What am I doing?
Sunday I decided to go to the 7:00 AM Mass in Concepción.
After Mass I went to a nearby village to see what they were doing in their
Celebrations of the Word and to make sure the elect – the former catechumens –
were there for the first scrutiny.
The village is a bit disorganized but there were three young
people who, God willing, will be baptized in the Easter Vigil. I led the
Scrutinies since the catechist was not ready.
What struck me, though, is that I recognized one of the
catechumens. This village was one of the first I visited in 2007 0r 2008 and where I stayed for
several days. I remember being in the church the first day, waiting for people. A number of
kids came in the church and were sitting and talking with me. But this one kid,
about six, took up the Liturgy of the Hours book I had and began to read it.
I was impressed. I am now happy to see that he will be soon baptized.
He is from a poor family. Yet despite this, he is in eighth
grade in the school up the hill from his village, probably a 30 minute walk. He asked me for some money
for something he needed in school. I talked with him about this and he will try
another option (though the mayor’s office); if that doesn’t work, I asked him to
have his teacher write me a note.
Last Saturday, we had the first assembly of the new candidates
for communion ministry. Nineteen showed up and the current communion ministers
explained to them the aspects of their formation – formation in the liturgy,
especially the Mass; formation and practice of pastoral care of the sick
(including visits to the sick with current communion minsters); formation in
prayer and a Eucharistic spirituality (including accompanying the communion
ministers during Holy Week visits to the communities and in the days of prayer
held in all the sectors every two months). It was a good day.
Friday, I had gone to Santa Rosa de Copán because one of my
tires was severely worn. I could see the metal! So I went in and bought two new
tires. On the way home I stopped at a supermarket to get a few things and ran
into one of the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters. She told me where the others were.
I found one there and we went and saw the others. As always, it is a real
blessing to have these sisters as friends. They are a real support –
spiritually and otherwise (especially when Nancy makes cookies and other sweets
with lots of dark chocolate.
Wednesday, I had worked with about 65 people from the
villages in workshop to prepare for Holy Week. Many of the villages are so far
away that they cannot get to the main church for Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
Thus they prepare Celebrations of the Word in their communities. Padre German
had asked me to do a workshop again this year, so that there is some
consistency among the celebrations and so that we avoid some very unusual
practices which I’ve seen in the past.
In a number of places on Holy Thursday they used to have
reenactments of the Last Supper as part of the service. This included having
twelve men (whose feet would be washed) at a table where they would drink
Coca-Cola and eat crackers. I realize the intention was good – but it really
struck me as being more “drama” than worship.
I specifically addressed one Holy Thursday practice which I
witnessed even last year. Twelve men were chosen for the washing of the feet
and were given name tags of the apostles. In some places they had to
be men who could receive communion. I shared with them the recent message from
Pope Francis that those chosen for the foot-washing could include women,
children, and old people as well as men. I also encouraged them not to name the
persons after an apostle since this isn’t a drama or a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet.
It is a sacramental – a sign of the presence of God and of God’s call for us to
serve, washing each others’ feet.
After all this, and in light of sunny warmer weather, I had
hoped to spend today washing clothes, cleaning the house, and working on the
parish Stations of the Cross for March 18. Yet I got a phone call about 10 am
asking if I was going to the funeral Mass for a woman from Montaña Adentro who
died the day before. I knew the woman had died since her nephew who a taking
care of her (and his grandmother) noted this on his Facebook page. (Yes,
Facebook has made it to the villages). I decided to go with Elsa and two other
women from Plan Grande who are cousins of the woman who died.
The Mass didn’t start until noon (even though it was
scheduled for 11 am.) I spent part of the time showing one of the sisters where
to find the readings and the prayers in the Missal and Lectionary. I will work
with her on preparing for Holy Week.
I also spoke with Padre German who shared that the woman had
suffered for almost 13 years, much of it bed-ridden. Also, about two years ago
her husband was killed in cold blood. I had met Candida Natalia a few months
back when I visited the village and brought her and her mother communion.
I assisted at the Mass and then
went with the family and friends to the cemetery. It is not the general custom
of priests here to go to the cemetery – partly because of the number of
funerals, partly because they often walk to the cemetery.
It has not been the custom,
either, for the delegates of the Word or communion ministers to go to the
gravesite to pray. At times the family brings holy water to sprinkle in the
grave. But we will begin the practice of praying at the gravesite this year
since Padre German and I see it as a very important way to show the mercy and
compassion of God.
So I went to the gravesite. I was surprised to see that they had holy
water. I used some of the ritual prayers, which I found so consoling when my
father and my mother were buried. Then I poured holy water in the form of a
cross on the casket and asked family members to also do it. They then asked me
about holy water in the grave. I did it explaining that only a priest or deacon
could liturgically bless a grave.
