The Minister as Mystagogue and Prophet

The Diocese of Green BayTEAM Days

Richard R. Gaillardetz, Ph.D.Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic StudiesUniversity of Toledo

I. Living and Ministering in a “World of Grace”

A. Debunking God as “Zeus”

GOD

WORLD

I. Living and Ministering in a “World of Grace”

B. Recovering a Trinitarian Vision of God and World

DworldG

Pope Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est

If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me (DCE, 18).

Johannine Love Mysticism

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love...No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.....God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him....If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother or sister, they are a liar; for whoever does not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love their brother or sister (I John 4: 7-8, 12, 17, 20).

I. Living and Ministering in a “World of Grace”

C. The Minister as Mystagogue

A. Debunking God as Zeus

B. Recovering a Trinitarian Vision of God and World

Elisabeth Barrett Browning

Earth's crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes--The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries

And daub their natural faces unawareMore and more from the first similitude…

If a man could feel,Not one day, in the artist's ecstasy,

But everyday, feast, fast, or working-day,The spiritual significance burn through

The hieroglyphic of material shows,Henceforward he would paint the globe with wings,

And reverence fish and fowl, the bull, the tree,And even his very body as a man...

II. Living and Ministering in a World Wounded by Sin

A. The Human Condition: Sin and Grace1. Sin Violates the Divine Oikonomia2. Human Brokenness Goes Beyond Sin

B. The Minister as Prophet1. Understanding Our Broken Condition2. Understanding Our Culture3. Naming the Obstacles to Conversion

The Neurotic Bias The Egoistic Bias The Group Bias The “Common Sense” Bias

Conclusion: Practicing Mystagogy and Prophecy through a

Spirituality of Gift

Robert Barron:

The proper starting point for any healthy Christian theological anthropology is a clear sense of the togetherness of original sin and likeness unto God, for without the first, metanoia is unnecessary, and without the second, it is impossible.