competency and laying the groundwork for the ordination of women,” Rome again grumbled greatly. Then when Gumbleton (still in good health) petitioned Rome for permission to stay on as bishop beyond his 75th year, (the canonical age for retirement) his petition was refused with e-mail speed.

Grumbling at Archbishop Weakland

Former Archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland (b. 1927- ) unequivocally upholds Catholic teaching that abortion is immoral. Nevertheless, he was willing to sit down with pro-choice people to hear them out. In his report after a number of sessions with pro-choice people, Weakland warned us that “the anti-abortion movement is counterproductive when its focus is narrow, its tactics aggressive, and its rhetoric ugly and demeaning.” Then when the University of Fribourg wanted to confer upon the Archbishop an honorary degree in recognition of his work on the US Bishops' pastoral letter of 1986 entitled Economic Justice for All, Rome cancelled the conferral because, “He has confused the faithful on the issue of abortion.” On another occasion Weakland had “confused the faithful” when he told his Archdiocese that he was ready to ask the Pope for permission to ordain married men (!) to the priesthood, if the problem of priestly vocations became unbearably acute. Vigilant people first in Milwaukee and then in Rome grumbled greatly at such stances of the Archbishop.

Grumbling at Archbishop Hunthausen

The former Archbishop of Seattle, Raymond Hunthausen (b.1921) was and is a great advocate for the poor and the marginalized. He spoke out courageously about controversial issues in the church, like artificial contraception and homosexuality. In a letter on July 1, 1977 (way back then already), he courageously and publicly defended the rights of gays and lesbians. One of Hunthausen's very controversial acts was to permit a homosexual group called Dignity to hold its own Mass in his cathedral. “They're Catholics too,” he explained. "They need a place to pray.” Some people in Seattle grumbled greatly at his views and managed to have Rome strip him of some of his episcopal authority, because “his lack of clarity about homosexuality had confused the faithful.”

About Hunthausen a friend writes,

I lived in Seattle, as you know, from 1971 through 1999. I witnessed Hunthausen in action. He was incredible. I was very involved at the time with Dignity, the Gay and Lesbian Catholic group. We didn't ask for anything. We didn't want to get married. We didn't ask the Church to change its rules. All we wanted was to be left alone, to retain some human dignity, and to pray in our Church, with our Church. And because of Archbishop Hunthausen, I was so proud, so very proud to be a Catholic, in Seattle, at that time.

I love my Church. I love it deeply. I even have established the habit here in Tucson of going to the Mariachi Mass on Sunday morning at the Cathedral. The biggest blessing, by the way, aside from the deep devotion of the parishioners, and the incredible beauty of the music, is the fact that since the Mass is in Spanish, I cannot understand one word of the sermon! What a blessing!

Conclusion
Not a grumble but a holy conversation

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, Richard Gailardetz, a husband, father and theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, expressed the hope that the new pope would invite the church to hold to a “holy conversation” about all the great issues that exercise the church: divorce and remarriage, birth control, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, the priest-shortage and the ordination of women.

A holy conversation, Gailardetz said, is one which “renounces the temptation to control or direct the discussion toward predetermined conclusions.” A holy conversation is one that’s free from fear, and it allows another to speak and gives him an honest hearing. A holy conversation is the kind that Untener, Gumbleton, Weakland, Hunthausen and many others invite the church to hold. These men are, indeed, “a great cloud of witnesses,” and because of them “we run with patient endurance the race that lies before us.” (Hebrew 12:1)

What Jesus commands the Jewish authorities, Jesus commands us: “Stop your grumbling!” (Jn 6:43) Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, stop your grumbling. It often has the ring of self-righteousness, as when the Pharisee’s grumbled that Jesus ate with sinners.

What Richard Gailardetz asks of Pope Benedict, he asks also of us: Instead of grumbling (especially at someone close to you), hold a holy conversation with him. Holy conversing might be difficult, but it’s far more productive and far more rewarding.

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] America magazine (Nov. 20, 1963)