Looking Like a Changed Church

Not too uncommon at the parish over the weekend is a flash of brown in the Commons. One young parishioner asked just the other Sunday “why does he wear that outfit?” The question was an honest inquiry about Father Bill’s fashionable wearing of the Franciscan habit of the Atonement Friars. In the early days of the parish, such a inquiry would have been unnecessary, as any number of Friars would have appeared regularly in the very Francis-of-Assisi look-alike outfit. The parish staff in those days, and visiting Friars of whom there would have been many from our seminary in D.C., would have seen that as our usual attire for prayer and ministry.

At my recent jubilee with thirteen other Friars, that was the attire of the occasion. There were several lighter moments before the jubilee Mass when I was spotted with the habit on by friends, family, and confreres. Matter of fact, my appearance in the habit was quite a hit, calling for the digital cameras to flash! All kinds of questions and comments came my way. “I didn’t know you had one of those!” My two nephews in their slightly under twenty years had never seen their uncle in the Atonement habit. My younger sister reminded me of our mother’s comment, “You couldn’t wait to get it,” noting my zeal and excitement at the beginning of the novitiate.

What happened in the fifty years of vocational pursuit as this once ordinary mode of dress for religious is seen and worn less, if at all? I guess what was good for Francis in the thirteenth century seems a bit out of place on our streets and as prayer robe in our churches. The world has changed, the styles have been secularized, and also people’s response to God’s call is different. The religious habit, without judgment about its passing, was a visible sign of how we saw ourselves and our Church in the world.

Changing, No Changed
In looking at a simple part of tradition we are looking at not only a changing Church, but a changed one. My response as priest and friar had been lived, by and large, in a changing Church. Gathered at the Jubilee Mass, not occasioned only by the habit, my realization was that the Church and we had changed. A quick look over the shoulder in the Pilgrim Hall, where the Friars and family gathered, knew that the change was more than external. Pilgrim Hall had been the place of my Final Vows as a religious and my ordination to the priesthood. How different was the context in which both realities had been lived! More had changed than the hairline or the waistline of the celebrating Friars and community!

Some would tell us that celebrating jubilees is a good thing, and indeed it is.

One, however, needs to note the challenge, of more priests and religious celebrating fiftieth anniversaries, than those celebrating twenty-five years. More thought and prayer provoking is that there are less friars standing behind the “younger” group with fewer years. Change in the Church, whether in process or completed, invites some thoughts and efforts about vocations.

The Church and the world is the context in which people are called. Vocations within the Church are not given or responded to in a vacuum. One frequent exercise within vocational groups is telling the story of one’s vocation, how God spoke and how the person answered. Even in the Atonement community the centerpiece of the “Come and See Weekend” for young adults is the context of how people respond to their vocation.

Many Called
This past week at daily Mass we read the gospel text about “many called … few chosen”. The context of the text was the human needs which faced Jesus in his ministry and the call of the disciples. The many and the few occasions a prayerful wish from the Lord to the harvest master to send laborers into the vineyard, “for the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.”

Our own reading of the text is a far different world from just a few years ago (50). Through the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s we could read the text with an eye to a very large number of priests, brothers, and sisters. We could congratulate ourselves at a generous response. We also lived in a Church where the many, indeed, were called. We might even encourage the harvest with the “few chosen” ones. Vocational response was the affair of the select and the few, but the majority could go on their vocational way. Someone had “gone to the convent” or “had gone to the seminary”. It was possible to be left off the hook of personal response.

Vocations Today
Our situation is changed today. We are in a world of relative wealth and consumer values. Our world, for better or worse, is seemingly more secular. Even the Church has a broader view of the baptismal call -– all are called to discipleship and ministry. Are vocations wanting? Or are they spoken and given with different language in a changed context? We might just need new eyes and ears to see and hear where the Lord is calling.

Perhaps, we in the Church, especially our young people, are like the young Samuel in the Book of Kings. He was unaccustomed to the Lord’s voice and needed to learn from the old man Eli. If the Lord speaks, and surely he does, simply respond: “Here I am Lord. I come to do your will.”

CDH