Recently I’ve personally considered quite a few questions of the “what’s more important variety.” Typically, they take a form such as this: “Is it more important how we live, or whether our religious opinions are right?” It’s an easy question, right?
First, when presented with such questions there’s the answer from what the Church teaches us, and we have good sources, such as the Catechism, to give us answers. There are other sources as well depending on the exact nature of our questions.
However, just about anywhere you look in the Catholic blogosphere you’ll find ample writing by people who aren’t happy overall with the way things are. There is much to disagree about. The religious situation is either too far left, too far right, or too much in between the two extremes. The liturgy is either being done in such a way that it fails to glorify God or it is done in such a way that the common person has little connection to it. The sentiment of discord reaches into topics varying from architecture to vestiture.
However, rather than addressing the doctrine and liturgy per se this evening, or conservatism and liberalism—and I do think that politics has everything to do with our rifts—my biggest concern has to do with the most important thing: how well have I related to others today. It’s something that everyone should consider.
When we finish our day the liturgy and the teaching of the Church is still there, and it’s remained pretty much unchanged regardless of anything that we’ve said or done. At the end of the day the polemicists are no closer to finding resolve. However, at the end of the day, can we honestly answer that we have been true to our moral responsibility in life?
Aside from personal resignation, which of course is not a morally acceptable alternative, we have the option of either turning to the well-defined, ready-made, solutions of past for answers, or we can personally grapple with life’s most difficult questions. However, nothing is really so clear cut, so black and white. In reality the prescribed forms of religion must meet lived experience in order to have meaning.
Recently, I discovered the writing and preaching of Timothy Radcliffe, OP who was Master of the Order until 2001. While I cannot say that I agree with every assertion that Radcliffe makes, I see his work a good example of strong moral commitment to face life’s most difficult questions honestly. Also, I discovered that sentiment against Radcliffe’s point of departure runs strong. It serves as a good example of the rift that I mentioned above.
Regardless of where we consider ourselves to be ideologically, for our faith to be more than a blindly regimented, and even Pharisaical, following of religion we must meet life head on. Another way of saying this is that we meet people where they are without negative judgment. Moreover, we must meet ourselves in the same way. To do so is to accept the honesty that conversion requires.
We also must be ready to meet difficult situations in the same way. While I do not believe in or endorse what has come to be called “situational ethics,” we do well to keep in mind that situations are meaningless without the presence of human beings within them. It is the human experience that we focus on, and to which we lovingly apply the guidance of moral prescription.
Something that I have learned from Evangelicals, and that I have grown to appreciate, is the value of self-examination in terms of one’s personal relationship with God. As Catholics we are good at making an examination of conscience, but in focusing on our particular sins only we may overlook the importance of the personal relationship—how well we know Jesus.
As part of an honest end-of-the-day reflection we must address the question of personal relationship. However, in a more catholic sense, the question cannot consider only the quality of our relationship with Jesus but it must address how we relate to the rest of the human family in terms of our common journey. It is our humanity that makes us one, and as Christ ascended to heaven in his humanity we also consider that human relationship must bear heavily in our consideration of our moral responsibility.
As we grow and as our faith matures, and as we engage individuals and the world in relationship, we come to understand the difficulty in finding a clearly delineated world where the black and white notions of right and wrong exist. To surpass the moral development or blindness of the Pharisees we must understand right relationship as the most important thing. In the just relationship we ecounter others in fairness, mercy, honesty, and respect; in it we also discover the path to transcendence, and we learn to clearly see the most important thing.
My cousin Eddie once said with a snigger, "Sheesh. We only gather as family in the bad times." That was before the fam and I showed up to greet our unmet half-cousin over at Ed's house. An entire afternoon bbq'ing, swimming, talking, visiting, welcoming at last the illegitimate son of our uncle..and his family. I dunno, does it get any better than that? :-) And that was before we gathered with Ed when he most might've wanted the fam near. The kids and I came to the graveyard while his mom, my mom's nemesis, was buried. Little did I guess when I first knew I'd go, that my other cousin, his brother Tom, would be burying the ashes of his teen son that day, too.. Ed invited us back to the house after, and of course I got lost, but it was just as well, because daughter going far away to college asked me if her dad was dying, and I foolishly did not say, "Of course not." She lost it, and so, we went home. Well, Ed was mostly right, and that's sad.. but in our graveyard hugs, we were truly one, and it's better than nothing. I don't think this is what you were getting at, but this is what it triggered. Just to say that it doesn't have to be nothing.
Posted by: Gypsy | June 06, 2007 at 06:01 PM
I don't think this is what you were getting at...
Actually, it was a big part of what I was thinking. I just didn't get around to saying it.
Posted by: Deacon DW | June 06, 2007 at 06:09 PM
From time to time, one reads something in the Catholic blogosphere which puts one's heart at peace. I have just read one such post here. Merci, dd.
Posted by: Gabrielle | June 07, 2007 at 08:48 AM