A Pilgrim Church

“No money bag, no beggar’s sack, no extra pair of shoes”
Lk 10:4
A Pilgrim Church

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time -- July 4, 2010
Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 5:13-18 Luke 10:1-9

To the Church gathered in a Temple not built by human hands[1]

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.

At that time the Lord appointed another 72 disciples whom He sent ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place He intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is great but the workers are few. So plead with the master of the harvest to send more workers to help you gather in the harvest.

Go now, and remember that I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no beggar’s sack, no extra pair of shoes; and don’t waste time along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’”

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

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Introduction
In need of 72 more disciples

In chapter nine of Luke Jesus commissioned 12 disciples, and sent them forth to preach the Kingdom of God and heal the sick. (Lk 9:1--5) This Sunday in chapter ten of Luke, Jesus commissions 72 more disciples. A few years after the first commissioning of the 12, there was still an abundant harvest out there in need of more harvesters. So the early church commissioned a larger group of 72 more disciples to go forth with the same sense of urgency to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Lk 10: 1-9)

Again in need of more disciples

At the present moment we are in the same fix as the early church. “The harvest is great but the workers are few.” We’ve been suffering a priest shortage for a good thirty years now. We’ve tried all different means to address the crisis: We periodically pray for more vocations. We’ve imported priests who speak incomprehensible English. Some have chosen to wash their hands of the crisis by simply blaming the “faithless times” for not being able to generate more vocations to the priesthood. In recent times, the church has bypassed the heart of the problem by concocting teams of priests who have to dash off to various parishes to click off Sunday Masses. Etc. None of these attempts have adequately or courageously addressed the crisis.

A carefully qualified sentence

Almost 20 years ago, in a long pastoral letter to the Church of Milwaukee, Archbishop Rembert Weakland O.S.B. made a courageous attempt to address the shortage of priests. His letter contained a very carefully crafted and courageous sentence:

I would be willing to help the community surface a qualified candidate for the ordained priesthood - even if a married man [italics mine] – and, without raising false expectations or unfounded hopes for him or the community, present such a candidate to the Pastor of the Universal Church [Pope John Paul II -- the master of the harvest] for his light and guidance. (Catholic Herald, January 10, 1991)

Almost 20 years later in his book A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church (2009) Weakland writes,

When I went to Rome in March 1993 for the ad limina visit, the shortage of priests was certainly on my mind. Milwaukee had begun to feel the effects of their [priests] diminishing numbers, and I knew that it was only the beginning of many adjustments. The archdiocese had tried one vocational program after another with meager results. Some of the conservative periodicals were convinced that conservative dioceses had many vocations, those with a “liberal” bishop none. Over and over again I heard that refrain. But I knew many very conservative bishops whose dioceses had no vocations at all. The “official” line was that Jesus promised there would be sufficient laborers for the harvest; if these were lacking, the fault must be in us. (I never recalled that Jesus said that there would be sufficient candidates for the priesthood among those willing to accept a celibate commitment.) (P. 337-338)

Referring to his carefully crafted and courageous sentence of 1991, Weakland writes in his book,

In the light of what I had heard from the faithful and believing they too possessed the fullness of the Spirit, I felt an inner compulsion to write that sentence – even though I knew it would fall on deaf ears.” (A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church, p. 341)

A hand-delivered letter

On deaf ears it did, indeed, fall! When Rembert went to Rome in 1993 for his ad limina visit, he had a meeting with Cardinal Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops. The meeting seemed to have gone OK. Shortly after, however, Weakland, received a hand-delivered letter signed by the Cardinal, which read in part:

I wish to mention the lack of esteem for “the Vatican” that, on more than one occasion, you are perceived to have shown. Your attitude toward the Holy See is
perceived as negative. Among the requirements of Catholic unity there is the need [for you] to accept the tradition of the Church. According to ecclesial practice, reinforced recently by a Synod of Bishops, it is not [italics mine] possible to present married men for ordination to the priesthood.

