Lenten reflections on a pilgrimage:
Conversion is a trip
The pilgrimage of love to Constantinople and Rome that ended last
week was many things: an occasion for some Orthodox and Catholics
from Chicago to come to know and appreciate one another more deeply,
a journey of discovery of sites and events that united us for
a thousand years, a moment in a hopeful but often difficult dialogue
between two sister Churches. It was also, as most pilgrimages
are supposed to be, a time of conversion. It changed minds and
hearts, at least to some extent, so that all of us could be more
open to Christ’s will for his people.
During Lent, the whole Church is on a journey of conversion. “God
himself invites us to undertake a journey of penance and inner
purification in order to renew our faith,” writes Pope John Paul
II in this year’s Lenten message. ‘Lent invites us to overcome
the temptation of seeing the realities of this world as definitive
and to recognize that ‘our homeland is in heaven’ (Phil. 3:20).”
We use as metaphor for Lent the forty years’ journey of the Chosen
People through the desert between the Red Sea and their new homeland,
the promised land. A desert is a stark place, without much room
for false steps. In Holy Scripture, therefore, the desert is a
place of decision, where God’s will can be more clearly sought
and discovered.
The Church’s Lenten discipline is designed to convert our lives
into a desert. Almsgiving, fasting and prayer are all ways to
empty ourselves, to create a space in our lives where God can
do what he wants with us. When we give alms, we not only help
the poor; we also create an empty space in our pocketbooks. With
less money, we are less free to follow our own designs and more
open to search for God’s will for us. When we fast, we create
a space in our bodies, a void in our stomachs. Emptying ourselves
physically leaves us more attuned to God Spiritually. When we
pray, we empty our minds and hearts and give God time and space
to fill us with his grace. The, discipline of Lent is designed
to create the “spaces” necessary in our bodies and minds, our
spirits and our activities, so that we will be less filled with
ourselves and more conformed to the Lord. Lent is a desert so
that it can become a season of conversion.
After the Catholics and Orthodox pilgrims who had traveled together
left Europe for Chicago, I stayed on in Rome for two days, primarily
to give a keynote address for the inauguration of a new International
Society for Mission Studies. It was a good way to end the pilgrimage,
because it reminded me that the Church’s mission is weakened while
Christians remain visibly separated; mission and Church unity
are intertwined. Unity, however, is impossible without conversion
on all our parts.
The extra two days in Rome included Ash Wednesday. The Rector
of the North American College, where I stayed at the end of the
pilgrimage, invited me to say Mass for the seminarians and staff
who were going to the Church of Santa Sabina, the stational Church
in Rome for the first day of Lent. Forty Churches in Rome are
“stational” Churches, the places where the Pope traditionally
celebrated Mass on each of the forty days of Lent. Early in the
morning during February, all Roman churches are cold, which makes
the occasion more penitential. During the Mass on Ash Wednesday,
the electricity in Santa Sabina failed and the lights went out,
which made the occasion more exciting.
My stay in Rome also gave me a chance to see the two seminarians
from Chicago studying at the North American College, the three
priests doing graduate work in Rome, and Msgr. Robert Dempsey,
a Chicago priest who edits the English weekly edition of the Vatican
newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. It was a good ending to a pilgrimage
designed to bring people and Churches together around Christ.
What will come of our Chicago-Constantinople-Rome pilgrimage of
love? Like many such endeavors, it opens up possibilities without
determining future conclusions. If the pilgrimage has been an
occasion for conversion, it will make future Christian unity more
attainable. Certainly I will more often remember in prayer the
Patriarch of Constantinople this Lent. May all of us enter into
the desert of Lent as part of our preparation for entering into
the new millennium next year. God bless you.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
