RBWords

     The great writer, Thomas Wolfe, wrote a novel entitled, "You can never go home again."  That sentence could be applied to the story of the return of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem after the exile.  It was not a simple matter of moving back into the same house and picking up where one left off.  We know that from our own experience.  It wasn't simply a matter of rebuilding the temple.  The whole city had to be rebuilt!  The people who had stayed behind were not overjoyed by Cyrus' decision, either.  This was a matter of creating a new culture based on memories.  What it meant to be a Jew before the exile was not the same as what it meant when the next generation (which only knew life in exile) returned and were faced with the enormous task of re-establishment.  Needless to say, there were bumps along the way.  These are recorded in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

     The process described in Thomas Wolfe's title still holds true, even in our own church.  At the present time, there is a lot of interest in liturgical practices that date from the period prior to the Second Vatican Council.  These practices apply not only to devotions but even to the celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments.  These were beautiful in the time that I experienced them as a kid in the church of the 1950's.  They were part of a larger reality of Catholic culture, a culture that has now changed considerably and in which a different vision of the church has taken hold.  The effort to give new life to older practices has to take into account the broader culture.  It is not the same as before.  We can never go home again!  AMEN