On the question of the ordination of women, your position is perceived to be in opposition to the teaching of the Church. Moreover, the charge of “intransigency” – a word used by your Excellency – on the part of the Church in this matter, can seriously damage Church authority and Church government. (P.344-345)

A dynamic ecclesiology

During Vatican II’s many and fierce deliberations on the preliminary document on the nature of Church, the Archbishop of Mainz, Germany, rose to say, “In this document we, the People of God[1], are on the march, but we seem to be marching a treadmill! Where in the world are we going?" Out of his intervention was born Chapter VII of the Council’s stellar document on the nature of the Church -- Lumen Gentium.[2] Chapter VII is entitled: The Pilgrim Church. It contains a very refreshing and dynamic ecclesiology.[3]

The ecclesiology of the past was static: The old catechism asked: “What is the Church?” The answer was: “The Church is the body of those who believe in divinely revealed truths as proposed by the magisterium of the Church, participate in its seven sacraments, and is obedient to Church authority, especially to the authority of the Pope.”

The ecclesiology of Chapter VII, on the other hand, is dynamic: We the Church are not marching a treadmill. We are a pilgrim people en route; we have journeyed out of Israel, and we are moving onward toward the Heavenly Jerusalem. We are a pilgrim people en route; we don’t have the last word about many issues, and we are always searching. We are a pilgrim people en route; we travel lightly as wise pilgrims do, carrying no money bag, no beggar’s sack, no extra pair of shoes, and wasting no time along the way.

Of the many chapters in the thirteen documents written by Vatican II this chapter on the pilgrim character of the earthly Church is perhaps the most inspired. It's been called "one of those blessed accidents that happens in every Council." One theologian said it "parachuted down from heaven." Another said, "You don't read this chapter, you pray it." Rarely has that ever been said before about any document written by Church hierarchy. Good Pope John XXIII insisted that the Council include a chapter on the Church’s pilgrim character in Lumen Gentium. No doubt it was this pilgrim ecclesiology which radiated out of Vatican II that inspired Weakland to title his book A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church.

“A holy conversation”

Vatican II has `saddled’ the Church institution with a pilgrim ecclesiology. As pilgrim the Church institution is en route; it has not yet arrived and has a long way to go. As pilgrim it is not in firm and final possession of the truth, but is always journeying toward the truth. As pilgrim the Church institution sees her dogmatic assertions not as erroneous but as inevitably impoverished before the ineffable mystery that is God. As pilgrim the Church institution sees its teachings not as the last word but as the opening word of “a holy conversation” with all God’s people.
“A holy conversation” is the expression used by Richard Gailardetz, husband, father and theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. He asks Pope Benedict to invite the Church to “a holy conversation” about all the great issues that rattle the Church, like divorce and remarriage, birth control, homosexuality, the ordination of married men, the ordination of women, etc. In a holy conversation Church institution and the faithful teach each other and learn from each other.

In the priest shortage crisis a holy conversation is abruptly ended even before it gets started, when the institution has recourse to “a long unbroken sacred tradition” of ordaining only celibates and only men. Cardinal Gantin has recourse to a “long unbroken tradition” when in his hand-delivered letter to Archbishop Weakland he writes,

According to ecclesial practice, reinforced recently by a Synod of Bishops, it is not possible to present married men for ordination to the priesthood. On the question of the ordination of women, your position is perceived to be in opposition to the teaching of the Church.

That put an end to a holy conversation even before it got started., he says, the Church institution “resists the temptation to control or direct the discussion toward predetermined conclusions.”

Conclusion
Moral authority

A Church institution which holds a holy conversation has the moral authority to ask us to hold the holy conversations that life demands of us. A Church institution which travels lightly as good pilgrims do, carrying no money bag, no beggar’s sack, no extra pair of shoes ( no dogmatic possessions about who can or cannot be ordained, etc.) has the moral authority to call us also to be pilgrims.

[1] The People of God is the title of Chapter II of Lumen Gentium
[2] Lumen Gentium ( The Light of the Nations): the 2 opening words of the Council’s stellar document on the nature of the Church.
[3] Ecclesiology is the theology on the nature of the Church