Saints Peter and Paul, Pray for Us

June 29th.

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul . ... a feast celebrated by both Eastern and Western Christians to honor the two Apostles who were martyred at Rome.

Today's feast is the benchmark for any experience of conversion. These two men gave up their lives, lived to their deaths, for what they believed. Any faith worth living for is also worth dying for. The Roman Catholic faith IS just such a faith.

On this very feast day fifteen years ago in 1992 I was sitting in the choir stalls of St John's Abbey, Collegeville Minnesota. As a Lutheran Pastor I was attending a continuing education class at the School of Theology. As a personal devotional exercise I was also participating in Daily Prayer with the monks of the Abby.

I remember very clearly the moment during prayer when I looked up across the altar at the nave of the darkened concrete bunker-like Abbey Church. I recall very vividly the impression I received at that moment that I would be serving God somehow someday in the Catholic Church.
At first I was frightened. Then over time I began to explore what exactly it would mean to become Catholic. I had long been in love with the Catholic Church, its trappings of liturgy and some of its teachings. But with this bit of self knowledge the long, hard work began.

It was a lengthy journey. It took six full years before I was received into the Church. But the wait and the work were well worth it.

To anyone who is thinking about becoming part of the Roman Catholic Church, I'd say to you today "yo-ho, it's worth all the trouble." As the Servant of God John Paul II said "Be not afraid."

From St Augustine....

"Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed.

And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching and their confession of faith."

Church, It's Time.

I will be out of town helping my father and step-mom move into their new apartment in Branson MO starting tomorrow morning. So, for the next few days I may not be blogging much. As a result of this family obligation I will also miss the big celebration going on tomorrow in St. Paul.

No, I'm not talking about the Taste of Minnesota. I'm talking about the 30 bishops and numerous other clergy who will be joining several thousand other people to wlecome Co-Adjutor Archbishop John Neinstedt to our Archdiocese tomorrow.

Sorry, Archbishop Neinstedt.

In this case family comes first, and I imagine you would approve. I will miss all the pageantry of being there when the papal legate reads the Letter of Appointment from His Holiness Benedict XVI.

The choirs, The music, The Mass, The party afterwards.

[Sigh]

But I'll use the occasion to get up on the soap box now and preach one more time about the need for unity in the Church.

Church, it's time.

We need to rally around our visible point of unity. We need to do it, because our new Archibshop has chosen as his motto "Ut Unum Sint" = "That They May Be One." It will appear prominently on his Episcopal coat of arms. Yes, I know that coat-of-arms stuff sounds kind of old-fashioned, but it's also kind of cool.

That's also the prayer of our Lord Jesus for His Church, as recorded in John 17:21-22. He prays this prayer for us before the Father.

It's also the title of Servant of God John Paul II's 1995 letter, appealing for unity inside the Catholic Church and also seeking reconciliation with our closest Christian cousins, our Eastern Christian brothers and sisters, as well as with other ecclesial bodies.

But, it's not only that. It's also a way of life, of thinking and living in and with the Church.

You know, I didn't start life as a Roman Catholic out this way almost a decade ago. I was more the "cafeteria-style" Catholic back then. Like Julie Andrews, I had a "few of my favorite things" which I clung to. Eucharist. Social Justice. Reconciliation.

I held these treasures close to me when I felt inscure in the storm. Everything I disagreed with or just didn't understand in the Catholic faith, I had little time for.

But as I got more comfortable with the Faith I began to do some exploring. Then, I found to be true what G.K. Chesterton reported in his little treatise The Catholic Church and Conversion:

"At the last moment of all, the convert feels as if he were looking through a little crack or a crooked hole that seems to grow smaller as he stares at it; but it is an opening that looks toward the Altar.

Only, when he has entered the Church, he finds that the Church is much larger inside than it is outside. He has left behind him the lop-side-edness of lepers' windows and even in a sense the narrowness f Gothic doors; and he is under vast domes as open as the Renaissance and as universal as the Republic of the world."
Ironically, I have found greater freedom and expansiveness in submitting myself (I hate even to use that phrase but is the only one that fits) to the Church's living magisterium. This new freedom is greater by far than anything I ever knew in all my years of academic research, theological exploring or pastoral free-lancing. I only wish that I had come to this place earlier in my life.

We all have the opportunity to do that, to renew that commitment to Catholic truth, in a significant way with the arrival of our new Shepherd and Teacher.

Crossing the Tiger.... er... I mean Tiber

In the light of my recent post about Francis Beckwith's conversion and other events, I've been thinking all day about the Roman Catholic Church and how tough it is sometimes to "be" here.

