Tuesday 17 September, 2013

Bishops & Priests of the Province of New Orleans Convocation

New Orleans, Louisiana

Wilton D. Gregory,Archbishop of Atlanta

The Alpha & Omega of Our Lives

My Dear Brothers,

I am deeply flattered to have been invited to be

with you if only for a brief part at the beginning

of your time together as Priests and Bishops of

the Province of New Orleans. I deemed it a

great joy to have been asked to share these re-

marks with you regarding the importance of our

Church’s past in our mission as a community of

faith and as a vitally significant component of

our ministry as Ordained Ministers of the

Gospel. I apologize that my time with you must

be so brief – but my own Presbyteral Council

meets tomorrow morning and I don’t want them

to sell the ranch – at least – not without me!

In light of this current Year of Faith, which

Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI introduced, to

commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the open-

ing of the Second Vatican Council, I believe that

2013 has provided all of us with abundant pos-

sibilities to ponder some of the numerous sig-

Page | 2

nificant world events that have occurred within

that half-century time frame. I opted to use the

word ponder since it’s the word that we most

frequently hear used when describing Mary’s

reflective stance during those events surround-

ing Jesus’ birth and the finding of the adolescent

Christ in the Temple when He spoke to His par-

ents about His mission. She thought carefully

about what these events and predictions would

mean both for Him and for Her. To ponder

something implies that we believe that God may

be at work in the events and moments of our

past and for our future.

Page | 3

Many of our perspectives regarding the issues

that we currently wrestle with today would then

have been vastly different 50 years ago and di-

rectly impacted by the Second Vatican Council,

which was still in its very early stages. At that

moment in time whenever Catholic Bishops and

Priests might have managed to meet together

as we are today now more than 50 years later,

there would probably have been a noticeable

mood of euphoria, felt throughout the Church,

of excitement, curiosity, and perhaps even jubi-

lation. We would then undoubtedly have been

much more formally attired than we may be to-

day and probably we would not have mingled so

Page | 4

easily or casually together. Moreover, this new

informality is indeed a very welcome change as

it now draws priests and bishops together in a

treasured friendship and important relationship

that enriches all of us.

The world itself would have been massively dif-

ferent fifty years ago. The historic American

Civil Rights Movement was also then in high

gear at that time and the races were still rou-

tinely and in some places formally separated

from each other. Most of us might not have

been very attentive to the mobility needs of

those people among us with disabilities; the

Page | 5

long-lasting International Cold War was then

heating up. For the most part there would not

have been any feminist movement to speak of

and few people would have been so concerned

about public safety at that moment as we obvi-

ously are today because of the seemingly end-

less occasions of vicious public violence that

erupt and have claimed far too many innocent

lives. World events would not have been as

omnipresent in all of our lives as they are today

thanks to cyberspace and the Internet.

Fifty years ago, unlike today, we would have re-

ceived most of our information on the evening

news or with the morning newspaper. The

Page | 6

price of gas was very cheap especially by cur-

rent standards, media entertainment was gen-

erally PG, and Catholic priests as indeed reli-

gious leaders in general were almost univer-

sally admired and widely respected. We each

probably have cherished memories of priests

from our youth who now loom large as our idols

if not the instruments of our own vocations.

They remain as a treasured part of our heart’s

history and their good examples continue to

give an idyllic character to that past that re-

mains a spiritual and personal treasure from

our youth. As Archie and Edith would eventually

croon together – “those were the days!”

Page | 7

Within the past month, our nation has observed

the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washing-

ton and the exquisite sermon that Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr. preached to the people of this

nation on that epic occasion. In recalling that

momentous event from a half-century ago,

many commentators invited us to reflect on how

life has changed for our nation and our world.

Some observers have chosen to see the glass as

half-empty while others have seen it as half-full.

It all depends upon one’s perspective on history.

Much of that perspective depends upon where

one might reside on the racial divide of our na-

tion. Certainly, the oppressive structures that

Page | 8

kept all of us – Black and White People – either

enslaved in our privileged state or in our social

condition have changed. Yet we also must con-

fess that more must still be done since oppres-

sive tyranny and unbridled privilege always

make for a noxious twosome.

Very few of us however would honestly ever se-

riously choose to return to those bygone days in

spite of the fact that we all do seem to like to

reminisce about them and the retrospective

carefree climate that we might imagine that

they characterized. There is something quite

charming and intriguing about recalling things

Page | 9

from the past. We all have the very human ten-

dency to embellish the good things from yester-

year and routinely to diminish the unpleasant

things that were also present. We might all

tend to imagine some past era as something of

a golden age – whether one such a time ever ac-

tually existed or not. However, we are men

who are essentially directed toward tomorrow

even as we must honestly understand, embrace,

and value the gifts of yesterday.

One of my very favorite liturgical prayers is the

one that we now offer in English during the

blessing of the Easter candle at the Vigil Mass

Page | 10

where we pray: Christ yesterday and today, the

beginning and the end, the alpha and the

omega, to Him belong all times and the sea-

sons. This blessing prayer references a title

from the Book of Revelation the Church pro-

claims as we begin the great paschal ceremony

that assures us of Christ’s dominion over all

times – times from the past, our own times with

all of their many problems, and the times that

are yet to come with their still unknown chal-

lenges. There are no moments when Jesus

Christ is not in control of creation and over

which He does not have ultimate authority.

Page | 11

Even in our darkest hours – and there have

been more than a few of them in recent years,

the Lord Jesus never loses His control over His

Church or abandons us. Great saints whose

witness and fidelity never languished have also

accompanied every era of suffering that the

Church has endured or conflicts in which she

might have been engaged.

The great and life-giving paschal mystery of the

Lord has mastered every moment in our history

and managed to overcome every adversity and

every human blunder – including those for

which we are responsible in our own times.

Page | 12

Furthermore, our futures are all secure in Him

who is Lord of every moment and season.

This is constantly a very important prayer for

our entire Church but perhaps especially for

those of us as priests and bishops as in today’s

environment where we might easily be given

over to believing that the best times for the

Catholic Priesthood may have already occurred

for us and for the ministry that we share. This

is perhaps the unarticulated suggestion of those

who believe that if we could just turn back the

clock to another moment in time when life

seemed to have been more secure and certain,

Page | 13

more predictable and controllable that such an

adjustment would solve all of our problems and

concerns today. There is no turning back in

search of a past sanctuary – for those of us who

believe in Christ Jesus there is only preparing to

live today with courage and to look forward in

hope to tomorrow – even as we praise God for

the past that in fact has prepared us for today

and for tomorrow.

Several months ago I received a stinging retort

to one of my bi-weekly columns in our Arch-

diocesan newspaper in which I had extolled the

work of the Second Vatican Council. The writer

Page | 14

took harsh exception to my very positive com-

ments about the Council and suggested that the

problems that we now face within the Church

are directly related to the council and its eccle-

sial reforms. The author insinuated in the text

that if the Second Vatican Council had not

taken place and initiated so many sweeping and

destructive changes in the Church that the diffi-

culties that we currently face might well not

have occurred. The letter suggested that the

Second Vatican Council itself was the specific

cause of our ecclesial unrest as though all the

rest of the world would simply have stood still –

save for the Second Vatican Council. Viewing

Page | 15

and judging the past in light of the present is al-

ways a very risky undertaking.

Imagine with me for a moment what our eccle-

sial life might be like today had the Second Vat-

ican Council and its sanctioned reforms not

have taken place. The Church’s liturgical life

would be as it was in the 1950’s, our ecumeni-

cal and interfaith encounters and dialogues

with people of other religious traditions would

have to be reset, our penitential practices

would be reestablished as they were a genera-

tion ago. What impact would that now have on

our lives and the life of the world around us?

Page | 16

Would it even be possible to revert to such cus-

toms and practices that once identified and

classified us? Would it not be more similar to

those often popularly staged reenactments of

famous moments in history that do help to re-

mind all of us of a past that is clearly important

to remember but that does no longer quite fit

the world in which we live today? Even those

folks who enjoy recreating historic moments

from the past must eventually take off the

replica costumes, set aside the props, and re-

turn to the world of today.

Page | 17

While I did not respond to the author of that

critical letter presuming that what was sent to

me was more of a cathartic exercise rather than

a sincere desire for amenable dialogue – we

have all received many such communications

before – I am certain. Nevertheless, the letter

did prompt me to think seriously and quite of-

ten since receiving it, about what our Church

would be like today if the Second Vatican Coun-

cil in fact had never occurred. Rather than

maintaining its once perceived secure and

steadfast equilibrium, I believe that our Church

would now be hopelessly anachronistic – even

more so than many people consider us to be al-

Page | 18

ready. The world simply would not have paused

in its development simply because the Second

Vatican Council would not have taken place.

