EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is taken from a series of Lenten homilies written by Bishop Edward K. Braxton in 1988 for seminarians at St. Joseph Seminary in the Archdiocese of New York. In the Catholic Calendars through the end of Lent more this series of homilies will be printed. While they were written with men studying for the priesthood in mind they offer to all important things to think about during this Lent.)
Scripture Readings: Gn. 37: 3-4, 12-13, 17-28
Mt. 21: 33-43, 45-46
“Did you never read in the Scriptures, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure’”?
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the rock opera written by Weber and Rice long before the world famous Jesus Christ Superstar, has attained a secure place of its own in the repertoire on the world stage of popular entertainment. A key reason for this success may not be the music alone. It may be the story itself.
The exotic saga of paternal favoritism, sibling rivalry, envy, murder plots, brother selling brother into slavery, and eventual triumph has a timeless fascination. The drama’s powerful use of paradox and reversal adds to its impact. The one who would be enslaved becomes a ruler in Egypt. The one who would be rejected becomes the cornerstone of the Jewish presence in Egypt that, 400 years later, would break away in the great Exodus.
In the gospel in which Our Lord tells the story of the only son of the vineyard owner, slain by the tenant farmers, Jesus becomes the new Joseph. Just as in Joseph’s case, the great stone that was rejected would become the cornerstone, now, of the New Covenant. Both of these scripture passages turn our attention to the relationship between Christ and the Church.
St. Augustine, whose baptism we are commemorating, occupied himself with reflections on the relationship between Christ and the Church. For a long time he sought to commit himself to Christ while rejecting the Church altogether. He finally realized that this was impossible. As a result the unity between Christ and the Church became a central theme in his writings and his pastoral activities. He saw in Christ and in the Church “the entire summit of authority and the light of reason in that one saving name and in his one Church, recreating and reforming the human race.” (cf. Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on Augustine of Hippo, Origins, p, 286)
In Augustine’s view, Christ and the Church are one single mystical person because Christ is the mediator, redeemer and the head of the Church. Baptism gives us membership in the Church for the simple reason that baptism makes us members of Christ. He is the head and we are the members. He is the vine and we are the branches. This understanding of the intimate relationship between Christ and the Church is one of the most fruitful themes of Augustine’s ecclesiology. And it has very real implications for our own day.
Augustine’s vision of the unity between Christ and the Church influenced his entire pastoral life as a priest and a bishop. In his Apostolic Letter, Pope John Paul II describes Augustine’s pastoral zeal. “In his diocese (of Hippo) which he never left except in case of necessity, he was assiduous in preaching-he preached on Saturday and Sunday and frequently throughout the entire week-in catechesis; in what he called “the bishop’s audience,” which sometimes lasted for an entire day, so that he did not eat; in the care of the poor, in the formation of the clergy; in directing the monks, many of whom were later called to the priesthood and the episcopate.” (cf. Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on Augustine, Origins, p. 290)
He was very devoted to the local church of Hippo, which was a very small diocese by contemporary American standards. It was, however, troubled and very much in need of pastoral attention. He labored on behalf of the African Church, which was torn by divisions between Catholics and Donatists. And he was ever mindful of the universal Church, which was, at the time, disturbed by many heretical movements. Because of his theological vision of the bond between Christ and the Church, he was ever solicitous of the well-being of his people. He became their spiritual companion.
As future parish priests, it will be your vocation to be spiritual companions to those entrusted to you. Like Augustine you are called to be educators in that faith which comes to us from the apostles so that Christ and his Church are never separated. Thomas Merton, whose autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has been likened to a latter-day Confessions, has described the radical nature of the pastoral ministry of education. Speaking from his rich experience as a Trappist monk and mystic, Merton argued that priests should seek to enable their people to become aware of their spiritual freedom at the deepest levels of their beings. Thus, the religious education of the faithful cannot be a mere mechanical indoctrination into an ideology. It is a process that helps them to attain a radical discovery of who they are in the presence of God. It is a dialogue of the soul. And for such a spiritual education, one is not awarded a degree. One graduates from the school of lived Christian faith by rising from the dead.
If you are to be successful as spiritual companions to your people at this intimate level, you must strive for a religious integrity that makes it possible for others to engage your personal spirituality. You must seek to make real progress on your personal paths to the depths of spiritual knowledge. In order to save your faith as ministers in the Church in a way that is truly effective, you must be mindful of the fact that faith is not simply something we do, think and believe, it is a treasure that we receive. It is a radical response to the unconditional gift of love that the Creator has for each of us, a lifelong “yes” to an invitation to go on a divine adventure. Faith is not a theory that exists outside the community of believers, nor can it be adequately understood by the study of psychology, sociology, or even theology. The dynamic reality of faith must be experienced.
This is why your liturgical life in the seminary should play a key role in your formation. This is why worship is so important for the vitality of parish life. Daily Mass and the rites of the liturgical year cannot be a mere routine that is stiffly repeated each time with rubrical correctness. They are not ceremonies that you observe for accuracy with emotional indifference. They must be vital and authentic expressions of your personal and communal faith in Christ as members of his Church. This is so because the liturgy is the most sublime expression of the Christian’s vocation to manifest the union between the Church and Christ.
For every person, the personal appropriation of this living faith is a profound spiritual journey that includes a response to the mystery of God, the acceptance of Christ, commitment to the Church, the effort to live a morally responsible life, and the pursuit of intellectual honesty and integrity. This ongoing process is as real in the pastor as it is in the parishioner.
If you would be faithful to the spirit of Augustine, whose devotion to Christ and the Church overflowed into his daily life, your religious beliefs must not exist at the periphery of your lives. They must sink deep into the roots of your being so as to affect everyday activities.
No seminarian who has truly encountered himself before God, in a dialogue of the soul, easily yields to common patterns of eating too much, smoking cancer causing cigarettes, the abuse of drugs, sexual irresponsibility, drinking too much, family conflicts, and uncharitable attitudes towards other seminarians and faculty members.
If you wish to be the kinds of spiritual companions that the Church of the future urgently needs, you are compelled to face any biases or prejudices that may linger in your hearts. The Church does not need priests in her pulpits who are anti-Jewish, anti-Protestant, anti-Black, anti-Hispanic, anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-rich, or anti-anyone. To the extent that we are, we are dead weight. We are a burden to Christ, the cornerstone. He was not against anyone. He was against sin but He was for all people, the man for others.
Working for the unity of Christ and the Church in your lives cannot always be easy. Like the servants in the vineyard, you may be reviled, made fun of, abused and belittled. Like Joseph, others may plot against you. They may say, “Here comes the dreamer. Let us call him a hypocrite. Let us abandon him to strangers.” They may seek to take your amazing Technicolor dreamcoat of sound Catholic faith and pastoral vision, and destroy it or replace it with fleeting popular opinions.
Remember Augustine and persevere. Do not yield. Your unswerving commitment and loyalty will enhance the Church of the present and the future. While the whole Church rightly labors to make more evident the theology of baptism and to manifest the reality of the priesthood of the faithful by building up the ministry of the laity, the words of Pope Pius XI to seminarians a half century ago, apply to you and all your fellow seminarians around the country.
“Prepare! Prepare yourselves well for the great work to which you have been called. For you are the hope of hope of the Church.”
1 nov 01
