Sunday of the Word of God

Rita Ferrone has written a pair of articles about this past Sunday's initial celebration of Sunday of the Word of God.  Rita shows a laudatory willingness to try something new.  We should hope that church leadership can exhibit that same willingness.

A few days ago, I mentioned that, in spite of being warned ahead of time that Pope Francis had declared that the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time is now to be celebrated as the Sunday of the Word of God, I managed to compose a homily that failed to acknowledge it.

What made my forgetfulness even harder to fathom was that I had actually taken part in an electronic discussion a few weeks earlier in which we decided how our parish would mark the day.  In our case, our pastor acknowledged the occasion in his greeting at the beginning of mass; we enthroned the Book of the Gospels after the Gospel was proclaimed (in our case, "enthroning" meant placing the book, open to the Gospel of the day, on a podium that was set up in front of the ambo, facing toward the people); one of our petitions during the Prayers of the Faithful was that the Word would be planted in our hearts; and at each mass we blessed any lectors who were present.

As it happens, Rita Ferrone has written two articles on the occasion.  For the Love of the Word, on the Commonweal website, reflects on what a good idea Francis has had:

... how lovely this day could be: a shot in the arm for religious devotion, spiritual growth, and theological literacy, and a dose of fresh energy for ecumenism. What Francis proposed is that the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time will be observed henceforth as a day on which to renew our love and gratitude for the Word of God. It includes a call to “enthrone the Word” during the liturgy, to give out Bibles, and to promote reading and reflection on sacred Scripture by people in all walks of life. Such an observance could enhance the Eucharist, and help us to better realize the hopes of the Second Vatican Council that the Word would stand at the heart of prayer, catechesis, and preaching, becoming “the soul of sacred theology” (Dei verbum 24).

She notes, though, in a way that points uncannily to my own personal inattentiveness, that the American church didn't exactly pick up the ball and run with it, at least in its initial reception:

Contrary to the wonderment that greeted so many of his other plans, his initiative on a religious topic of relevance to every believer got lackluster treatment. There were dutiful acknowledgements but hardly an enthusiastic response. Most Catholics I know didn’t even hear about it.

She considers reasons for the underwhelming level of excitement: the Catholic media environment in the US is geared toward controversy, and this is not a controversial topic, so the announcement from Francis probably didn't make many most-read lists.  She also notes, rightly in my opinion, that Catholics since the Second Vatican Council, and even going back to Pius XII's pontificate, have been urged to read the bible, study it, and incorporate its treasures more richly in our worship than was previously the case.  As Rita notes, "Perhaps we feel we’ve already “been there, done that.”"

But then, Francis-like, she deftly punctures our bubble of American complacency:

North American Catholics who lived through the Council know that an explosion of interest in the scriptures followed it, but that passion gradually faded. In Latin America, however, Scripture reading became an integral part of the daily life of the Christian base communities and achieved lasting significance as a lay phenomenon.

This is a development of which I was previously unaware.  Rita highlights two Argentinian bishops from the immediate pre- and post-Conciliar periods, Jorge Kemerer and Alberto Devoto, who did much to build up Scripture reading among the faithful in remote areas of Argentina.  And she closes by suggesting that our Argentinian pontiff may well have had this heritage in mind in exhorting the rest of the world to renew its attentiveness to the Table of the Word each year.

Rita followed up her article with a blog post at Pray Tell entitled, "More Important Than It Looks", in which she shares how her own parish celebrated the Sunday of the Word of God.  She admits that she didn't have high expectations.

Pope Francis said people have been clamoring for a day to celebrate the Word. Frankly, I wasn’t hearing a clamor. More like a murmur. A woman I know, a very experienced pastoral associate, once told me “Whenever you survey a congregation they all say they want Bible study. But then you host a Bible study and they don’t come.” This has been, more or less, my experience too.

But in the event, her expectations were exceeded:

In fact, I was incredibly moved by how my own Sunday worshiping community chose to celebrate. Before Mass began, there was a brief, well-worded introduction alerting us to this new observance. The hymns were fabulous, and each one was chosen to both connect to the scriptures of the day and to celebrate the power of God’s Word through the Word made flesh. The presider’s opening remarks also helped us to focus on the character of this observance. They were concise, apt, enthusiastic, and well-chosen. We knew from the start why this day was important and what the focus really was.
What blew me away, however, was a liturgical action: the Gospel procession was done up in a bold manner for this occasion. It was splendid. It was magnificent. It was inspiring. The priest and ministers walked the long way around the church, carrying the gospel book aloft in all its glory. There were banners, candles, incense. The music! An outpouring of joy. I was transported by the alleluias. Then, after the reading of the gospel, the book was enthroned. The preaching that followed was powerful.

The preaching?  Ouch.  But I guess I should rejoice that at least one preacher not only got the memo, but remembered it.

But more broadly speaking, I really appreciate being able to read about things that are done right, or more than right, in other parishes.  They stimulate the imagination and expand the list of possibilities for one's own parish.  (May one add that they also get the competitive juices flowing a bit?).  I am going to share this piece with our pastor and music director.

I've been in pastoral ministry long enough to know that most ministry professionals, both clerical and lay, are averse to change, just like leaders in the corporate world.  Even when a new pastor or ministry director comes into a parish, their "fresh ideas" often are simply practices that they import from previous stops, which they like better than whatever their new parish has been doing.

In the context of this widespread resistance to chance, there is great value in Rita's imaginative embrace of Francis's initiative.  Francis is proposing something that really is new - if, like Rita, we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that most parishes were rather minimal in their embrace of the Sunday of the Word of God, or perhaps ignored it completely.  That would be both telling and unfortunate.  Parishes whose leaders are mostly intent upon preserving the status quo are probably parishes that will soon be in trouble, or already are.  My observation is that, both within and outside the church, this is an era of rapid cultural change.  Parishes - and especially their leaders - will need to become nimble and open to change.  Most of the parish leadership around here is aging and entrenched; those characteristics usually aren't hallmarks of openness to change.  Will it take a new generation of Catholic leaders to steer the church where it needs to go?  I hope we have that much time.