Bound in Love

Practices that incarnate the Christian vision

The world is somewhat blind to the spiritual reality that is actually more real than what the world sees. So part of our mission is to have the spiritual world become a living force in our minds and manifested in our lives. We have to become those witnesses that Pope Paul spoke of. To be an authentic witness, we have to reject the dominant narrative that says religion is a private matter. We do not have to put on a sandwich board and go and preach the gospel at the corner in front of the grocery store. But we do have to be distinctively Christian such that people know that the Christian faith directs our behavior. We have to boldly proclaim the faith in our lives. We have to be willing to be the Bible that other people read. After they’ve experienced the Bible through us, we can actually give them a real Bible to read. But they can only be taught if we’ve been good witnesses.

We need to be willing to be distinct. In a Christendom culture, even in the United States, the practice of not eating meat on Fridays was widely understood, accepted, and supported. Coming out of the Second Vatican Council, the American bishops said that it didn’t have to be not eating meat on Fridays. That’s what many American Catholics heard. The bishops continued that we had to do something penitential on Fridays because Friday still recalled the sacrifice on Mount Calvary. But most American Catholics did not hear the second part of the Bishop statement. That’s why most American Catholics eat meat on Fridays. It is now apostolic to return to meatless Fridays. It is apostolic because it’s a lot harder than it was 50 years ago. You have to think hard about what you’re going to do and where you’re going to eat on a Friday if you’re following the traditional Friday abstinence.

In our worship, the liturgical practice of the mass was greatly modified after the second Vatican Council. We spent a great deal of time talking about this couple of years ago. Thinking the wind was behind us, the church generally got very accommodative in its liturgical practice. If we recognize that the wind is no longer behind us but is actually blowing in our faces, then it apostolic mode of worship might include returning to those distinctively Catholic practices at the mass.

Praying in Latin, for example, is no longer the norm but does say something profound. Kneeling — assuming you can get back up — and receiving on the tongue — the centuries-long normative way to receive holy Communion — dropped out of favor after the second Vatican Council but now can be a sign of distinction that the faithful Catholic knows who it is that he is receiving at holy communion and who it is that is being given the gift of the reality of Jesus Christ, body blood soul and divinity. It’s easy to say the words of the centurion — that we are not worthy that he should come under our roof — but in an apostolic age we can make sure that our behavior in our religious practice matches our statement of faith.