Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - St. Gregory the Great - pope and doctor of the Church
[1 Corinthians 3:1-9 and Luke 4:38-44]At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent." And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
When St. Dominic first founded the Order of Preachers, he and his followers met with some resistance. Up till that time, the only form of religious life was monastic. Monks were expected to make a vow of "stability" which bound them to the monastery where they began religious life. They were to live there for the rest of their lives. The Dominicans (and Franciscans and others) were founded to be itinerant and mobile, even though they would have houses in various centers from which they went out to preach and evangelize. Indeed, Jesus encountered some of the same resistance in his village-oriented society which suspected people who traveled about. When he showed his power as preacher and healer some villages sought to keep him there permanently! The principle of "itinerancy" has created tensions within the Dominican Order at times, especially in the parish-oriented Catholic Church in the United States. The care of a parish tends to root a friar in one community. Some friars do not care for the asceticism of travel - different audiences, different food, different beds, weather delays, lack of personal connection with a given community. Some communities can be "possessive" and resent any absence of the priest to serve others. When I "help" out at rural "priestless" communities nearby, I will often hear them say, "Why don't you come and be pastor here?" Although my age, 65, makes itinerancy more challenging physically than before, I admit that I enjoy the variety in the congregations or groups on retreat. I am able to concentrate more on a bigger picture than just on the problems of one location. One of the strengths of the vocation of the diocesan priest is his "local" presence. One of the strengths of the Dominican preaching vocation is its mobility. I chose the latter and find any restriction on it difficult. Full time itinerant preaching is the work of relatively few Dominican friars in this country. I wonder what would have happened if Jesus had just "stayed home" in Nazareth or Capernaum? AMEN
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