The Great Commissioning

 ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. ’ (Matt 28:19-20)

Matthew 28:16-20 (Year A: Trinity Sunday 11^th June 2017)

Once upon a time, at this sunny exams time of the year, many a teen or young adult was preparing for entry to seminary, convent or religious house, as the case may be.  Frankly, at that time and in this part of the world, to not have even considered the possibility – however secretly – that one might have a ‘vocation’ would have been odd.  Whole families would have witnessed more than one member enter the religious or priestly life at home or abroad.  Such was the supply of ‘vocations’ that many male applicants for diocesan priesthood had to be directed to overseas dioceses for the purposes of training for ordination. While some left before ordination or final profession and a few even after it was not until the 1960s that the numbers entering seminaries or religious houses began to tumble and not a few in holy orders as well as others long established in the ‘vowed’ life found their calling elsewhere (usually but not exclusively in the married life).

Apparently, according to various sources, the above long-past pattern of mass vocations to the religious and priestly life is not unknown today in some parts of the ‘catholic world’. However, it is clear that there has been a huge swing in patterns of human behaviour, belief and religious practice, here in Ireland.  From penny dinners for black babies and prayers for the conversion of Russia, England and the pagans in general, we have now switched to a point where some Christian churches are being kept open literally thanks to the presence of multi-coloured new Irish who bring life, joy and earnestness to what might otherwise have been pretty dead congregations.  Ireland was one of the last remaining islands in Europe where faith was interwoven into the culture, mores, identities and assumptions of people until very recent times (mind you, it must be added that religion was also a badge of political and ethnic conflict and all types of unchristian behaviour – but that is another story).

To say that a religious vocation was almost the norm in times past is not to suggest that, somehow, those not entering on a particular religious life or those who left some time ago were necessarily lacking in faith or perseverance in Christian discipleship. It is complicated and no two cases are identical.  This blogger can claim to know something about these matters not only from his own experience but from that of many others known to him over many decades. Let’s say, he was born at a time to witness the fall and the fall of ‘vocations’ as well as the enormous shifts in thinking, behaviour and assumptions that appear difficult to understand to the millennial generation.

All of this leads one to ask the following:

Is Church dying and is God dead? And does it matter anyway?

Let’s deal with the last question first and work back from there. I take as my point of reference the Gospel reading from the very end of the Gospel of Saint Matthew appointed for Trinity Sunday which marks the transition from one liturgical season to another.

Does it matter?

What do I seek? Where do I find that which I seek?  How important is for me to be faithful to truth? Is there an ultimate Truth?  How do I live a good life?  If to be fully alive is to love and be loved, then what is the source of true love?

The fact that I am not alone in asking these questions (and sometimes struggling with same) suggests that ‘the God question’ does matter in ways that are immediate, personal and meaningful. This process is no idle speculation or mind-gaming. It is, potentially, life-affirming and life-giving.

Is God dead?

The God proclaimed by Jesus Christ is a living God who remains with us.  Matthew closes his gospel by reporting a saying of Jesus:

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Jesus – who is the ‘I am’ is with us – always. Always. Always, including moments when we think God is not there. We may follow the main herd in Western post-modern culture and adopt a practical atheist view that none of ‘that’ is relevant to me in the here and now.  With the greatest of respect for the many who hold to this view on practical and pragmatic grounds it must be pointed out that the fullness of human meaning, identity and purpose finds a natural home in a simple (not simplistic) trusting faith in a higher Loving Being whom some of us know as ‘God’. More than that, we encounter God in Jesus Christ – or to be more accurate God seeks, finds and meets us in Jesus Christ. The only way to establish, in so far as any human being can, whether God is alive or dead is to become fully alive as human beings for the glory and knowledge of God is humanity fully alive.

Is Church dying?

It all depends on what we mean by ‘Church’. Surely, at this time and in this corner of the world, ‘Church’ understood as particular practices, norms and institutions is dying slowly but surely. Churches in the sense of buildings are emptying out and as one generation replaces another the bonds of practice and adherence weaken to a point where, at most, ‘Church’ is a matter of being ‘hatched, matched and despatched’ if even that ….

And returning to the opening part of this blog, ‘vocations’ to ordained ministry and/or the vowed religious life are in free fall. Vast numbers of persons recorded as ‘Christian’ or ‘Catholic’ or ‘Protestant’ on the Irish Census of Population are served by a small band of generally over-worked, sometimes under-appreciated and ageing ministers.

It reminds one of the decline in the Irish language in 19^th century. The spoken language map of Ireland shows a marked retreat and decay as the living, spoken language retreats to small and isolated pockets of the country. And one generation of native speakers is not replaced by another because for one reason or another the language is not ‘passed on’. Is this a very exaggerated metaphor for the decline of organised religious practice in Ireland today? Perhaps a bit exaggerated but not entirely.

Could it be that the ‘Church’ we grew up with and recognised in the smells, sights and sighs of our childhood is destined for marginalistion to small pockets of the intensely dedicated and loyal?  Could it be that the ‘Church’ marked by a benign (or not so benign) clericalism is slowly dying before our eyes?  Could it be that the assumptions we made are up for grabs? Time will tell. This is no time to be despondent or fretful. This is a time to proclaim that:

Jesus Christ is alive in our midst;
The Holy Spirit is moving in all sorts of surprising ways before our eyes if we only opened them; and
The Father is ever finding new ways to reach out to all of his children everywhere.
Amen

It could be that we are heading back to Galilee, so to speak: to those spiritual places where the original spark and impulse came from rather than the spiritual high temples of Jerusalem.

We might have to carry some level of reasonable doubt with us in the course of life journey but that should not prevent us from worshipping God in the beauty of holiness for:

‘they worshipped him; but some doubted’ (v.17)

Our task is to be open to the fullness of human life that the Holy Spirit gives us. From that life and light, we can become candles in the darkness for others. This is our commission – rooted as it is in the gospel sacrament of baptism for all God’s children and the teaching of the Word that sets us free and the care for one another that must be the hallmark of a living and not a dying church.  Vocation is for everyone and we knew this all along. It just becomes inescapable now.