My Reflections
As I review my notes and recall other events of this year, I discover a recurring theme has made its way into my thoughts... endings and beginnings. Change and new life. The paschal mystery. At the German RUB conference the statement was
clear: 'Perhaps the symptoms of dying are really signs of new life!"
This idea was stated or called to mind repeatedly. It reminded me of the conversation I attended this spring at
Emory University, Chandler School of Divinity, sponsored by the Lilly Endowment.
It was one of several being held ato look at the declining numbers
of students in seminaries, divinity schools, and graduate programs in ministry.
The gathering I attended was an ecumenical gathering of graduate ministry professors. As our conversation moved forward, the
language I heard us using was the paschal mystery.
Participants in both places spoke of changing times, and reading the
signs of the times: for example, young adults who are
more tolerant of differences and less open to divisions. Germany is experiencing change just as we are in the US, and in other places as well, closing
or merging large numbers of parishes. The number of clergy there are declining as they are in the U.S., and some mentioned this as a world-wide
phenomenon. The percentage of Catholics
who regularly attend Mass in Germany is far smaller than the all-too-low percentage
in the US.
One of the hoped for results of Vatican II has been the recognition
and involvement of the laity in the life of the church. This was the theme of the RUB
conference. Perhaps the symptoms of
dying really are signs of new life... the paschal mystery. However, as I shared in the Lilly conversation, resurrection is not
resuscitation. Whatever the Spirit is
calling the Church too will not look the same. The apostles did not recognize
the risen Christ at first. The didn’t
see the signs of new life in the symptoms of dying.
However the future unfolds, I believe it is in the passion of the living - those on the road to Eammaus discovering Jesus in the breaking of the bread, - that we will find our way forward. We must let go of the past - as Jesus asked Mary when she discovered him in the garden following the resurrection - knowing that we are assured of a future full of hope.