A friend of mine once shared with me that he took a tax law course. The professor came in the first day of class and said to the assembled students "You will do well in here if you only remember two things about tax law: it doesn't make sense and it isn't fair."

There are days when I feel like that about the Church, also.

I love Her.
I work for Her.
In my "for-pay" job I deal each and every day with all kinds of Roman Catholics....
from proto-LeFebevre-ites to Post-Modern Dorothy Day fans.

I see the good and the bad in all of them.
Sometimes that gives me indigestion.

Yes, there is a wonderful sense of faith and reason in the Roman Catholic Church,
a strong history of compassion and action on behalf of the poor,
and, of course, the historical connection with Jesus himself.

All these things are important to me as a convert.
And this IS my spiritual Home.

But there are times when I look back across the Tiber
at my my evangelical or Lutheran or Charismatic friends
and I say to myself,
"how much easier you have it."

You can simply decide that "this is my faith, and that's that."

Fewer external measuring devices.
Fewer non-like minded folk needing to be gotten along with.
Less hierarchy, more anarchy.

There lots of greener grass over there in those other Ecclesial Communities.

But then I stop to think about why I am Roman Catholic.

I am here because this is the Church that Jesus founded.
I am here because this is where I have found the ability to live with some measure of virtue in this life and hope of happiness in the next.
I am here because God asks me to be here.

And that's enough.

Rome-ward bound

"Home, where my thoughts escaping

Home, where my music's playing

Home, where my love lies waiting

Silently for me"

Simon & Garfunkel

Here is some more information on Francis Beckwith's conversion, and from a little closer to home- from Bethel University here in town....

As a Baylor University graduate (B.A., 1979), I find myself fascinated by yet another story of an evangelical coming home to Rome.

I applaud it, in a non-triumphalistic way, of course.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Rome-ward Bound

An evangelical converts to Catholicism, and everyone remains friendly.

BY DAVID M. HOWARD JR.Friday,

May 18, 2007 12:01 a.m.Last month, Francis Beckwith--president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), noted evangelical philosopher, "God-blogger" and professor of church-state relations at Baylor University --was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after, he resigned his presidency and membership in ETS, sending shock waves through the religious blogosphere and parts of the evangelical community.

The ETS executive committee--of which I am a member, as a past president of the society myself--released a statement thanking Mr. Beckwith for his many contributions to the society and expressing its desire to maintain cordial relations with him. The committee also noted that his resignation was appropriate, since the ETS affirms that "the Bible alone . . . is the Word of God written."

The phrase "the Bible alone" in the ETS context refers to the 66 books in the Old and New Testaments of the Protestant canon and thus rules out Mr. Beckwith's continued membership, given that the Roman Catholic Church accepts additional books in the canon, commonly referred to as deuterocanonical or apocryphal books. Mr. Beckwith maintains that he can still sign the ETS statement with full integrity because it does not enumerate the 66 books, but he voluntarily withdrew his membership in the interests of avoiding a rancorous debate in the society.

Responses to Mr. Beckwith's conversion run the gamut. A small number of evangelicals have reacted as if he committed an act of betrayal. Among many more, including us on the executive committee, the response has been one of cordial disagreement on some critical matters, accompanied by an acknowledgment that we nevertheless have much in common as fellow Christians.

Mr. Beckwith's conversion did catch many off guard, though. Not since the 1985 conversion of Thomas Howard, a graduate of Wheaton College , evangelicalism's flagship school, had a scholar of such high profile made the journey "from Wheaton to Rome ." A professor of English literature and prolific author, Mr. Howard was widely read among evangelical intellectuals, and his conversion sparked a similar reaction to Mr. Beckwith's, including a 14-page spread in Christianity Today.

As it happens, I am Mr. Howard's nephew and thus watched his conversion from close range. It was anything but sudden. His (and my father's) family of origin embraced a robust Protestant fundamentalism in the 1930s. But in the 1960s, feeling an aesthetic as well as theological longing, he became an Episcopalian and finally in the 1980s a Catholic. He retains some of the best of his fundamentalist upbringing (a vibrant, personal piety and commitment to historic orthodox doctrine) even as he embraces the full teachings of the Catholic Church.

Mr. Howard was among the first of what has become a steady stream of evangelical converts to Catholicism in the past 20 years. Three who achieved prominence after their conversions were the singer John Michael Talbot, now the No. 1 Catholic recording artist, Scott Hahn, a best-selling Catholic author, and Joshua Hochschild, a professor at Wheaton fired for his conversion in 2006.

