Way back in the late 12th
century, a noble family in Germany had 10 children. The family decided that the
youngest child would devote her life to Christ in a special way. The parents brought this young girl to a
Benedictine monastery when she was 8 year old, where she lived in a cell for 30
years with one of the nuns. The girl
never left the cell once during that time.
The nun taught this young girl in the ways of prayer and piety. When this nun, her teacher, died of old age,
this girl, who was now a women, was allowed to leave her cell, and she was
elected as the head of that Benedictine community. She went on to lead a very remarkable
life. She helped found two other
communities of nuns along the Rhine River in Germany. Her reputation for holiness spread. At a time when women were not looked upon for
wisdom or advice, this Benedictine nun was searched out for counsel and
spiritual advice by popes, royalty, the nobility, and religious leaders. People from all over came to her for healing
and to hear her preach and teach. She
wrote poetry and music. She practiced
herbal medicine and was a well-respected scientist who was one of the first
Christians to incorporate ecology and caring for the earth into our theology.
She wrote and directed theater productions.
Her mystical visions were under examination by the Church authorities of
her day, because of their radical nature and new vision. Yet, even today, the visions and example of
this remarkable woman give us insight into what God is all about.
What is remarkable about this
Benedictine nun who was born more than 800 years ago is that next Sunday she is
going to be named by Pope Benedict XVI as one of the Doctors of the Church,
joining a select group of 35 men and
women whose teachings and writings cross the boundaries of time and culture to
offer us profound wisdom and insights into our Christian faith. This nun, named Hildegard of Bingen, defied
the conventional ways of doing things. Now,
in our modern era, Hildegard is being recognized by our Church for the way she
is still teaching us today.
I bring up Hildegard of Bingen because
of the way we often want to put God and our faith in a neat, tidy little
box. We like things to be crystal clear
and clean-cut, don’t we? We often don’t
like those individuals who rock the boat or who make us think. We want a religion that answers our questions
in a clear, concise way, but perhaps we become uncomfortable by those in our
faith who challenge us or who push the boundaries of how we practice our
faith. We hear the disciples in today’s
Gospel criticizing those who are driving out demons in Jesus’ name, but who are
not included in his small group of apostles.
This follows so much of what is going on in our world today. So many people want to make this world the
insiders versus the outsiders, us versus them.
In fact, today’s Gospel comes on the heels of the Gospel reading we
heard last week, in which Jesus’ disciples were arguing about which of them was
the greatest.
Next weekend, we are going to kick off
our year of faith, a year in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the Second Vatican Council, a year in which we celebrate our Catholic faith
and the need for us to evangelize the world, to re-evangelize many members of
the faith who need Christ’s message to breath new life into them. Although we celebrate the unity we have in
our faith, we also celebrate the diverse ways we have in living out our faith
as well. Think of the many ways God calls
different members of the Church to live out our faith. Think of the different gifts God gives to
different people. All of this enriches
our faith, enriches our community, enriches the way we see God in our lived
reality. But the main thing is to
become engaged with our faith, to continue to learn and grow, to wrestle with
those questions that we have, to help others grow in their faith.
We are called to delve into our
Catholic faith and our Catholic traditions – this is a lot of what the Year of
Faith is about. But the Second Vatican
Council also calls us to read the signs of the times, to make our faith
relevant to the modern world, to dialogue with our world and to infuse our world
with our faith. This afternoon, the
different churches here in Yazoo City are getting together at the First
Presbyterian Church for our Pray Yazoo service, in which we will get together
in solidarity as Christian brothers and sisters to pray for our community. I have been enriched and edified personally
from my involvement with the ministerial association in Yazoo City, and by
working together, we can help improve things in our community. Dialoguing with others from the different
Christian denominations and from the non-Christian faith traditions is one of
the greatest challenges our world is facing today.
I think that for many generations we
believers here in the United States took our Christian faith for granted. We took for granted we had the liberty and
freedom to practice our faith. We took
for granted that there was a parish nearby where we could go to church and
worship the Lord in a vibrant, nurturing faith community. Perhaps some of us
have become complacent in our faith.
Perhaps we are like the disciples in the Gospel, too quick to criticize
others for the way they are living out their faith, but not engaging completely
in living out our own faith. However,
with a country that often is lashing out at Christianity and criticizing us for
our beliefs, with our religious liberty under attack, we need to more and more
be united as brothers and sisters in Christ, to be more engaged in our faith,
to learn more about the issues and policies that are affecting us. We have a lot going on in our parish –
probably more than we think at first glance.
We need to discern and pray about where God is calling to serve, where
he is calling us to engage.
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