1st Reading: Exodus 17: 8-13
2nd Reading: 2 Timothy 3: 14 – 4:2
Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8
Homily: Joe Nangle OFM
In our planning for today’s liturgy, we quickly came to the word “persistence” as a common thread in the First Reading and the Gospel. Persistence in prayer and Persistence in action.
The history of the PAX Community is one of persistence and helpful to recall. You took hold of the Second Vatican Council and its vision of Church and ran with it:
- with careful and inclusive preparation for Sunday liturgies;
- with a liturgical style of participation;
- with a lay-centered, not clerical, effort each week; and
- with the gradual awareness that Liturgy calls you forth to good works and advocacy.
You “Held On” as today’s theme indicates to a “new way of being Church,” never dissuaded by opposition from the Arlington Diocese. That was then and has continued for more than 50 years.
Now comes Pope Francis, affirming what PAX has been throughout, seeking and promoting new ways of being Church in this era.
With the recent celebration of the 60th anniversary of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ ringing affirmation of that seminal event in the history of Catholicism, he is deepening and widening its original vision:
- the Pope’s call for a synodal Church – one in consultation with the People of God, aka the Laity (it is encouraging, almost amusing to realize that PAX has been a Synodal Church during its lifetime);
- With regard to this historical papal initiative, the report from the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference (USCCB) in one of its earliest comments states that little or no references to Catholic Social Teaching have appeared in the consultations from the American Church. (The USCCB report is frank and open, not judgmental, simply expressing what has emerged from our consultations. We have much to contribute to the process);
- The Pope’s seven-year plan for reflection and action around his historical encyclical Laudato si (one of the best if not the best such document in Catholic Social Teaching). Francis is urging us to reflect and act on such issues as: the Cry of the earth, the Cry of the poor, ecological economics, simple lifestyle, Ecological education, an Ecological spirituality and community involvement;
- Francis is naming bishops who are pastors rather than administrators; priests who are companions with their fellow Catholics, laity who are actively engaged in the issues of the times, seeing these through the eyes of the poor and constantly moving toward the peripheries.
For PAX, inheritors of the Vatican II vision, this is a new and similar moment. We are being challenged to be a yet newer Church. With our aging and diminishment in numbers it presents an enormous challenge. But on a very positive side PAX has the renewal which is coming from all our members who are with us electronically.
As I reflected on this wonderful history and its ongoing challenges, I remembered the great founders/early members of PAX who have gone on before us. Brinton Brown, when planning liturgies, always asked that we mention these giants in our prayers. They are still with us in the Communion of Saints and surely cheering us on to a new time in the life of this wonderful Community.
Communion Meditation:
Excerpts from PAX’s “Response to Pope Francis’ call for participation in the synodal process leading to the 2023 Synod on Synodality”
Ours is a vision of a communal, Eucharist-based, liturgically inspired, and socially engaged Church that is evolving, self-critical, lay-empowering, and above all, inclusive and all-embracing.
It is a vision of a dynamic community of worship engaged in questioning and peacemaking that stands with and advocates for the oppressed, marginalized, and impoverished across cultures and around the globe. It is a hope-filled vision firmly rooted in the Gospel, steeped in Christ’s love and compassion, in active conversation with a world beset by war, inequality, pestilence, and environmental catastrophes, combined with technologies that could save us, overwhelm us, or both.
Our vision is of a Church where humility and compassion replace rigidity and punishment, and where doctrine serves ongoing reform. This vision includes priests representing the diversity of the people of God – including clergy who are women, married, and from many different backgrounds. They are pastoral and servant leaders.
Our envisioned Church values and empowers laity, stands with rather than above, welcomes different forms of worship and community, and recognizes diversity as a gift from God.
Our strong belief is that this is the Church of the future.
Informed by a long journey in community against the backdrop of the post-Vatican II American Church, PAX members have thought intensely and prayerfully about our vision of a renewed Church that more faithfully lives out what the Gospel calls us to be.
Today’s Song Selection:
The following notes preceded the lyrics to the songs we sang today:
Gathering: All Are Welcome
(All ARE welcome here. Today we will pray for a more inclusive Church that embraces, includes, and loves everyone.)
Offertory: Here I Am Lord
(We are pledging ourselves to be persistent as a community in acting on Christ’s call for social justice in our communities. We pray others will also hear that voice and join us.)
Communion: Be Not Afraid
(What God asks of us requires courage. We pray that we always feel God’s presence as we do the hard work of social justice in God’s name.)
Recessional: How Can I Keep From Singing?
(Life is full of “turmoil and strife” yet God is always there as a steady rock to whom we can cling for support during these difficulties. We pray all can feel and know with surety that God is with them and with us in the PAX Community