Beginning again
We don’t really deserve the miraculous beauty of a Midwestern spring.
Oh, we think we do. We think it’s our due for having survived the dark, cold winter.
No. Spring is another of God’s redeeming acts—a physical and emotional redemption. For us Midwesterners, spring is a time of beginning.
But like the redemption we celebrate each Eastertide, spring is a gift. In both cases, we have to believe we’ve received them as gift to fully appreciate them.
The miracle of spring is found in its brevity: In just a few weeks trees go from gray to green, weather from sad to glad and the world shrugs off its black-and-white cloak to dress in blossoms of glorious color.
True enough, we forget the recurring miracle of spring when we swelter in summer; we forget it months later in winter when we freeze off various body parts. Sadly, that’s human nature: The struggles of the present sometimes blind us to the gifts of beginnings.
That metaphor comes to mind when I read about people who complain that the church’s failure to manage the terrible problem of clergy sexual abuse has toppled it from the traditional high moral ground it had to comment on issues of war, immigration, poverty and other concerns of a just God.
I suspect that some of them are just seeking an excuse to bolster their own disagreement with those issues.
We forget that human history is full of imperfect people whose words and actions nevertheless accomplished the will of God, not necessarily through the power of their strength, but through the witness of their weakness.
Peter was a denier; Thomas a doubter. But each advanced the faith in potent ways.
Lincoln’s family life was a shambles; Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson and King had personal flaws. Yet each began chains of events which changed the course of history for the better.
It’s the correctness—the Godliness, if you will—of the issue that’s important. Not the sanctity of the person.
No doubt the sex-abuse crisis has blunted the church’s voice about challenges to the culture. Still, it’s a voice that speaks with the power of the Gospel, just as it did in the beginning.
Sometimes we have to search for beginnings in the deeds of the past.
On May 20, 12 men will be ordained as priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Undoubtedly they will see that date as a grand beginning. And, in a sense, it is. But vocations have other origins.
Each year we acknowledge archdiocesan priests celebrating 25th and 50th jubilees (PDF). Over the next few issues, we’ll also acknowledge the jubilees of permanent deacons ordained in 1981 and celebrate the Class of 2006 which will be ordained May 28. I doubt any of them will claim perfection. But somewhere in the seeds of the service of these men is the encouragement of vocations. It comes not from perfection, but from service.
Beginnings come in many forms. You can read The Interview about a “reality” TV show, “God or the Girl,” which probes the beginning of vocations. Father Joe Noonan, archdiocesan vocations director who watched parts of the series, wasn’t sure how such a show could help.
“Vocation discernment is an interior movement of God within (a) person,” he said. “But a reality TV show constructed with an artificial time line, created tension between characters and quirky entertainment angles is hard-pressed to show the interior discernment movement of God.” However, he said, “One possible value of this show is for young people to see that God continues to call normal, healthy Catholic men to the priesthood.”
Now, that’s hardly a bad beginning.
Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager
