It has been four years since I last posted here. And four years later I find myself returning from yet another visit to Germany, meeting some of the same wonderful people; a few new ones; traveling with different companions. This trip was with Villanova's Center for Church Management.
But not only was I in the same location. I found myself talking about the same things. I opened my sharing with the same remark quoted below about new life. I don't know whether I am disturbed that seemingly so little has changed in four years, or whether I am realizing we are deeper into the shift.
In these times - these changing, shifting times - the gathering began with people sharing what was on their minds. There was talk of a shift. I have been naming it an axial shift for a while now. Another person called it an epochal shift. What does that even mean? The ending of an era? A whole epoch? Another used the word "iconoclast" - the breaking up the old idols. Another talked of how the legal system is collapsing.
An economist called us to look at leadership as sacramental -- making manifest what is. Is this what we are called to do? I shared a quote from Yves Congar who, after Vatican II called us to remember our God is a God of surprises. Congar went on to say that we dare not think that God has run out of surprises. Can we be open to the possibility that this shift is exactly that?
So maybe things are not as they were four years ago. For these ten people from such different backgrounds to name what they are seeing is perhaps evidence that the shift is, in fact, well under way. Perhaps indeed the dying pains are birth pangs. And maybe instead of being hospice workers we can become midwives.
We were asked to think about where we are going. Is there a compelling vision for the future? Perhaps it is too soon to know what that is going to be like. Perhaps it is enough to trust in the birthing process. A new epoch is coming.
