Today, Father Ron celebrated the Mass at my parish in New Melle, Missouri. A few weeks ago, Father Chris celebrated the Mass here. And about a year ago, Father Athanasius celebrated the Mass with us.
There's nothing strange about that. We have visiting priests all the time.
What is interesting to me - as a convert from evangelical Protestantism - is where these priests come from.
Father Ron is from India. Father Chris works in South America - Peru, I think. And Father Athanasius is from Uganda. I remember him well. He said, "I am Father Athanasius from u-GHAN-dah. Not Father Euthanasia. Father Athanasius."
It is interesting to me - this trend toward having priests from other countries visit the United States - because I grew up in faith communities that sent workers to other countries. I sat through my share of mission presentations, where white Americans from our denomination shared about their travels to far-off countries. And they returned, with hours and hours of slide shows to help us see what their efforsts and our financial sacrifices had accomplished. Without realizing it, I began to have an image in my mind of the Christian Church. It was white, anglo-saxon, and Protestant. And we went into the world to preach the Good News.
It is a skewed view of the Christian faith. In reality, these visiting priests tell the real story. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a message told to the world by white North Americans (like many of us from the United States). The Gospel Message is the story of Jesus Christ. The message comes to us, from the lips of many nations, because the Bride of Christ is made up of the faithful from every country.
We do not own this message. And it is not primarily entrusted to white Americans.
It is a message for all people.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, for you have sent workers to all nations, including my own, to preach the Gospel of Christ.
I am the little one from some remote village, who hears the message from a traveler. God's messengers have come to me, to bring me Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
And to remind me that the Catholic Church is indeed universal.
My confessor is from Africa and I frequently attend Mass and Confession at St. Joseph's Old Cathedral downtown OKC, which is right next to the Bombing Memorial and gets a wealth of priests from overseas. I just love their zeal for the Truth of Jesus Christ. It reminds me (a little) of the English and Irish sending missionaries like St. Boniface back to the Continent to preach to the Franks and other Germanic tribes. Only centuries before it had been the Christians from some of these same southern areas responsible for converting the Anglo-Saxons. History is cyclical.
ReplyDeleteWonderful comments! Yes, we hold each other up. When one member of the Body is weak, another becomes strong. And then, once health is restored, the once-weak part often takes the lead somewhere down the line.
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