Many times, when Catholics use the
phrase "changes in the church," they assume that the only
"changes" that have occurred happened in their lifetimes - probably
at Vatican Council II back in 1962 to 1965! When we think that way, we reveal a
glaring ignorance of church history. To talk about "changes in the
church," you have to go all the way back to the changes agreed on at the
Council of Jerusalem.
The Council of Jerusalem is
generally dated to about 48 AD - roughly15 years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus. That meeting was called to debate whether or not male
Gentiles who were converting to become followers of Jesus were required to be
circumcised - that is to become Jews first! At the time, most followers of
Jesus were Jews by birth. Even converts would have considered the early
Christians as a sect within Judaism. According to scholars, Jewish Christians
affirmed every aspect of the then contemporary Judaism with the addition of the
belief that Jesus was the Messiah. The belief among them would have been that
unless males had undergone Jewish circumcision, they could not be part of God's
Chosen People. A meeting was called to decide whether circumcision for
gentile converts was a requisite for community membership since certain
individuals in the community were teaching that "unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Others
disagreed, making it necessary for an official decision to be made.
There was another council, mentioned
in today's first reading, about whether to consider another "major change in the church." This
time it was about how to deal with the problems of the rapid growth of non-Jewish converts. Here is what
it says in today's reading. "At that time, as the number of disciples
continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their
widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called
together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to
neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you
seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint
to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry
of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community. They
presented seven men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them to serve as deacons.
Not counting these two church
councils, there have been 21 ecumenical councils to deal with changes in the
church. The phrase "changes in the church" is not something that we invented in
our lifetimes. It is something that has been part of the church from the beginning. It's laughable to think that the church was "change
resistant" before Vatican II and that we should go back there and stay there! As Vatican II reminded us, the church is "semper reformanda," "always in need of reform."
What the first reading teaches us
today is this - change is a fact of life and there would be no life without it,
even for the church. Pope Francis said this recently: "Wanting
to go back to the way things were in the past is not Christian. Looking back to
find inspiration is good because “without roots we cannot progress,” he said.
“But to go in reverse is to go back in order to have a form of defense, a
safety measure that saves us from the risk of going forward, the Christian risk
of carrying the faith, the Christian risk of journeying with Jesus Christ.”
The message in today's first reading
comes at a good time. Changes are coming at us faster and faster, making some
people in the church and in our country more and more nervous. Like our first
reading today said, we are again in that place where “no little dissention and
debate has arisen.” Today, we definitely need to know some facts about the process of change and
how to handle those changes as they unwind.
In my estimation, the best
scriptural story to explain what happens during a major cultural shifts, welcomed or
not, is the story of the Exodus. The story of Exodus is the story of people
being called to something new, setting out in excitement at first, being
tempted in discouragement to back out of the process when things got tough, the
decision to keep going and finally arriving at a new level of happiness and
satisfaction. It would be worth it for you to read the whole story at length sometime.
In that story, the People of God are
trapped in slavery in Egypt. They get an opportunity to escape and go to a
country of their own. At first, they were excited and filled with joy thinking
that happiness would be theirs almost immediately. They did not realize that
making a drastic change like that meant they had to personally change and
that such a change would bring them great hardship for a while. In a desert for 40
years, the People of God lose patience and want to go back to their imagined
"good old days" back in Egypt. Moses had to keep the vision of where they
were going alive and keep prodding them to go forward.
The story teaches us that making a
decision to change and setting out is always the easy part - whether its to go
on a diet, to enter a treatment program or to change jobs. That is why so many
people, undergoing difficult changes, often try to “go back to Egypt” when the
“harshness of the desert” gets to be too much. Under the stress that comes with
change, they start yearning for “the good old days” and start telling
themselves that things weren't so bad "back then" compared
to the stress they were
going through right now. Many, during the hardships of change, begin to idealize their old life
and forget about the problems they had "back then."
That story is a template for all
difficult changes we set out to make. (1) Take the example of an abused spouse who
gets a chance to escape her abuser. At first, she is happy to be free at last, but once
away from her abuser, having been stripped of her self-esteem by her abuser,
she begins to get scared of what is ahead of her. She begins to ask herself,
“What if I can’t make it? Where will I live? What if I end up living on the
streets?" Some tough it out and rebuild their lives, but many return to their
abusers because the fear of the unknown becomes scarier than abuse. They
“return to the slavery of Egypt” so to speak. They go back to their abusers
because, as bad as it was, it was not as scary as being "out there" on their own.
(2) Take the example of the person who
is an addict. One day, they finally get up the courage to go to their first
“recovery” meeting. They get excited about the possibility of a better life. At first, they like their recovery program. Then living a sober life
gets to be too hard. It gets worse before it has a chance to get better. They seek relief by going back to alcohol, drugs or serial sexual encounters.
They convince themselves that their old life may have been bad, but it was not
as bad as trying to stay sober.
(3) Take the example of the changes in
the church initiated at Vatican Council II. For many of us,
the control exerted from the very top had become a version of slavery. For me and many of the people who
went through it, Vatican Council II was like “leaving the slavery of Egypt.” Looking back, we
were pretty naïve. It never crossed our minds that we would have to go through
a “desert” and its many years of confusion and disappointment. Now some of our members
want to “go back to Egypt.” They are idealizing the “good old days” and tell
themselves that they were not that bad after all - in fact much better than the
chaos that all the Vatican II changes have brought on! Others of us, refusing to turn
back, are determined to get through the present chaos and push on! Pope
Francis, our modern-day Moses, like the Moses of old, keeps telling us to
"keep going forward and don’t look back!" Like the Moses of old who was cursed by the disgruntled people he led, Pope Francis is being cursed by those who want to “return to Egypt” and rebuild the old pre-Vatican II church! Pope Francis knows that if the Church is to survive, to grow and to nourish the faith of the next generation, it has to
change and it has to adapt just as it always has in the past. If it doesn’t, it is doomed
to become an inbred little cult that will shrink even more into irrelevance.
(4) Our country is going through a similar crisis. The country has been gradually changing for many years now. Most women, minorities and immigrants like the changes and the freedom that the past few years have brought. On the other hand, these changes are forcing others to give up their privileged positions of power and status. Those resisting these changes want to “return to Egypt,” “the way America used to be,” when things were “better!” Better for them, of course! As much as they try to keep our country from changing, they are fighting a losing battle. Women are not going to stand back and shut up! African Americans are not going back to Africa or return to their days of slavery. Immigrants are not about to give up their hopes to experience the “American dream.” Women will lead! Our country will continue to become browner. Immigrants will continue to arrive, one way or another. We are not "going back to Egypt," no matter how uncomfortable this "desert" gets! We need to listen to the Moses-types among us who encourage us to "remain calm and carry on" until we get to that "new day in America" that we are presently struggling to give birth to!
My friends, we are not going through
the pain of dying! We are going through the pain of giving birth! Some of you
here have given birth, and you have told me that when you were going through
it, you thought you were going to die! Big changes are always like that - whether it is serious personal change, changes in our church or changes in our country! We are not dying.
We are again giving birth to something new! When undergoing great change,
we can often get confused about whether the pain we are feeling is the pain of dying or the pain of giving birth! In times like these, it is hard to know which is which!
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