The societal, moral, political, and technological

changes would not have been shelved if the

Second Vatican Council were not to have oc-

curred. The Second Vatican Council in fact was

intended to help to prepare us to face and to re-

spond to the challenges that were just around

the corner and that have now come to ultimate

fruition.

The post-conciliar Church truthfully has faced

lots of serious difficulties many of which still do

Page | 19

need to be addressed. Our catechetical efforts

have genuinely faltered to the point where we

now find ourselves confronting a second – if not

approaching a third generation of Catholics

who may know little or nothing about their own

faith heritage. We must also do a better job at

helping our people understand the connection

that must exist between the doctrines of the

Church to our social teaching. These indispens-

able and symbiotic dimensions of Church life

are not “either/or” propositions for Catholics –

although they are sometimes described as such.

Page | 20

One of the first consequences of the Civil Rights

Movement was the enthusiastic proliferation of

serious studies of the history and the heritage

of people of Color in this nation. Where did we

come from? What are the gifts that we brought

with us and now have to share with others? We

African-Americans were all quite eager to dis-

cover the uniqueness of our backgrounds as

this knowledge and history had been denied to

us and to our ancestors as a result of the op-

pressive consequence of slavery and its after-

math.

Page | 21

There quickly developed many television pro-

grams like Black in America, and books like Be-

fore the Mayflower and Roots, and myriad col-

lege and university courses that delved into

African history. African-Americans and others

were very excited to recapture our history as a

first step toward restoring our dignity and fur-

thering our place in this multi-cultured nation

of ours. This interest in the past was an impor-

tant step toward securing a more hopeful and

informed future.

Many Catholics today unfortunately simply

know far too little about the legacy of our

Page | 22

Church and the teachings of the faith that we

now share. Although cyberspace continues to

make universal experts of any one with a com-

puter, we have not always found thorough and

clear presentations on the Internet that detail

our history – with all of its obvious difficulties

and its triumphs. Recently some efforts at pre-

senting that history and heritage of Catholicism

have been made available and seemingly at-

tracted a great deal of positive feedback – Fa-

ther Robert Barron’s Catholicism and Tom Pe-

terson’s Catholics Come Home are but two ex-

amples. Both of these apologetic sources

present a balanced and positive perspective on

Page | 23

the faith and the heritage of the Catholic

Church. They are professionally done, attrac-

tively made, and intended to introduce or re-in-

troduce people to the Catholic Church. What

adds to their success is that they encounter

people using a medium that is appealing and

effectively used in other venues – televised pro-

ductions readily available in cyberspace. We

have become a society that receives most of its

information electronically and with visual dis-

play and not through books. Whether you like

that development or not, the Church must make

much more effective use of these vehicles of so-

cial communication.

Page | 24

Society in general has developed a keen inter-

est in genealogy. We can find all types of re-

sources on the Internet that claim to be able to

trace our personal origins. Ethnic groups have

long celebrated their heritage with festivals and

celebrations that trumpet where a particular

people originated and how these cultures and

traditions have enriched our world. People

want to log onto sites that will help them dis-

cover where great-great-grandfather came

from, how our family name is related to other

names, what personal legacy we can bring forth

that will link us to others from our cultural or

ethnic community. These searches are in-

Page | 25

tended to discover our pasts so that we can sit-

uate ourselves more accurately in the present

moment. Occasionally these searches are in-

tended to help us better understand our physi-

cal and medical make-up with the practical im-

plications such knowledge brings.

We priests and bishops must also become much

more engaging in the presentation of the faith

of the Church. One of my close priest friends

started a study group in his parish a couple of

years ago – that has now developed into two

different groups – that reads and reflects on The

Catechism of the Catholic Church – not the

Page | 26

abridged version that was published by the

USCCB – but the full text of the catechism. He

told me that many of the people in his parish

are fascinated to read and to reflect with him on

the articulated faith issues that are contained in

the catechism. Folks do want to know about our

faith heritage – not in a sugarcoated or fabri-

cated fashion, but with the real honest truth –

not just the highly publicized historic or con-

temporary scandals, but also with the glory and

the splendor of our Church that belongs to yes-

terday. But why is the past important for us?

The past is essential for us because it will help

Page | 27

us to live faithfully today and to prepare for to-

morrow.

It might seem surprising to some people, but

there is an authentic interest on the part of lots

of our folks to understand and appreciate our

Catholic faith more perfectly. We just need to

develop better delivery systems to quench that

desire. My dear brothers, the 12-minute Sun-

day homily is usually not the moment for such

necessary catechesis. The homily is our weekly

opportunity for spiritual inspiration – certainly

not devoid of information – but a resource for

our people for living out the faith that the

Page | 28

Liturgy makes sacramental. The liturgical

homily is the occasion when we must bring to-

gether in a harmonious unity the Word of God,

the ordinary lives of our people, and their hopes

for living out their faith in the week that lies

ahead.

