"We start by doing what’s necessary, then we do what’s possible, and suddenly, through the Holy Spirit, we are doing the impossible."
St. Francis of Assisi
In 1964, I was 18 years old. I had just finished high school and a business course and was leaving home for my first job. I was glad to be leaving, not because I disliked my family or anything like that. I was ready to begin the task of working towards my fame and fortune. Within three years of starting work, I discovered two things that I didn’t plan or anticipate. The first was the discovery of how superficial and naïve was my plan for fame and fortune. The second, and perhaps the most surprising, was the intrusion of “faith” in my life. I call it an intrusion because this was not a part of my plan at all. I also call it an intrusion because it absolutely changed everything from that point forward.
The Gospel accounts are also about this intrusion; the intrusion of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles, the followers of Christ and the people of the early church. It was an intrusion that changed everything for those who encountered this Advocate. The Holy Spirit opened their minds and hearts to the role that they were called to play in the development of this mystery we call church. Christ had won for them their redemption. His sacrifice put them at right with God, but then, through the Holy Spirit, these people became engaged in a restoration process. Restoration of what? What the early church discovered was a call to begin to reorder things; their attitudes, their lives, their society, in accordance with God’s plan for them. It all had to do with the bringing about of this “Kingdom of God” of which Jesus spoke about quite frequently.
But this restoration process did not come without struggle. The book of Acts describes what is perhaps the first crisis experienced by this early church. It’s a crisis over a matter of faith practice, and there is a very good reason for it arising. The early Christian church was born from Jewish roots. Mary, Joseph and Jesus were Jews. They practiced their faith in the Jewish synagogue. The apostles and their families and all the early followers of Jesus were Jews. After Jesus’ resurrection and their first encounters with the Holy Spirit, it would have been quite normal for the new Christians to incorporate Jewish rites in their worship and Jewish rules into their faith practice. But when the Christian faith spread to the gentiles, who neither practiced nor were familiar with these rules and rites, a problem arose. Was it a requirement that these rules be incorporated into the faith-practice of the gentiles? The important thing that happened from all this was that the church gathered and prayed about it. The church called on Holy Spirit for guidance and direction, and a decision was made. And this decision determined the whole direction for the church at that time, and the people were united around that choice.
Recently, I had to opportunity to attend a workshop on the introduction of our new Catechism program for the Archdiocese. The Archbishop gave the opening address. He opened with the fact that our church is currently going through a crisis. As a result of this crisis, the church is no longer being heard as a credible voice of change in our society. There are many voices being listened to in this generation: political voices, the voices of individualism, the voices of consumerism, the voices of pleasure seekers, and many more. But the church is largely not one of them. He mentioned that that church has fallen somewhat in a state of disrepair and has to be rebuilt. But he mentioned quite positively that the building blocks are there. We do not have to start from the beginning. It’s just a matter of taking the building blocks that are there and putting them in place. And that is what the church is attempting to do. And the church, as it seeks the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit will accomplish that.
The Archbishop has already spoken to us at length about three of these building blocks, and I would like to mention a couple of them briefly here today.
The first is a renewed understanding of discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ in our modern church, and through this new understanding, what are the methods and ways that we must learn to bring Christ’s message to the unchurched, particular many young families who are now absent from our community. It must be from a church guided by the Holy Spirit: a church that is able to give credible witness to Christ in our lives and in the world. In order for us to be that church, the Archbishop says that we must redefine our methods of being a disciple of Christ.
And this leads to the Archbishop’s second building block; that of becoming witnesses to our faith to others. We are not use to this. As church, we are use to people coming to us. You may recall one of Kevin Costner’s old movies “Field of Dreams” where a baseball diamond was built in a corn field. The theme that ran from this movie was: “Build it and they will Come”. This is the way our church has operated in the past.
To a very large extent, this is no longer happening. Our churches are not growing and they largely lack the presence the younger families of our community. Through prayer, we are coming to the realization that we must discover new ways to give witness to our faith and Christ in our lives. We must begin to see this as a changing mandate. The Holy Spirit is calling us now to respond to these situations in a new way.
As the apostles and the early Christian were guided by the Holy Spirit and changed in order to embrace the restoration process in the early church, so we are now being called to listen to the Holy Spirit to guide us through today’s crisis.
From the Gospel of John, chapter 17, we hear Jesus giving one of his final talks to his disciples, his final words of instructions. We read: “The words that I give you are not mine. They come from the Father. I am telling you these things while I am still with you. The advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything, and remind you of all I have said.”
Do you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us, to change our lives and the lives of others, just as He guided the apostles and the early church? Many of us have got use to the church acting in certain predictable way. We have gained a certain amount of comfort in following the status quo. Unfortunately, there is little change or growth in the status quo or becoming satisfied with being comfortable.
We are now being challenged by the Spirit to change, so that we, as well as others, may begin to see again that God’s spirit is stirring, is alive and well in our church. When we allow this to happen, then we will again discover the means to mend and heal the many afflictions and sufferings that currently exist in our community, particularly with young families and youth.
The spirit that intruded into the lives of the apostles, the Holy Spirit that intruded in my life as a young working adult, is the spirit that changes everything. As said by St. Francis of Assisi: "We start by doing what’s necessary, then we do what’s possible, and suddenly, through the Holy Spirit, we are doing the impossible."
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