Donna M. Cole

What if?

As we continue to explore the question “What is church?” it is important to listen for the many voices offering perspective. Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester, N.Y., in speaking of pastoral challenges, asserts that it is crucial that we not mistake our own life experience for the fullness of truth. He stresses that it is necessary to be always open to the possibilities offered by a broader reality than that presented by what seems comfortable and right in our own lives. He says,

I believe that the Church, in the documents of Vatican Council II, and in the post-conciliar documents, called us to this very thing. Through baptism, we rightly claim the universal call to holiness, to constant growth in the Lord. Through baptism, the Church affirms in each of us a capacity to serve in the name of the Lord. We need to constantly challenge the limits of our own experience—our own view of reality. We need to keep asking, “Is there another way to look at this issue? Do we need to take other steps in order to address the problems before us or to assist us in encountering the fullness of the Lord? What does the Church ask or require of us?” I have to say that I am really challenged in terms of trying to understand people who want nothing to change, when life assures us over and over that everything changes. Life is measured, even, in terms of change and growth. (Forward in Hope: Saying AMEN to Lay Ministry[Ave Maria, 2009], 25)

At this moment in time, when it seems that many want to put an end to change, there are more than a few issues begging a different approach. Father Michael G. Ryan’s “What if?” regarding the impending implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal is one such approach:

What if we, the parish priests of this country who will be charged with the implementation, were to find our voice and tell our bishops that we want to help them avert an almost certain fiasco? What if we told them that we think it unwise to implement these changes until our people have been consulted in an adult manner that truly honors their intelligence and their baptismal birthright? What if we just said, ‘Wait, not until our people are ready for the new translations, but until the translations are ready for our people?’” (America[Dec. 14, 2009]; see “Sharings,” page 16 in this issue, for a reflection on that).

Many of our women religious, offended and perplexed by the demands of the apostolic visitation, in an unprecedented moment of solidarity, have also said “What if?” What if we just continue to be who we say we are, ministering and witnessing in the way we have professed, and send to Rome, instead of the intrusive material demanded, the documentation of that witness, as our constitutions state? Some communities did just that, and it will be interesting to see what the Vatican makes of it.

This issue of ML also ponders “What if?” We consider new models of church, as Paul Mast compares current church identity to aspects of a dysfunctional family and explores what it would mean to become a community of caregivers. Mary Amore reflects on how we as church are called to live out the commandment to love one another through Eucharist. Aurelie Hagstrom links hospitality as a dimension of spirituality with new ways of thinking about God’s salvific plan. Paul Turner offers a fresh look at church identity focused on who we are as God’s people.

As we contemplate the ways in which we are called to respond to the challenges we face in the church in these turbulent times, some conflict is unavoidable, even among those with the best of intentions. Bishop Clark has thoughts about what this means for worship too: “Perfect compliance is hardly the highest value. The sacraments are for the people. We celebrate them to help the Church be holy, not as an end in themselves. The Church is the People of God, in pilgrimage to more perfect union with our God. We absolutely have to signify this, signify what we honestly and really stand for. We have to keep our hearts where our treasure is” (31–32). He has words of hope for this people of God: “We can be Church and still make decisions that differ — if these help us in achieving the deeper good for which we all strive” (32). What if we really could be that church? ML

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