It was for me a moving morning and
early afternoon.
I got home about 3:30, in time to wash the rest of the
clothes and take down the clothes that had dried. The second batch of clothes
still needs to dry.
Tomorrow, I’ll go to Santa Rosa for my regular three month
medical check up; I need to watch cholesterol and blood pressure. Nothing
serious, but it’s good to be on top of health matters.
The rest of the week I’ll try to do some visits to
communities, preferably with Padre German for Mass. I’ll also work on the
Stations for March 18 as well as a for a meeting of youth group leaders on
Sunday.
Next week I’ll be attending the retreat for clergy of the
diocese – even though I’m not yet a cleric.
What I have written above is only part of my life here. I’m also in
contact with a small coffee association. I just got word that St. Thomas
Aquinas parish in Ames will probably purchase 3000 pounds of their coffee this
year – at a price that is much better than the 60¢ per pound that they are
getting for unprocessed coffee.
Please don’t think
that I am super busy – I have plenty of time to read and spend all too much
time on the computer.
Why am I sharing all these details? Mostly so people can
know a bit of what I am doing. But also to help me look at what I do.
Sunday afternoon I sat down and read three essays by Karl
Rahner on the diaconate in the US Catholic Bishops Conference’s e-book Foundations
for the Renewal of the Diaconate, articles written about the time
the Second Vatican Council proposed the diaconate as permanent. I was taken
aback at how much his ideas reflect some of my initial thoughts on the
diaconate. Rahner's insights take on new meaning as I look at how I serve here in the parish,.
For Rahner, to simplify, the diaconate as "office" was already being
practiced in the church as an office, through non-ordained members of the Church. There are innumerable people serving as catechists, serving the poor.
It is certainly true that in the
Latin Church only sacramentally ordained deacons possess the powers of
administering solemn baptism and of distributing holy communion in the ordinary
course of events. But it would be arbitrary and objectively unjustified to
conceive these two powers as the real nature of the diaconate, as if this
nature were present only when these powers are present. These two powers do not
have any essential superiority over any others, if only because no one can
dispute the fact that the Church could, if she wished, confer these two powers
even without the sacramental ordination. The remaining duties of proclaiming
God’s word; of fulfilling important administrative functions as auxiliary
organs of the bishop; of teaching Christian doctrine to the rising generation;
duties of catechesis of adults; marriage instructions; even—in exceptional
cases—of looking after a parish that is without a priest; duties of directing
Christian organizations and clubs; and so forth, all these are certainly
factors just as important in extent and depth for the total office and
commission of the Church as are the specifically liturgical functions, which
one may not indeed exclude from the basic elements of the office of deacon… (p.
152)
He proposed that
Those individuals ought to be put
forward for ordination who have already de facto acquired sufficient formation
and experience in the Church’s work, and who are already performing the
official functions of deacons. (p. 189)
Thus the ordained deacon, or the one who receives the “grace
of the office,” can make the whole church more aware of its diaconal calling
and of those who serve in diaconal offices.
…these pastoral reasons for the
office, even where the office itself already exists, are also reasons for the
opportuneness of the restoration of the sacramental transmission of the office,
and this precisely because a sacramental transmission of office (as distinct
from a nonsacramental transmission) can make the faithful more aware of the
significance of the office itself, and can increase the attraction,
propagation, and appreciation of the office itself for and among the faithful. (p. 154)
I share these words of Rahner as I look at what I’ve been
doing – not just in the past week, but in the past eight and a half years here
in Honduras. In some ways I’ve been graced with the opportunity to serve in the
office of deacon, without being ordained. If I should be ordained (possibly this coming June or July), I
pray that the grace of the office may help me better serve God and God’s people
here. For, as I understand it, that is part of the reason for ordaining a deacon.
Any conferment of office by the
Church and in her, therefore, always also constitutes the offering and the
promise of that grace which alone really makes the fulfillment of this office
an ecclesiastical fulfillment in the full sense. Any such “grace of office,”
therefore, is given precisely in order that the individual holder of the office
may fulfill his ministry for the other members of the Church in accordance with
its true nature. It “sanctifies” the holder of the office precisely inasmuch as
it equips him not to seek his own sanctification in an “egoistical” manner, but
rather, by directing his gaze away from himself and forgetting himself, to
serve his neighbor in the Church.
…this grace of office is not
something that takes place solely at that particular point in time when the
office is sacramentally conferred and actually constitutes that point, but
rather implies the promise of God to support with his grace the whole conduct
of office on the part of the ordained individual in his life, a promise which,
therefore, is constantly achieving fresh actualization in the life of the
deacon. (p. 208)
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