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1. Evangelicals and Catholics in Guatemala
Jakob Egeris Thorsen I have kindly been asked to share some of my impressions and reflections on the topic "Is Catholicism an otherworldly religion?" My contribution is based on my fieldwork among Catholic Charismatics in Guatemala and concerns the question whether there are differences between (Neo-)Pentecostal and Catholic preaching, and whether Catholicism in Guatemala/Latin America is more other other-worldly oriented than Pentecostalism, and hence more irrelevant for the lives of the faithful. A starting point: When we talk about the Pentecostal Awakening in Latin America we mostly think of the 10 to 20 % of Latin American who have become (Neo-)Pentecostal or Charismatic Protestant in the second part of the 20th century. We should not forget that 10 to 15 % of Latin American Catholic (around 75 million) have become "Catholic Pentecostals" as well, i.e. joined the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. It is thus maybe more correct to speak of a general pentecostalization of church life, than to paint a picture of an "awakened" Pentecostal vs. a sleeping Catholic Church. Is the Catholic Church otherworldly oriented whereas (Neo-)Pentecostals are preoccupied with the daily needs of the faithful, even to a point where some of them propagate a full fletched Gospel of Prosperity ("name it and claim it")? My answer is based on my fieldwork in three Charismatic prayer groups in a parish Guatemala City in 2009 and on my general study of Guatemalan and Latin American modern church history. I have no statistical data. My answer is a classic both/and. If I compare the preaching of parish priests in the Sunday mass homilies with the sermons of Evangelical-Pentecostal preachers, I believe the answer is yes, at least if you apply a very broad definition of otherworldly, i.e. not directed towards quotidian problems. In general, Catholic priests would explain the text, conduct an exegesis and connect the text to the general redemption drama and sometimes to the Eucharist to be celebrated after the homily. When I recall the neo-Pentecostal services that I attended as an undergraduate student and as an exchange student in Guatemala living with a neo-Pentecostal family, another type of text interpretation prevailed in the sermons. After some poignant doctrinal affirmations found in the text, preachers would apply the text (and the persons appearing in the text) as a model story and apply it to the lives and everyday problems and challenges of the people in the congregation: How do have a stable family life with good relations between the spouses and between parents and children; how keep on fighting ("seguir luchando") when confronted with economic hardship or lack of work; how to project and achieve goal in business, for example. Does that mean that Catholics do not receive those kind of practical advice about how to live a supposedly "Christian life"? Maybe not by the parish priest in regular mass, but if you seek out one of the dozens of lay prayer groups (Charismatic, semi-Charismatic and others) that operate in most Catholic parishes in Latin America, and where lay preachers stand on the pulpit. During my fieldwork in Guatemala City, I studied three such Charismatic prayer groups and attended their weekly meetings consisting of prayer, songs of praise, lay preaching, testimonies, healings and liberations from evil possessive spirits. The preachers mostly belonged to semi-professional Catholic lay ministries, some would make a regular income by preaching in different prayer groups in the city. Their eloquent, funny and engaging sermons were very preoccupied with the everyday life of the prayer group members: How to live a decent life, how to avoid problems, temptations, and demonic witchcraft attacks, and how to engage in the spiritual battle in order to edify the individual, his or her family, and the prayer group. Doctrine did not play a significant role, neither did scripture. Scripture was used to draw forth examples against which the preacher would mirror the lives of himself and the group. What did my informants prefer? The interesting observation in my many interviews was that Charismatic groups did not want priest and Charismatic lay preacher to be alike. They did not want the priest to deliver lengthy eloquent sermons with shouts and jokes. They would find it "silly" if the priest would assume the same role and style as the preachers. Informants wanted priest to be "serious", "fatherly" and less "strict" than the fierce bible-carrying preaches. They did not want the prayer meeting and the mass to be alike. They appreciated the difference. As one informant told me: The homily of the priest takes us to Jesus to his life and story, whereas the preachers tell how to live, what to do, and what not to do. Except for the most direct health and wealth gospel, Catholics can find the same type of "this-worldly oriented" or "personally transformative" preaching within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal as in the Evangelical-Pentecostal congregations.
Whether people opt for Charismatic Catholicism or Pentecostalism seems to be depend on whether they are already practicing Catholics or merely nominal, and on the religious affiliations found within their social network (family, neighbors, colleagues).
2. Why the silence on practical matters in Catholic sermons? The Catholic sermon, forming part of the proclamation of the Gospel in the Catholic Mass, naturally emphasizes the vertical dimension of life. The Christians present around the altar participate in the sacred meal and, by consuming the sacred body and blood of Christ, are transformed more and more into beings who participate in the life of the Trinity. The Catholic sermon anticipates that experience of transformation (of species, and then of personality) and participation. As a consequence, the Catholic sermon only brings in the practical aspects of the community – the "partnership" element – at the peroration, when the priest attempts to answer the question, "Given that one participates in the life of the Trinity, what does that mean for how I should behave towards other people today and tomorrow?"