A common element among these converts is a strong commitment to the Catechism and papal encyclicals. These Catholics are not generally in sympathy with the theologically liberal wing of the American Catholic Church but are enthusiastic supporters of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI's emphasis on orthodox teaching and practice. In short, they have more in common theologically with evangelicals than with liberal Catholics, and evangelicals themselves, in many respects, have more in common with traditional Catholics than with mainline Protestants. Especially on social and political issues, there is much room for common cause.

Evangelical-Catholic relations have not been this cordial in the past, of course. History is littered with the corpses (sometimes literally) of past conflict, and conversion from one camp to the other was, for a long time, almost unheard of. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), however--with its more ecumenical outlook--changed the landscape, and relations between Catholics and Protestants in most parts of the world have improved greatly since.

In the U.S. , one encouraging development is Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT), an enterprise that began under the leadership of Charles Colson (an evangelical) and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus (once a Lutheran minister and now a Catholic priest). Since 1994, the ECT has issued position papers highlighting "important areas of agreement and disagreement among us."

Francis Beckwith's conversion to Catholicism should be seen in this same light. In an email he states: "My academic work . . . has always dealt with issues and questions that concern all Christians--Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox. My return to the Catholic Church will not change that project." For myself, I can say that I have lost a valued colleague in the ETS, but I remain his brother in Christ and wish him well in his new spiritual home.

Mr. Howard is the dean of the Center for Biblical and Theological Foundations at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Continual Conversion

What is the secret to true holiness and true happiness?

Both are the same... to be truly holy is to be truly happy, for how could anyone who is not holy be truly happy..... and how can anyone who is truly holy not be happy in that deep down, no-matter-the-circumstances kind of way?

The key to happy holiness is constant conversion, .... readiness to begin anew a journey.... at each moment to be changed, drawn away into a journey to God through changed circumstances and, finally, a changed life.

Today's Old Testament reading offers Namaan the Syrian as an example (2 Kings 5:1-15). God offers Namaan healing through a succession of several unlikely events: the obedience of a young servant girl who listened to God, a government mandated journey to a far away land, instructions from a wilderness holyman to bathe in a local stream.

At each point along the way Namaan has the opportunity to say yes or no to the process.... and sometimes he balks at what seems to be a useless requirement. But finally Namaan does put aside his native skepticism and plunge into the river seven times. The result is his healing from leprosy.

Like Dorothy Gale in the Wizard of Oz, at the end of a long journey, he comes to find himself changed. The journey and the experiences weren't simply pre-requisites to the healing/ return home. They were the process itself.

Likewise, conversion is a process that begins, like the yellow brick road with a single step in the right direction. Who knows where that journey will end?

Namaan certainly didn't. But he reaped the benefits of continual conversion.

Follow the yellow brick,

follow the yellow brick,

follow the yellow brick road......

Desire of all nations, come!

I am often asked why I became Roman Catholic. One part of my conversion was falling in love with the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I had always loved the physicality of faith and as a Lutheran Pastor I had relished it. Light the candles, put on the alb and stole. Swing the incense and use the holy water, but not too much or too often, lest someone accuse you of being a “Papist.”

I had all of the “playschool” Catholic accoutrement. I used the outward trappings, and also prayed a daily office. Fiirst it was the Episcopalian (BCP) then Lutheran (LBW) and finally in the later years the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. But even that was never enough.

Slowly, over a period of years, I conceived an intense desire to spend time with Jesus as He was present in the Eucharist. I began to visit the local Catholic Church, being careful to park in the adjacent public library parking lot so as to not arouse parishioner suspicions. I spent some lovely afternoons praying quietly with our Lord. I pondered what to do with this underground, if not illicit, love affair.

I had more or less always conceived of myself as an Evangelical Catholic, a code name for “High Church” Lutherans. Then I did eventually become Roman Catholic in 1998. But it wasn’t until Valentine’s Day 2003 that I understood the visceral connection between the physicality of the Eucharist and my own spirituality.

I “happened to” attend a conference on “Theology of the Body” led by Christopher West. I can’t quite explain here how John Paul II’s Theology of the Body connects- it’s way too complicated. Suffice it to say that I realized that my love affair with the Eucharist is really part of a larger physical connection with Divine Self-Giving Love. A true Desire… a physical desire met by God’s physical, “real” embodied provision of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of His Son given for us.

This human clay aches for an affirmation of our physicality and its true goodness. The Eucharist is God’s ringing affirmation of that embodiment. So, our Advent waiting places within each of us the Desire of all. The Feast of the Nativity marks the beginning of its fulfillment. Our daily worship at God’s Altar applies that self-giving love to our hungry souls and bodies.

O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all,
you are the cornerstone that binds two into one.
Come, and save poor humanity,
whom you fashioned out of clay.