In many cities around the United States, communities of the Communion and Liberation movement hosted processions of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. This particular version of the Way of the Cross is based on one Fr. Giussani used and focuses on the Passion account from the Gospel of St. Matthew. (Visit Stephen's blog, Being or Nothingness!, to read some of the texts we use.)
This was our second year hosting a Way of the Cross through the downtown streets of Chicago, this time from Daley Plaza, through the Loop to Millennium Park, up Michigan Avenue to the Water Tower, and then finally to Holy Name Cathedral. (Here are two links to posts on last year's version.) As soon as I have pictures, I will add them to this post. It was a beautiful gesture and I was struck by many things.
First, I was struck by the grace of God. We had tried to obtain a permit (although one was not needed for the event) because we hoped to have assistance from the police in crossing the busy intersections. Well, as should surprise no one who is familiar with our city government, we never received an official response to our permit application. In fact, the city lost it. (But not before taking the check for the application review fee out of the envelope and cashing it. Nice, huh?) We chose to take it as a blessing, on the assumption that it was better to have no answer than to get an official "no" to an event that didn't need a permit in the first place. Half way through the procession, some police were near an intersection that we were crossing. And of course, we had trouble getting through the intersection because of cars not following the signals, creating a backup of cars making a left-hand turn onto the street that we were trying to cross. Momentary worry that we were all going to be told to disband was cast aside as the two police officers cleared the cars through the intersection and then stopped traffic to let us through. They followed our procession the rest of the way, stopping traffic each time so that we could cross the streets. Apparently, someone handed our program to them when they were near us and they saw the letter from Cardinal George inside the cover, giving his blessing to the event. It was all these good officers needed to see to decide to help us. So where normal means failed to obtain us a police escort, Providence stepped in!
Second, I was struck by how many people joined us. We had probably twice the crowd of last time and there were quite a few people who joined us along the way. I saw a Franciscan friar from St. Peter's join us for most of the journey. Friends from the neighboring CL communities in Peoria, IL and Milwaukee, WI made the pilgrimage to Chicago to join us. Fr. Mayall, the pastor of the Cathedral, welcomed us to use the Marian courtyard as the place of our last station and joined us. It was a wonderful expression of the connectedness of our witness to Christ's passion with that of our local Church and Bishop, and that of the whole Church.
It was also quite striking to see the expressions of the people that we passed by. Some had expressions of shock. But for many, there either was a certain expression of approval or quiet acknowledgment that they were being reminded by our public display of the meaning of this day.
Fr. Agostino came from D.C. to preside over the Way of the Cross. He commented that he thought during our procession that maybe the reason for why Christ had to suffer in such a public and dramatic way was to make visible for us the depths of God's love for us. Because, as Fr. Agostino said, for men and women if they do not see something it often is as if it did not exist. Thus, through our gesture of the Way of the Cross, we were contributing to the Church's continued witness to that love, the continuation of the effort to make that love visible to all.
And this making of Christ's love visible through our procession of the Way of the Cross didn't just stop on Good Friday. As it happens, a few photographers showed up. Splashed on the front page of the Chicago Sun Times this morning, a large photograph of our procession as we made our way up Michigan Avenue, with the caption:
"Way of the Cross winds through city: People walk during the second annual Way of the Cross procession from Daley Center Plaza to Holy Name Cathedral. The event, organized by the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation, included the re-enactment of Christ's walk to Calvary."
Learning Through Fraternity
As anyone vaguely familiar with this blog knows, for about a year and a quarter now I have been involved in the Communion and Liberation movement. It has been quite a ride. Over the years, I have been involved in many organizations that form part of the life of the Church. But this is the first time where I have felt that I was most definitely caught up in a charism, that of another, of a people, and possibly my own.
As a result, one of the things that I have tried to do recently is take more seriously the methods that CL proposes to us for growing in the faith, to embrace more deeply the charism. One such method, is the Fraternity, where adults who have formally acknowledged their adherence to the charism gather to share their lives and to help each other judge our daily events. I'm not a member of the Fraternity, and truthfully don't plan on being one for some time longer (to verify that this is truly the way I am called to live out the Catholic faith before I make a deeper commitment). Nevertheless, at the invitation of a friend, I have been meeting with three others as a Fraternity group. We've been spending time together, talking about our lives and helping each other face the questions that we are asking about our experiences. We've been using the text of the Spiritual Exercises from last year as our backdrop.
It was within this context that I think I made a very important discovery for myself. Now, some of you may read what follows and think, "I could have told him that!" The discovery, though, isn't the fact but the application of it to my life. So often we don't truly appropriate what the Church teaches, making it our own and allowing it to move and change us. Sure, we might give the gloss of having done so, but quite often that's all it is.
I had been going through some difficult times with changes at work and an incredibly busy schedule. (I'll spare you the details, but also in my effort to maintain what semblance of pseudonymity remains for this blog.) I was experiencing a real loss of hope. As it happens, we were studying at the time a part of the Exercises that was speaking to this very experience. In that section, Fr. Carron emphasized how hope needs a great grace to be sustained and that grace is the encounter with Christ. But rather than a single moment, a past thing, the encounter with Christ that we have experienced is also a path that we are to follow. In other words, we must return again and again and look upon this grace for hope to be sustained. Later in the week, several of us went to the Divine Liturgy at a Byzantine Catholic parish. I love their liturgy so much. But this time I was struck powerfully by how much their prayer resounds with begging for God's mercy. The Kyrie appears throughout, not just at the beginning. Their prayer in preparation for receiving the Eucharist is drawn from St. Dismas' prayer -- if ever there was a prayer that reflecting the notion of begging -- "Remember me, O Lord, when you enter your Kingdom". It drove home for me something that I had forgotten: the Mass is my prayer. The Sacraments are a place where I encounter the Lord again and again.
Together, all of that has motivated me to start attending daily Mass, as best as I can. Not out of a sense of obligation, but the exact opposite. Out of a need to encounter Christ again and again and a recognition that what I desire out of life is not possible without resting within His grace.
As I said, many might read this and wonder why it took all that for me to recognize the merits of being a daily communicant. But I hope it might give a flavor for how a charism like CL's might lead one on the journey that is our life in Christ.
(Next time, I'll return to complete the series on "Parishes vs. Movements?".)
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