This Is What We Must Do' Todd Graff
Director of Lay Formation & RCIA tgraff@dowr.org
Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere ‘command’; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us…. The consciousness that, in Christ, God has given himself for us, even unto death, must inspire us to live no longer for ourselves but for him, and, with him, for others. Whoever loves Christ loves the Church, and desires the Church to be increasingly the image and instrument of the love which flows from Christ. -Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, #1, #33
� reetings of Peace, and Blessings in these Summer Days!
I was having a phone conversation the other day with one of my older sons, and he was lamenting that, early in this COVID-19 pandemic, we had discussed our hope that this scourge might be something that could bring our country together and unite us. And, now, we have seen how even a pandemic that has taken over 130,000 American lives (and counting) could still be ‘weaponized’ as a source of partisanship and political polarization. Few things speak more clearly to the spiritual poverty of our nation than this. For most of this summer, I have been on a voluntary furlough from my work with the diocese due to the circumstances relating to the coronavirus pandemic. This has given me a chance to spend a little more time reading, reflecting, and praying. While I continue to marvel at the beauty of our world, and the wonder of our human dignity, I have to admit that there is much that saddens me in the time we’re living. It is clear to me that anger, fear, resentment, contempt, and hatred are strong motivators for human thinking and acting. And, these can be exploited and manipulated in the most clever and masterful of ways by the technological tools available to us. Original sin clearly marks our human experience, and the evil one knows well how to divide us from our loving God, and from one another. Christians, of course, have the antidote to this poison within our faith tradition. It is the way of selfsacrificial love demonstrated by our Crucified Lord as he hung on the Cross for our salvation. But, sadly, I
believe that this same poison that has so sickened the political and civic culture around us has also found its way to infect our Church and to divert our attention, and to turn our hearts, from the God who is Love (Deus Caritas Est). Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic ministry and well-known author, teacher, and evangelist, recently posted a YouTube video on, “Social Media and the Catholic Culture of Contempt.” In it, he describes the “vitriol, negativity, personal attacks, and outright calumny that come regularly from selfprofessed Catholics,” and of the “hateful, vituperative, venomous words” that have been written to and about him on social media sites by fellow Catholics. He speaks of such expressions of “mean-spirited mob action” within the Catholic community as being “dismaying and disedifying in the extreme.” Perhaps most distressing, he attests to how this spirit of utter contempt for one another within the Church is a very potent “counter witness” to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a society which so desperately needs the mercy, love, and compassion of the Body of Christ. A particularly painful expression of this for me has been the public and well coordinated attacks on our Holy Father by many prominent Catholic figures, web sites, and media sources. The lack of charity and respect for Pope Francis, and for his office, is a source of very deep sadness to me. Through many years of service in the Church, never have I witnessed such utter disregard for the teaching and pastoral leadership of a pope. It is dismaying, misguided, and undermining of Catholic teaching and tradition! So, where to look for guidance in such troubled times for our world, and for our Church?... Not surprisingly for those who know me, I will turn to Pope Francis himself. In a stirring and beautiful homily given this past February at a church gathering in Italy, Pope Francis reflected on the gospel reading taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Speaking to Jesus’ command to, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44), our Holy Father offers us this path of Christian discipleship: Pray and love: this is what we must do; and not only with regard to those who love us, not only with regard to our friends or our own people. The love of Jesus knows no boundaries or barriers. The Lord demands of us the courage to have a love that does not count the cost. Because the measure of Jesus is love without measure. How many times have we neglected that demand, behaving like everyone else! Yet his commandment of love is not simply a challenge; it is the very heart of the Gospel. Where
the command of universal love is concerned, let us not accept excuses or preach prudent caution. The Lord was not cautious; he did not yield to compromises. He asks of us the extremism of charity. This is the only legitimate kind of Christian extremism: the extremism of love (Pope Francis, Homily at the “Mediterranean: Frontier of Peace” meeting in Bari, Italy / February 23, 2020).
7 Lay Formation & RCIA
'Pray and Love:
If following the path of Christian love sounds too vague or idealistic of a solution, then I would suggest that we meditate on where it led Jesus – on the road to Calvary and to the Cross. It was there that Jesus taught us the way of love, which is the way of forgiveness, of self-sacrifice, of bearing another’s burdens, of absorbing evil without retaliation, of accepting suffering as redemptive – and, ultimately, of salvation. As Pope Francis reminds us, “[Jesus] did not point a finger at those who wrongfully condemned him and put him to a cruel death, but opened his arms to them on the cross. And he forgave those who drove the nails into his wrists (cf. Lk 23:33-34).” It is a path we will only be able to walk with grace and in prayer. Our Holy Father encourages and guides us in this: “Ask God for the strength to love. Say to him: ‘Lord, help me to love, teach me to forgive. I cannot do it alone, I need you.’” I will conclude by returning to my recent phone call with my son… Our conversation didn’t end on a note of despair. Despite the divisiveness which even a pandemic couldn’t help to heal in our country, he told me that he would continue to hope, to care for those around him, and to focus on the positive change he could make in his circle of work and community, and among his family and friends. Thank you for continuing to choose love, my son! Deo Gratias! Today let us choose love, whatever the cost, even if it means going against the tide. Let us not yield to the thinking of this world, or content ourselves with half measures. Let us accept the challenge of Jesus, the challenge of charity. Then we will be true Christians and our world will be more human. - Pope Francis, Homily in Bari, Italy, 2/23/2020
August 2020 w The Courier w dowr.org
