Tradition and Evangelism

"The positive relationship that has been established between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church of Rome is one of the most stunning achievements of Benedict XVI's pontificate.

...To a question from www.chiesa on the factors that led to this extraordinary change, Metropolitan Hilarion responded by indicating three of these.

...the third reason is their mutual embrace of the grand Christian tradition, as the great highway of the new evangelization."

- "A Holy Alliance between Rome and Moscow Is Born," by Sandro Magister, published on www.chiesa at http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1343399?eng=y, accessed 25 May 2010.

A good discussion of the method and means of evangelism and outreach has been going on over on my friend Rick's blog. Rick, hailing from an Evangelical perspective, and I, hailing from a Catholic perspective, can tend to disagree over the role of Tradition in outreach and evangelism.

My argument runs along the same lines as that which is discussed in the article cited above: reasoned caution toward innovation for fear of borrowing and baptizing so many things in the name of relevancy that the baby becomes indistinguishable from the bathwater (a good question: would my Evangelical friends say it's all bathwater or all baby?), and a heavy reliance upon Tradition as a norm of faith, not merely contributing to, but foundational for the Church's missional existence.

As we become ever more aware of our inextricable human rooted-ness in history and tradition, it seems to me all the more important to embrace, explore, and yes, when necessary, reform, that tradition. Contrary to some popular thought, anchoring oneself in a tradition is more conducive to inter-traditional dialogue than claiming an autonomous distance from any tradition.

Hence, the Christian Tradition must needs be maintained--through study, through interaction, and through liturgical/sacramental practice--in order to continue to provide a "solid rock" on which to build our evangelistic efforts.

Thoughts?

One journey ends, another begins...

My wife and I have been "officially" in the process of becoming Roman Catholic since September of last year. We've been part of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN. This last weekend was the big night, the Easter Vigil, when we were Confirmed and received our first Eucharist. A few friends have asked, so I thought I'd give a little synopsis of recent events:

Holy Week was an amazing week for us. We went to daily mass M, T, and W. On Holy Thursday, we went to the evening mass that begins the Triduum (three days of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection), which ended with a short (1 hr) vigil with Christ in "the garden" and a service of night prayer (Compline).

Friday morning, we watched "The Passion of the Christ" together (my wife had not seen it before), which set the tone well. We went to Stations of the Cross as the appropriately cloudy skies started to give way to rain. We reached the 12th station, the deacon read out "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,' and he breathed his last," and there was this tremendous peal of thunder. It was chilling. That afternoon, we returned with my parents for the solemn liturgy of Good Friday, complete with veneration of the cross. Tears were shed.

Saturday began with a service of morning prayer and a rehearsal for the evening. We returned home to find my wife's family from out-of-town had arrived, so we went out to lunch and spent the rest of the day in preparation for the evening and night.

The Easter Vigil on Saturday night...well, I could go on and on. Let's just say it was absolutely glorious. Personally, when we were called to come forward, my heart began pounding as I moved closer and closer to the Archbishop for Confirmation, but when my time came, a sort of excited calm descended. The Archbishop anointed me, and I was saturated with joy that still, quite frankly, hasn't worn off. Our first Eucharist was stimulating, bringing forth a feeling of unprecedented connection both to Jesus and to his Church. (As a sidelight, I forgot to say "Amen" to the words "Body of Christ" until I had the host in my mouth...d'oh! Actually, subsequent masses have provided further venues to reflect on the profound gift the Eucharist is.) After the Vigil, we went home with family, sponsors, our RCIA director and his wife, and another Catholic convert who's a neighbor, to enjoy some drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

One further thing: at the Easter Sunday service, my wife & I were asked to bring the bread & wine forward. It is amazing to do so in the mammoth Cathedral. The Archbishop was again presiding, and he greeted us with a smile and "Good to see you again," and, turning to my wife, "Short night, huh?"

After Easter mass, we went home with family to a huge Easter feast. However, with the bit of dessert wine we had with our fabulous homemade carrot cake (thank you, honey!), the lack of sleep (we got about 4 hours on Saturday night) started kicking in as the adrenaline high was wearing off. We might have even been in bed before 8 PM.

New reflections on the profundity of our reception into the Catholic Church come often, including being part of a Church with a 2,000 year history; of being united with the Pope, our Archbishop, as well as billions of Catholics around the world; of receiving body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist; and also, admittedly, of looking at recent unhappy news items and thinking, "this is our Church."

Gratitude and joy, peace and excitement. That's what I feel. I imagine that this is but a honeymoon stage, but honeymoons are meant to celebrate what has happened and what is to come. I welcome it!

A Gospel Summary from St. Augustine

I just ran across this eloquent summary of the good news of Jesus in my reading for a class. Apologies for the inclusive use of "man," but I feel some of the eloquence is lost if altered.

"To cure [foolish and blinded humanity] and make them well the Word through which all things were made became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Our enlightenment is to participate in the Word, that is, in that life which is the light of man (Jn 1:4). Yet we were absolutely incapable of such participation and quite unfit for it, so unclean were we through sin, so we had to be cleansed. Furthermore, the only thing to cleanse the wicked and the proud is the blood of the just man and the humility of God; to contemplate God, which by nature we are not, we would have to be cleansed by him who became what by nature we are and what by sin we are not. By nature we are not God; by nature we are man; by sin we are not just. So God became a just man to intercede with God for sinful man. The sinner did not match the just, but man did match man. So he applied to us the similarity of his humanity to take away the dissimilarity of our iniquity, and become a partaker of our mortality he made us partakers of his divinity. It was surely right that the death of the sinner issuing from the stern necessity of condemnation should be undone by the death of the just man issuing from the voluntary freedom of mercy, his single matching our double."


St. Augustine of Hippo, The Trinity (De Trinitate), ed. John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., trans. Edmund Hill, O.P., The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1991), IV, 1, 4.