Okay, so you knew I would be back.
Welcome to the new home of Integrity! Back in April of 2002, I joined the emerging St. Blog’s community. Although I wandered from the original vision significantly towards the end, my purpose of beginning Integrity was to offer a forum for reflections on the character and vocation of the laity. My tool for doing that was a paragraph by paragraph reflection on Pope John Paul II’s wonderful Apostolic Exhortation entitled, “Christifideles Laici,” or CFL, per my shorthand.
Well, along the way, I succumbed to the same temptations that all bloggers face: the desire for a large readership and kudos and notice from other bloggers. No, it wasn’t all about that. At times, the desire for more readers (and commenters!) was driven by me wanting to see other lay Catholics reflecting on something that is very important to me, namely, our calling as laity. I firmly believe, even among knowledgeable Catholics, there is a lack of understanding of the lay vocation. To an extent, this isn’t surprising. Ask someone to describe the vocation of the priest and they can give you a pretty good description by talking about the things a priest does. Not exactly the same thing as the vocation itself, but a rough proxy that has its uses. But the laity fill all of life’s spheres and occupations. Accordingly, it is significantly harder to back your way into an understanding of the character and mission of the laity by trying to identify things that all laity do. Yet, that presents quite a dilemma, because at the end of the day most of us are struggling with connecting who we are to be with what we do. The need for support and encouragement, I think, at times may be more needed for the laity than for other states of Christian life, due to the nature of being on the front lines in living in and dealing with a secular world.
But I must admit that I succumbed to punditry like so many bloggers. It wasn’t all bad; I think on the topic of the war in Iraq and in some other areas, there were some fruitful discussions. However, blogging on current events tends towards the sarcastic, critical, and cynical. Given that my original vision was to focus far more on the spiritual, the more I found the change in focus of Integrity unsatisfactory, even if it meant some comments were left on some posts, for a change. And I found as time went on that I was slipping into that “culture of complaint” so many Catholics striving to be faithful to the Church’s teachings find themselves in. It’s not a fun neighborhood to live in. I was neglecting prayer and felt that I was spending more time thinking about all that might be going wrong within the Catholic world than trying to be Catholic. I also think I hampered Integrity by focusing so much on methodically working through CFL. As much as I think every lay person should read CFL – and clergy once a year – the Pope does have a tendency to say the same thing for pages. I wasn’t sure if I could post on another section of CFL without just repeating what I had previously said. All of that led me to shut down Integrity in June of 2003.
Why resume Integrity? Well, I’m not resuming Integrity, but trying to restore it. Restore it to the original vision. The main reason is that I feel compelled to. I’m not an expert on the subject of the laity, nor a theologian or a saint. But I know an important subject when I see one. And I’m willing to risk being wrong in posting my own thoughts – good, mediocre, insightful or inaccurate, as the case may be -- if, together, there’s a chance we might learn more of what it means to be a lay person living witness to the Gospel. There are also two recent events from my life that caused me to consider this endeavor again. First, I agreed to help coordinate a dinner in Chicago for a Christian organization that tries to bring Christians of all denominations together in the hopes that relationships might blossom of benefit to the Body of Christ. The chosen theme for these dinners to be held all across the country (chosen well after I agreed to co-chair the Chicago dinner)? “Integrity: Defined By Our Commitments.” Similarly, I recently attended Mass at Holy Name Cathedral and heard a homily by a priest who spoke of the universal call to holiness, the need to let Christ impact all areas of one’s life, the need to transform the world to the Gospel, that heroism isn’t found just in the big things (founding a church, religious order, etc.) but also can be lived in the ordinary areas of life. He basically touched on many things that I have thought about over the past six years. His word to summarize all of these things: integrity.
That was powerful to me. When I was in college, and was considering leaving the Catholic Church, God used another priest’s homily to keep me in the fold. I was struggling deeply at the time with the faith versus works question and had the issue on my mind before Mass one Sunday in particular. Just after Mass began the priest broke with his normal greetings and told everyone that tonight’s homily – it was an evening student Mass – was going to be significantly longer than usual because he wanted to talk in depth on the Catholic view of justification, faith and works. Needless to say, I gathered from that moment that maybe God didn’t want me to leave the Catholic Church just yet. (Never, as it turns out.) So to hear this priest summarize my thoughts and use the very same word I had linked to them, I figured that maybe I needed to give Integrity another shot.
So that’s what I am doing. I am going to try mightily hard to stay true to the original vision behind starting this blog. Don’t expect much beyond weekly posts. All will try and focus on some aspect of the calling of the laity. There will be reflections on CFL, but also on other writings and different approaches at getting at the same topic. I again hope for interaction with readers, but I’m going to resist letting the quantity of comments (or lack thereof) to a post impact my mood. (But if you like what this blog is all about an occasional email saying so would be greatly appreciated!) Another change I hope to implement is having another blogger join me in creating Integrity. If someone shares the vision outlined above and would be willing to contribute reflections once a week or every other week, please email me at [email protected]. Do not be offended if I ask you some questions and push a bit. There are plenty of other avenues for those interesting in just blogging; I’m looking for a good fit with the mission of Integrity. Although I think there is something to lay folks carrying out this task, don’t hesitate to email me if you are a deacon, priest, bishop or religious.
Integrity’s doors to re-open soon.
Phases Of The Christian Life
The above quote is attributed to Bishop Fulton Sheen and I find it utterly fascinating and a useful reflection for lay Catholics. I think some mistakenly assume that Bishop Sheen is describing three disconnected periods of Christ's life, suggesting that he only taught during one, redeemed during another. I don't think that is the case, but unfortunately I do think that is how we often behave and think of the events of Christ's life. And in so doing we develop unrealistic images about what it means to live the Gospel and what our own Christian witness might entail.
To the contrary, I think that Bishop Sheen would affirm that Christ's work didn't begin on the Cross, but was part of His life from the start. Instead, I think the quote offers us a view into the reality of all of our lives. There is a large portion of it spent living out the vocation to holiness in the ordinariness of life. Then there is a period of a more specific vocation, with a shorter period (or maybe just a moment) with a vocation of unique particularity. Too many of us live our lives as if we are in a holding pattern waiting for that big moment in which we will live out that great mission that is ours. When we think like that we need to remind ourselves that Christ spent thirty years of his life as a child, a neighbor, a carpenter. Surely we can draw from that something about the importance of ordinary life! Similarly, when we discount the life of Christ prior to his ministry or his redemption of us on the Cross, we tend to lose sight of the fact that our vocation of unique particularity, as I have dubbed it, may not have the explicit drama or "bigness" as that of Christ's. It may be far more subtle by earthly measures, but still with eternal significance. Maybe it's a conversation that only you might be in a position to have with another.
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