As you read in the last blog post, I am assigned to St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, in Sun City, AZ. While most of my parishioners qualify to be my grandparents, great grandparents and even great great grandparents (for a few), there has been one entertaining theme through my last year which is they do not like change of any sort. I do think there are several reasons for this that are to be considered and respected.
First, they have the experience of many years of trial and error. Second, they are used to certain routines and the possibility of confusion is possible if the routine is changed causing anxiety for them. Third, they see no issue with what they are doing so why do we need to change things.
While routine is good for the balance of our lives, routine can lead us into a state of mediocrity where we no longer examine what we do, why we do it, or even if we should continue doing it. This state of mediocrity can slip into our spiritual lives and we start to plateau in our relationship with God but also with our relationship with Church. This struggle of balance and routine needs to be monitored and we need to continuously evaluate if we are growing in love of God and others or not. If we are not growing, then we need to shake things up and adjust the routine.
This evening, we are beginning a five week series on the mass and it's biblical foundations. As part of the series, we will be introducing the new mass parts and I will be talking about the history of the change and the process that the Church has gone through to come to this momentous occasion. I will also be exposing the parish to the new translations of the Eucharistic prayer and a few other fun things so they can hear what is actually coming and integrate the catechesis into our prayer life and begin the process of adjusting.
For the new translation to take root in our spiritual life, we have to do several things on our part. First, we have to be open to deepening our relationship and trust in Christ. The Church belongs to Christ. It is not mine, I simply am an instrument of God. Second, we must be open to stretching our routine and cadence and not just throw out the translation as rubbish because we do not know a word, or dislike the gender of a few words. Third, we must grieve the past. This might not be obvious, but we have used the current translation for close to 40 some years. This translation was used to bury my mother, celebrate my first mass, and my ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood. Yes, it is what I know and have grown up with, however, the Church is not static and we are called to retire a translation that can be linked to very emotional and life changing events in our life. Thus, emotions might run high as we move into this new chapter in our liturgical history. The past will not change. Those memories are safe, however, we do not know the future and we can only live in the present. Thus, instead of cutting ourselves off from the grace of Christ and his workings in the Church, we move slowly methodically and openly work through his grace to grow to know and love what He has given us. Thus, the reason for our series on the mass.
If you ask me, I will tell you that I am excited for the change in the language. It will be a transition. However, I think my own faith will grow as I allow Christ to speak to me through the new texts and will help our understanding and faith in Christ ultimately expand as individuals and as a Church, if we are open and not stuck in mediocrity.