Our Catholic people, no less than all of us, come

together each Sunday to plan their lives for the

next week. They understand that the future –

even the relatively immediate future of the next

seven days – needs preparation so as not to

catch them or any of us unprepared. The Sun-

day assembly is filled with folks who intend to

Page | 29

do better next week than they may have done

last week. It is an assembly of believers who re-

ally wants to take their faith seriously into the

week that lies just ahead. We homilists are

commissioned to become their spiritual coaches

to whom they regularly turn to with reasonable

expectations and high hopes that we can indeed

prepare them to perform better in the game of

life. Sunday worship is filled with folks who be-

lieve in tomorrow and they ask us to help them

to get there. One sure way that we can help,

them prepare for tomorrow is to help them gain

a healthy and a balanced understanding of the

yesterdays of the Church. Like good coaches,

Page | 30

we help them remember where they came from

even as we challenge them to see the road that

lies ahead for them and for us. If we are to be-

come successful faith coaches, we need to find

a chalkboard that will allow us to examine the

plays and the strategies that will bring success

to our players.

We Catholics believe that God’s Revelation ar-

rives for us through a dual but always unified

source of Scripture and Apostolic Tradition.

Dei Verbum the Dogmatic Constitution of the

Second Vatican Council on Divine Revelation is

the shortest of all of the four dogmatic constitu-

Page | 31

tions from the Second Vatican Council and yet

one of the most significant of the council docu-

ments as it explains how the faith is dependent

upon our sacred heritage and the very Word of

God. This council document enshrines our

Apostolic Tradition always combined with Sa-

cred Scripture as the vehicle through which

God reveals Himself to us. God’s Voice echoes

throughout our Tradition. Our history and her-

itage are not insignificant nor can any of us af-

ford to neglect this sacred legacy. We find God

Himself in our traditions and in our yesterdays.

However, the Church Universal places in a

unique position of faith the Apostolic Tradition

Page | 32

the gift of heritage that belongs to the ages.

The tradition that the Church enshrines is far

more than the mere customs and practices of a

culture or people – as important and cherished

as they may be. When the Church holds up Tra-

dition as a source of God’s Revelation of Self,

she refers to that Tradition which links us to the

Apostolic age and continues throughout each

generation and era. It is that meaning of Tradi-

tion that is most sacred and timeless.

Nevertheless, we are not limited to our yester-

days and in our heart of hearts, we must always

anticipate that the best is yet to come – cer-

Page | 33

tainly, this will be found in the fullness of God’s

Kingdom, but even in the immediate tomorrows

that lie ahead for all of us. It is that hope that

has been so manifest in the election of Pope

Francis whose simplicity and humility have al-

ready won the hearts of people throughout the

world. Even our cynics – of which there is no

shortage – seem to take heart in the witness of

this gentle and approachable man. Francis

dares to challenge those of us who are priests

and bishops to raise our eyes and see the prom-

ise of tomorrow. He also demands that we lift

up the poor and the neglected in our midst

Page | 34

above all because they are our sisters and

brothers made so in Christ.

The Holy Father has invited all of us to risk hop-

ing in a tomorrow that is grounded in the reali-

ties of today and yesterday but always open to

God’s grace-filled tomorrow. His emphasis on

the poor is also a reminder that they are never

to be treated as collateral damage in the wake

of economic progress. His unassuming charac-

ter is a very important reminder to all of us as

pastors that we can be most effective when we

station ourselves in the very midst of our peo-

ple.

Page | 35

We priests must be willing to be spiritual an-

chors for the communities that we serve – con-

stantly helping our people to be rooted ade-

quately in our Catholic faith heritage, but al-

ways open to tomorrow with its many graces

and the obvious challenges that will inevitably

confront us. We do this not by merely focusing

on things from yesterday and pretending that

former times were perfect; neither can we sim-

ply neglect or deny our heritage and faith

legacy and disengage ourselves from the trea-

sures and triumphs of our inheritance. We

must each become the consummate realists in

the world of today who always remind our folks

Page | 36

of our hope for tomorrow and assure them that

the future is already secure in Christ. Christ

yesterday and today, the beginning and the

end, the alpha and the omega, to Him belong all

times and the seasons. Amen.

Page | 37