So, what is going on in my Catholic parish? - In today's Gospel, Jesus says/ does XYZ.
- Have you ever done XYZ? Have you ever tried to do XYZ? Why don't you do XYZ? - Here's an idea of how you can do XYZ. - Let's now pray/ or let's now be quiet for a while as we ponder how we can do XYZ.
Here is an outline of a sermon that relates the Gospel to a practical problem :
1. Restatement of the story or message of the Gospel text that was just heard.
2. Recent News item that is somewhat related to the theme of the Gospel text. 3. Identify which Virtue(s) or which Vice(s) is on display in that news story. 4. Explain that Virtue or Vice, including direct reference to people of the Christian tradition (St. Benedict, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, etc) who speak about that Virtue or Vice. 5. Some specific advice, perhaps from the monastic tradition, on how to develop that Virtue or how to avoid that Vice.
[By the way, this semester I am teaching a course on Virtues and Vices]
Leo Madden (maddenl@ohiodominican.edu) Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, Ohio
3. "Other-worldliness?" With regard to the points raised below: what makes the talks given after the reading of the gospel "homilies?" They should be the result of reflection on the scriptures of the day, rather than the last minute random thoughts of the celebrant. The scriptures remain the palpable word of God in our communities of faith. If more priests would take the scriptures to prayer, I believe their reflections would be richer and likely more applicable to the lives of those who are forced to endure the bad ones. As a friend of mine who goes to daily Mass noted today, "You can always tell when the homilist prays." It is my experience in recent weeks that some people have been exposed to very practical matters in talks from the pulpit. Some bishops and perhaps some priests individually have used homily time to instruct the faithful about the evils of voting in a particular way. Some have gone so far as to say that it is a mortal sin to vote for candidates that don't support church positions on issues. Of course such sermons are not consistent with the guidelines that bishops have set forth for "faithful citizenship." Not only that, but they put Catholic voters who see the priest's opinions as "gospel" in the difficult position of having to choose which church positions were problematic. Are social justice issues, hearing the "cry of the poor," and immigration questions to be in competition with sexual and abortion issues? And how can those dichotomies be resolved? Few tackled this question. As a person in the pew most of the time, without the opportunity to actually give homities, it is difficult to sit through talks that pretty much ignore the scriptures--as one local bishop did at a Mass for my high school class--in favor of a didactic session on the new liturgical responses: "Repeat after me: 'And with your spirit.'" One priest in a southern cathedral parish, where my husband and I happened to be vacationing, noted that he had just come back from--the irony!--a liturgial workshop in Rome and hadn't had time to prepare a homily. Instead he regaled us with a rather detailed travelogue of his Roman holiday. We cannot get in touch with the presence of Christ in the scriptures without a proper mediation.
Catholicism is not an other-worldly religion. It is an enfleshed religion in more than one way. First, how else could the community of the Beloved Disciple (Raymond Brown's words), a community who had never met the earthly Jesus, proclaim that they were passing on to the next generation "what they had seen and heard and touched." They passed on with passion the experiences they had of the risen Christ in the community and in the scriptures. Otherwise the notion that God came to us enfleshed would make no sense. Second, the Eucharist calls us to listen to the words of scripture and the central challenge of the Mass, "Do this in memory of me," to become bread broken and blood poured out for others (I borrow here from Gene Laverdiere). The Eucharist is not a magic act, a spectator sport to awe the congregation. It is precisely the occasion and challenge to be Christ on the earth.
4. Theological Reflections The mission of liturgical preaching is to deepen the faith of the baptized assembly gathered to hear the proclamation of the Word of God. The USCCB's seminal document on preaching, "Fulfilled in Your Hearing" rightly positions Luke 4:16-21 as the paradigmatic example of how the contemporary homily ought to function for the baptized. Drawing from scriptural witnesses as well as contemporary communication theory, the 1982 document attends to the hearer as the primary trajectory of the homily. As Paul famously says, "Faith comes through hearing." To this end, the preacher and the text (the other two key elements of the preaching moment), must work in concert to structure the homily around the listener. Preachers must exegete the assembly as well as the biblical text so that all the baptized have a role in breaking open the word of God together. In this regard, the prayerful and pastoral preacher functions as what FIYH calls "the mediator of meaning."
As preaching becomes more and more open to a diverse congregation, preachers and listeners trust in the work of the Spirit to labor in the midst of the Christian assembly so that God's word will be fulfilled in their hearing.
5. Comments on: "Theological Reflections" Preaching is the gifted expression of God's saving power inside human language. Based on the prophetic, biblical witness of the encounter with the Holy—and the definitive expression of Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh—Christian preachers make known the works of the Lord for all those who have ears to hear.
