Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time


Readings for Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

Commentary:

Reading 1 Amos 5:14-15, 21-24

The Prophet continues his pronouncement of “Woes to Israel” with what is called the Third Word. “The Lord condemns, not ritual worship in itself, but the cult whose exterior rites and solemnity have no relation to interior morality and justice. The Israelites falsely worshiped him as neighboring nations adored Baal or Chamos, deities which were thought to protect their respective peoples against their enemies in return for ritual observances, without any relation to right conduct.”
[3]

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 50:7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16bc-17
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Psalm 50 is a “covenant lawsuit”, that is a lament against those who have violated God’s law and the covenant made with Him upon which it was based. Echoing the charges leveled against Israel by the Prophet Amos (Am 5:14ff) the psalmist condemns empty ritual and sacrifice not reflective of external actions and internal faith.

Gospel Matthew 8:28-34

Jesus comes to a region about five miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee and encounters the two demoniacs (people taken over by demons). He drives them out into a herd of swine (the symbolism here for the Jewish audience would be powerful as swine were unclean animals and even they preferred death to the presence of evil.). The gentle population, probably very superstitious, was afraid of Christ’s power over evil and did not want any more damage as a result of his presence.

Reflection:

Many years ago, in the late 1980’s, a rather progressive pastor came to a parish that had a significant vocal minority of staunch traditionalists (claiming affiliation to Catholics United For the Faith or CUFF). The pastor walked carefully as he began to implement changes that would bring the liturgical worship in the parish to the norms of the post-Vatican II Church. The liturgy became more vibrant and the parish grew as it attracted new members.

Then the pastor did something rather progressive. You see, he had gone to Rome with a group from the parish and it was noted that in many of the parishes in Rome, young ladies were given the opportunity to serve as Acolytes (altar servers or the even older “Altar Boys” designation). The pastor thought that if it was OK in Rome, he would provide that opportunity for young ladies at his parish. After all, even though there was a school attached to the parish, he was having a difficult time finding servers for all the Masses.

To put numbers into perspective, the parish had about twelve hundred families at the time, not a small parish. Father put the announcement in the parish bulletin and a dozen or so young ladies immediately signed up. Father also got a number of angry letters from several members of CUFF indicating that it was simply not right to “profane” the liturgy by allowing this departure from the traditional “boys only” participation in the role of Acolyte.

The pastor had expected some resistance but assumed that once the initial novelty wore off, the angry parishioners would be silenced and the parish would resume its happy growth trend. For the most part this was true. However one small group found this break with tradition so offensive that they took it upon themselves to attempt to intimidate the new female volunteers and their families to get them to withdraw their offer of service. To this end they wrote letters to the parents of the young ladies who had volunteered. They explained in these letters that the pastor had over-reached his authority and had trampled on the sacred traditions of the Church and that by allowing their daughters to participate in this fashion they (the parents) were leading their children into mortal sin.

Some of the parents who did not want to confront these vocal zealots had their daughters withdraw. But most went forward. When this attempt to convince the parents failed, a few of the more vocal members of the group decided to take a more disruptive approach. They began to stand at the back of the church before Mass and deride the young ladies saying things like; “Don’t you know you will go to hell for what you are doing.” And “You are committing an offense to God by what you are doing.” Eventually, these parishioners were ordered to either stop what they were doing of to leave the church. Some left and the situation normalized but serious damage had been done. The stain of that controversy set the parish back a couple of years. The episode demoralized the young pastor who became much less open to introducing change.

If we look at the reading from the Book of the Prophet Amos today, how do we view the situation? We are certain that those who tried to prevent the young ladies from serving thought they were acting in the best interests of the Church. So were the young ladies and their parents who encouraged them to take a more active role in worship. But the results of this schism must have had the Devil dancing on the roof of that church. Was the ritual more important than the commandments? Had tradition become more important that God’s Spirit? It is a question we must always ask when we go forward or back with change. Is it for God’s glory or is it to satisfy some other motive? Sometimes that is a difficult question to answer.

Pax

[1] After Links to Readings Expire
[2] The picture today is “The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus” by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1846
[3] NAB footnote on Amos 5:21

No comments: