[1]San Domenico School is an independent K-12 Catholic school in the San Francisco Bay area, founded in 1850. In a state that is becoming increasingly less tolerant of religion, San Domenico is making some big changes, they are removing statues of Jesus, Mary and others of a religious nature from their campus. In spite of a long-standing tradition as a faith-based institution, the school has decided to remove indicators of their Catholic origins, they removed “Catholic” from their mission statement, they dropped all the sacraments and opted to teach world religions all in an effort to become more inclusive. The statues have been placed in storage in an effort to attract new students of all faiths.[2]
As you hear this story, what do you feel? Really, get in tuned to what the gut feeling is. You did feel something, right? I would venture a guess some are absolutely appalled, some flew right past appalled and hit angry. Others may be thinking “and?” it seems to make sense to me. After all, enrollments are how you keep an independent school’s doors open to offer educational opportunities to everyone. Our response can tell us, and others, a lot about who we are, our values, our beliefs, our identity.
In last week’s gospel, Jesus tells Peter, “Blessed are you … you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gate of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:17-18) Today, Jesus calls Peter a devil and tells him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mt 16:23) Whoa!! What just happened, why the change?
Once Peter and the others acknowledge Jesus as the messiah. Jesus decides it’s time to tell them the rest of the story: “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly … and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Mt 16:21) TIME OUT! Can you hear Peter approaching Jesus, as a friend, can we talk? At that moment Peter must have felt like the prophet Jeremiah, who complaints to God that he’d been duped, that he had no idea what was involved in being a prophet and for Peter, the Rock on which Jesus would build his church, the first Pope, did not fully understand the full price of discipleship.
So what about us? If we accept the discipleship challenge and treat our religion, not as a hobby or as just a Sunday routine but as a way of life we will have a share of Jeremiah’s, Peter’s, and Jesus’ experience.[3] Our feelings concerning San Domenico School eliminating the images of their, OUR, Catholic identity for the sake of inclusiveness can be a clue to the depth of our commitment in continuing the mission of Jesus and our response speaks to our own Catholic identity.
So let’s consider the society in which we live, there is a tension within each of us and our Catholic Christian identity. In the midst of our times of bitter national disagreement, in the face of heightened anxiety especially for vulnerable members of the world, in this crucial season of unrelentingly stymied politics, what is especially heartbreaking is the growing chasm among Catholics. Catholics are not immune to divisive politics, of course, even when our faith should unify us. Too often we are harmfully polarized, politically and theologically, we become quick to judge and categorize, eager to condemn and shun real dialogue. At times, we are no better as Catholics, in our church, than we are as citizens in our country.
We can do better, we must do better, especially if we are to take seriously the demands of the Gospel to be agents of reconciliation and peace, to alleviate suffering, to extend hope and to provide for the needs of the most vulnerable of our communities, effectively and faithfully. Most of us find ourselves on one side of this divide. All of us need to do better at encountering and accompanying those on the other side. How do we lovingly engage?
If there is anything sacred and urgent about what it means to be Catholic in the world today it is that we are all—every single one of the more than seven billion persons living on the planet—made in the image and likeness of God. To heed this and aspire to be Christ-like would seem at a minimum to demand decency, humility, openness, attentiveness, forgiveness and mercy.[4]
Know this, when we approach this communion table, hear this clearly and do not be duped, this communion table, this communion procession we participate to approach, this communal offering is what we are called to and called to be in this world, a unifying light of hope. It is not easy and there is a price to be paid. The cross still might look like utter defeat, but it is Jesus’ ultimate triumph for us. “Do not conform yourself to this age [rings as true today as it did for the Roman community] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind [in and by the mystery of this Eucharistic offering] that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Rom 12:2)
Do not be duped by this world’s strategy for unity. Only when “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16) and take up our daily crosses will we find true and lasting unity for eternity. Whether you agree or disagree with the schools decision, it’s not the statutes that will thrust aside or attract people to God. It’s how we live the gospel values, our witness in the numerous challenges of our everyday life that gives meaning to the visible & invisible signs of our Catholic identity.
[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition. © 1986. Scriptures: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2;
Matthew 16:21-27.
[2] Catholic School Removes Religious Statues To Be
“Inclusive”. August 26, 2017 by Brian Thomas © 2017 The Federalist Papers
[3] Sundays with Jesus, Reflections
for the Year of Matthew. © 2007 by James
DiGiacomo. Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ.
[4] Why Catholics are called
to radical hospitality in these political times. August 24, 2017 Issue, by
Kerry Alys Robinson © 2017 America Press Inc.
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