As the Pentecost event makes clear, the Spirit of the Lord has animated the whole Church to proclaim the Good News that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
The mission of liturgical preaching is to deepen the faith of the baptized assembly gathered to hear the proclamation of the Word of God. The USCCB's seminal document on preaching, "Fulfilled in Your Hearing" rightly positions Luke 4:16-21 as the paradigmatic example of how the contemporary homily ought to function for the baptized.
To this end, the preacher and the text (the other two key elements of the preaching moment), must work in concert to structure the homily around the listener. Preachers must exegete the assembly as well as the biblical text so that all the baptized have a role in breaking open the word of God together. In this regard, the prayerful and pastoral preacher functions as what FIYH calls "the mediator of meaning."
As preaching becomes more and more open to a diverse congregation, preachers and listeners trust in the work of the Spirit to labor in the midst of the Christian assembly so that God's word will be fulfilled in their hearing.
Richard Shields (richshields@sympatico.ca)
University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, ON, Canada
6. There is no lay preaching I am a Catholic 'revert' after 30 years in Lutheranism (LCA/ELCA), 22 of which were spent in the parish pastorate. Since my return to the Catholic Church by profession of faith and annulment of marriage over 3 years ago, I have been invited to team teach in RCIA and to lecture in the Diocesan Institute but never to preach in any Catholic setting whatever. I have followed the discussion on this theme on the list-serve with great interest and astonishment.
For almost all of those 22 years of ordained ministry, including 4 years of full-time college teaching during which I volunteered to be deployed as a 'stated supply pastor' in the same two parishes each Sunday and on other major festivals, my working life was structured in large part around the discipline of lectio divina, exegesis, preparation of a homily MS or outline and liturgical delivery of the sermon within the congregation. It is a work that I would gladly take up again on a completely non-stipendiary basis, when and where needed throughout the diocese, but here the preaching office is seen as an extension of the ordinary magisterium and, as such, as the sole prerogative of the episcopate, presbyterate and diaconate. Other former Lutheran pastoral colleagues in this diocese, who are either converts or reverts like me, report an identical experience.
7. Comment on: "No lay preaching"
8. Lay preaching in the Miami diocese First, I would like to say in response to a previously stated comment that in the Archdiocese of Miami Lay preaching in Church is no longer allowed. Having said that, I recall that in the context of my own experience the first time I preached at a Catholic mass was in 1983 when I was a student at the U. of Fl. and a member of a Renew team. The last time I preached was at the Easter vigil in 2000 at the university chapel at Barry. As I said, lay preaching is no longer allowed in the Archdiocese of Miami. We have deacons for that now. We used to have a lay preaching team at the chapel and we also had Eucharistic ministers that baked the Eucharistic bread on Sunday morning before mass, but that is not allowed any more either. We have a universal form for that. In the spirit of Orthodoxy the lay community has been relieved of its duties-- we now have re-established the order of the liturgy at the University chapel-- only the ordained preach, the Eucharistic bread is consistently served to the worthy, and the backs of the pews which were once hidden by bodies are now visible here. (In reference to "worthy" Catholics, it must be noted that in many parishes across Florida I have witnessed a reminder to all potential communicants AFTER the consecration, that if they are not divorced and remarried, not co-habiting, not practicing birth control etc. that they may come up to receive communion) But there is always a brighter side to this stark entrenchment-- and that is that the lay people are still getting educated in an ecumenical context. The divide is growing and many educated laity are voting with their soles. For example Fr. Alberto Cutie was one of the best preachers in the Archdiocese of Miami. His Church in Miami Beach was packed with a very diverse crowd of Catholics and he preached about the ordinary lives of the community and tied the message to the Gospel. Many traveled 30 minutes or more to attend St. Patrick's Church on any given Sunday. What the faithful did not know is that he had been asking for a dispensation for years but the diocese was embroiled in lawsuits and the bishop would not let him go. After the scandal broke that he was caught in compromising positions with a woman at the beach, he left the Roman Catholic Church and became an Episcopalian priest, got married, and was given a parish that was once serving 14 to 20 families when he arrived, and is now bursting at the seams (standing room only) every Sunday. Why because Cutie delivers that kind of preaching that inspires, relates, challenges, instructs and ultimately animates a parish to be Good News.
There are many faithful Catholics in Florida who believe that Vatican II theology calls for a continual reading of the signs of the times, a looking forward with expectant and courageous hope (not passive waiting). I must admit that we have been scattered because very few parishes nurture a spirituality of transformation. But for the most part we meet at conferences, we see each other at lectures, we blog and we trust that the spirit will keep us faithfully connected despite all the obstacles that impede fidelity to One commandment-- Love God above all else, and your neighbor as yourself.
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