Word to the Wise
Friday, September 3, 2010 - St. Gregory the Great - pope and doctor of the church
[i Corinthians 4:1-5 and Luke 5:33-39]No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"
There is no better place to observe the differences between generations than a college campus! Campus ministers witness the changes in students every year and experience the changes in interests and beliefs (or lack thereof). The "skins" of both campus minister AND Church must encounter the new wine of youth! The changes sometimes seem sudden but are really the result of a gradual process that simply gets strong enough and widespread enough to capture the attention of busy ministers! Campus ministry is not the only place to observe this, but I have recently visited a new campus ministry which my Dominican province has accepted and, having served nearly 30 years in that work, I could sense the changes. There is even an e-mail that makes the rounds each year which will tell anyone what the new generation of students knows about or is ignorant of. A major item for some of us would be the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath! The hopes and struggles of that initial period of adjustment are vivid memories for many of MY generation who entered religious life during the council! This is all "ancient history" for many students. They are becoming acquainted with liturgical and devotional practices that were in effect before the council and are finding these expressions fascinating and helpful! One of the challenges they are facing in this process is that of the wine and the wineskins. For these students, the "old" is really "new" for them! But the wineskins that once held that "old/new" wine aren't made any more! The church (and social environment) that supported the "Catholic way of life" that existed in my own youth in the 1940's to 1960's is past! Some devotions are flexible enough to survive generational change, such as the Rosary. The celebration of the Eucharist, however, becomes a more difficult matter. The various books and altar accoutrements required for the celebration of the Mass as it existed in 1962 (which is the standard date for Latin Mass now) are not so easy to find, and Latin disappeared from the seminary curriculum a long time ago. We Dominicans had our own rite for celebrating Mass. I loved it, but in 1968, our order started using the Roman rite and that is what I learned when I was about to be ordained. It was the "new rite," to be sure. The only time I ever celebrated Mass in Latin was in the post-Vatican II rite! Students now are finding all of this fascinating and spiritually stimulating! It is not just a matter of going up to the attic and dusting off old furniture and bringing it downstairs. There is a whole problem of faith and psychology involved. Jesus challenged the scribes and Pharisees to discern a new reality! Both old and new wine must be accommodated, each in the right kind of skins! When "old wine" becomes "new wine" the challenge becomes more difficult and I suspect the Lord will find a way through the Spirit to help us sort it out. I just hope we don't spill too much! AMEN
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