What follows are a series of short reflections that are included in the fourthday packet for new cursillistas. They are good for all of us.
Signs
If you are a PC user, chances are that somewhere on your PC there is a little metallic sticker that says ‘Intel inside.’ That sign tells you the exact type and capacity of the central processor contained within the PC. There is no ambiguity, no question. It is a statement of fact. It’s a guarantee.
Not all signs are so accurate. We have all been to homes that display ‘Welcome’ on the doormat, yet once inside we haven’t felt all that welcomed. In other cases the doormat says nothing, yet the warmth of our acceptance within the home has been overwhelming. Today, ‘welcome’ mats are extremely common, but unfortunately they no longer carry the guarantee that the welcome feeling is present within the home. Common usage has surpassed the intended meaning.
So, what does it mean when we wear a crucifix? At one time the message was clear. If you saw someone wearing the sign of Christ’s cross it meant “Christ inside,” and you could be assured of compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and non-judgment from the person displaying it.
Sadly, like our welcome mats, that is no longer a guarantee. Today many people casually wear the crucifix as jewelry, with no sense of obligation to behave in the manner of Christ. “The silver one looks good with this clothing, the gold with that clothing” is often the determining thought that we have as we don the symbol of our savior. We have lost consciousness that the wearing of the cross should be a guaranteed sign that we profess our faith in Christ, and that we will behave as Him towards others.
Surely one does not need to display a crucifix to clearly have ‘Christ inside.’ But if we wear this sign we should be cognizant that it comes with an obligation to behave as Christ. As Cursillistas we are called to always show that Christ lives ‘inside,’ regardless of whether or not we display the symbol of His cross. It should be evident by what we do, what we say, and the Christian way that we handle the every day situations of life.
Today’s
youth have recently lately taken to wearing rosaries as jewelry. Some people have expressed outrage at
this. If you truly have ‘Christ inside’
then you will not be outraged. You will be patient and loving – as Christ would
be. In the end, the sign is not what is
important. Remember, it’s what is inside
that counts.
Forgiveness
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” As a person who very often requires forgiveness, the first part of that line of the Our Father means a lot to me. I often pray that the Father, and the people that I have hurt, forgive me for my many transgressions of human nature. But it is that same human nature that makes the second part of that line a little difficult to embrace.
When people ‘trespass against’ me, I have a tendency to become extremely conscious of the transgression, and I get emboldened with self-righteous indignation. Sure, I’ll forgive… only after they come crawling back, beg my forgiveness, and offer some kind of retribution. Such is our human nature.
There is an innate sense of ‘fairness’ that is programmed into our personalities from an early age, and we always look at the world through eyes that seek justice and equal treatment. The first full sentence that most children create on their own is: “That’s not fair!” When people disturb our sense of fairness we tend to hold it against them, sometimes fleetingly, but more often we harbor it, nurture it, and let it linger. Fairness is very important to us – either consciously or unconsciously.
At one time we had a bumper sticker on our car that read: “If you want peace, then work for justice.” It was a quote from Pope Paul VI, and I think that it captured how most people think. Far be it for me to disagree with a pope, but justice is not a worthwhile goal, as it leaves too much to personal interpretation. Certainly Israelis and Palestinians alike are seeking ‘justice’, but there is still daily bloodshed. The same happens in Northern Ireland, and all across the world. No, justice is not the avenue to peace. Justice is too tightly aligned with our human nature.
What the quote should have said was: “If you want peace, practice forgiveness – and teach it.” If everyone who professed belief in Jesus Christ woke up today and unconditionally forgave those that have hurt them, then the world would begin to get better very quickly. That is the challenge of Christianity, and of the Cursillista.
That is what the phrase “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” should be about. As Cursillistas we are called to offer unsolicited, undeserved, unconditional forgiveness to those that hurt us. This is not an easy task, because our human nature tells us otherwise, but is it indeed the challenge that we are called to embrace.
Fr. Oliver Blanchette, who for many years was a spiritual advisor on our Cursillo weekends, used to pause before the Sign of Peace at Mass and say: “Before we offer peace to one another here among those that we care for, first call to mind that person in your life that you find it most difficult to offer peace to, and then let go of your anger.” On good days I would need to think hard before someone came to mind. On bad days, my mind got a little crowded.
I still mentally try to do that at every Mass, as it is a good way to take inventory on my ability to ‘forgive those who trespass against’ me. The last words of our Savior as He unjustly hung from the cross were “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That is the example that you are called to follow.
Make
the world a little better today – forgive someone.
Cursillo is not into causes
Last week the Vatican released its policy on restricting homosexuals with active tendencies from becoming priests. As could be expected, different people received it differently. Some were elated, some were crushed. Some will use it as a reason to embrace the Church; others will use it as a reason to leave the Church. This is just the latest in a long list of issues that serve to divide us.
Issue after issue, dividing our Church, declaring winners and losers, keeping us from becoming the true Body of Christ. Why does this happen? Who is right? How do we solve these problems? Meanwhile, our Church diminishes as each battle is fought.
So where does Cursillo stand on these issues? The answer is we don’t.
Within Cursillo we teach that the state of the world, and all of its problems, are due to the fact that we try to solve problems with human solutions such as rules, regulations, laws, restrictions, absolutes, accusations, and other reactions that come from our human nature. And until we recognize that Christ is the solution to all of our problems, then we will fail to resolve any of them. The Church is hurting today because it too tries to solve its problems with human solutions. The truth is that all the rules and regulations will not solve anything. Within Cursillo we teach that the resolution of such issues lies in the conversion of each individual to a full relationship with Christ. In short, we seek to proclaim Jesus Christ and to live His truth in the Church that He called forth for our salvation. We judge no one; we simply seek to deepen our awareness of God’s love for us and to enter into deeper intimacy with our Savior Jesus, while trying to be the example of love and compassion to all.
We teach that what is important is personal piety, study, and apostolic action – holiness, formation, and evangelization – knowing, loving, and serving the Lord, and that the rest will take care of itself.
I am always stunned by the brotherhood that I feel after a Cursillo weekend. After spending three days with 30 strangers, concentrating on the Lord, worshiping together, laughing together, working together… I don’t know who is Republican or who is Democrat. I have no idea who is rich or who is poor. I don’t know where any individual stands on any of the divisive issues in our faith.
But I do know that I love them, every one of them. And I know that I can engage in thoughtful dialog with anyone of them on any subject, without resorting to accusation, name-calling, exclusion, or any other divisive action. With Christ as our common central focus, we can handle all of these issues and remain one in Him. It is truly an extraordinary feeling.
And that is the Cursillo vision of what our Church and the world should be… individual concentration on Christ, compassionate acceptance of all, and a commitment to allow the love of Jesus to exist as the dominant attribute of our personal interactions.
So
within Cursillo we do not teach for or against either side of the issues that
divide our Church today. The only cause
that we are into is Jesus.
Judgment
Many Catholics believe that the broken state of the world today is the result of something called ‘God’s Plan.’ That is not true. Today’s world results from the cumulative exercise of free-will decisions by people, those today and those that have come before us. God’s Plan is that we individually make a free-will decision to follow Christ’s teachings – a decision that is contrary to our human nature. We can freely choose to do God’s will, or we can choose to follow our human nature. The choice, and the results, are ours.
Christ knows that we are sinners. He came to us because we are sinners! In Luke we read:5:30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” 5:31Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 5:32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Christ’s purpose was to call sinners to repentance… to call each individual to a personal free-will decision to change their behavior. Notice that he didn’t come to accuse us. He didn’t come to blame us. Nor did he come to punish us. He came to heal us. He is the loving physician, sent from the loving Father.
It was this call to personal conversion of behavior that the early church was all about. Believe me. There was nothing boring about the early church. Excitement, wonderment, challenge, hope, commitment… those are the words used to describe the early church. On the day of Pentecost the Apostles burst into the street and were so filled with the spirit that people at first thought that they were drunk! It’s been a while since Catholics were accused of that kind of enthusiasm.
The early church is filled with wonderful stories of how people responded to the challenge of Christ’s call for personal repentance and conversion. How they cared for the sick, the poor, the widowed… How they swore off violence and hatred. How they accepted each other, supported each other, loved each other… They enjoyed living this new behavior! It challenged them! It gave them a sense of purpose! So much so that they were willing to die for their faith, as many did under Roman persecution.
In today’s world we tend to make our free-will decisions based upon our human nature. We focus on exclusion, not inclusion. We think in terms of red states and blue states, men and women, young and old, moral and immoral, right and wrong, us and them. The media teaches us to fear others, and to exclude because of those fears. We place labels on whole groups of people and call out how they are different and wrong. We are convinced that what we believe is right, and that anything else must be wrong – and therefore corrected. We zealously identify, expose, and attack these differences.
Abortion, homosexual marriage, divorce, social security, gun control, death penalty, Red Sox – Yankees… we each stake out our moral high ground and call out the failings of the opposition. We feel obligated to point out the failings of groups of people in the expectation that they will change and become like us. But that rarely, if ever, happens. And the world never gets better.
As Cursillistas we must steel ourselves against such global judgments. We must look at each individual. It is the individual that Christ focused on: the woman at the well, Zaccheus, and most other Gospel stories show a loving, understanding, and accepting Christ who reaches out and calls the individual to make better personal decisions.
Conclusion: You cannot change the heart of someone who disagrees with you unless you first love them.
Christ was not effective because he had the moral high ground. He was effective because he loved. If you truly want to change the world to Christ, then today’s free-will decision must be to love those who disagree with you, to approach each as an individual, and to stop labeling groups.
That is God’s Plan
for you. The choice is yours.