“I am a person first.
I am a Christian second. I
am a Catholic third.” Those were
some of the opening words I shared on stage at NST 2013 before two hundred and fifty staff associates recently hired by the mission of Young Life. For many, so I thought, having a Catholic on stage would be
uncomfortable. I figured that some
might even object. But I soon came
to realize that the young people responding to God’s call to serve the lost
and build the kingdom today resonated deeply with the vision of unity and
mission, together, as one body in Christ.
I was profoundly touched.
Those words were not my own, truth be told. I borrowed them from a dear friend of
mine, a Catholic priest, who is in the midst of a painful trial. His own commitment to unity and
reconciliation had put him at odds with some who would rather dwell in the
divisions of the past than to embrace a common future
together. Standing valiantly in
the face of persecution, even at the hands of the church that he loves so
dearly, he stated, “I am a person first.
I am a Christian second. I
am a Catholic priest third.”
What he was saying is that all of us as human beings are
bound by a deep unity that begins in our personhood. We are bound, each of us from every country and creed, by
our common identity as children of God, image-bearers of the One who breathed
life into our very souls. This is
the unity that allows us to see the face of God in a glorious diversity of
humanity: in a Muslim who gave his coat to an impoverished stranger without
counting the cost, in Young Life staff (Evangelical, mainline, Catholic or
otherwise) who sacrifice their lives daily so that teenagers might know the
love of God, in the kind gestures of the woman who served me breakfast this
morning.
What postmoderns can see, what postmoderns are yearning for,
is a universal church, a church that is truly “catholic” (small ‘c’), that can lift up and
glorify the face of Jesus Christ wherever He is found. What postmoderns are waiting for is a
love that transcends the divisions and heals the wounds of our past. What postmoderns are beginning to see
within Young Life and the Catholic Church is the power of the Holy Spirit to
inspire a new Pentecost where people gather from every nation to speak, in their
own cultures and languages, about the “wonderful things God has done”(Acts
2:11).
As the liturgical season of Christmas draws to a close
today, the united chorus of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” anticipates the next
movement in God’s redemptive symphony – Resurrection, Renewal and the irresistible
Revolution of Pentecost - "Come, Holy Spirit."
Come Holy Spirit,
Fill the hearts of
your faithful
And kindle in them the
fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit
And they shall be
created.
And You shall renew
the face of the earth.
O, God,
Who by the light of
the Holy Spirit,
Did instruct the
hearts of the faithful,
Grant that by the same
Holy Spirit
We may be truly wise
and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our
Lord,
Amen.
~ Catholic prayer drawn from Psalm 104 and the Gregorian
Sacramentary of the ninth century.
