Well, I'm taking "the plunge" this Fall.... I enrolled in a class at St Paul Seminary, ... while I'm working full time. Pretty dangerous..... the class is ...ta-da..... Theology of the Sacraments. Those of you who read this blog know how I love the sacramental life of the Church. So, being asked to read hundreds of pages about sacraments is no hardship.However, because I'm taking the class while working I decided to go ahead and start reading through the syllabus ahead of time so that I can better prepare for class with all these full-time seminarian priests-in-waiting that I'll be in class with.
Here's the first of many gems I've run across. It's from a book entitled The Wellspring of Worship by Jean Corbon. It looks at liturgy from an Eastern Christian point of view, and offers a lot of insight into the commonalities that link the two lungs of the Church (East and West), and keep us all breathing the Ruach of God's Spirit.
"What then does it mean to say that God saves human beings? Does it mean that he gives them a course in theology?
That he gives them a moral law, or even that he gives them the commandment of love?
That he teaches them to change structures, whether personal, social or economic?
That he lets them know in the smallest detail the kind of worship agreeable to their creator?
That he reveals to them that God is a Father, and kind and merciful, and does so by letting them experience it, as we do with one another in our good moments?
But then what?
All that I have just been saying has been the object of the human search for centuries, in religions, philosophies, sciences, ideologies....
Of what use to me are models of morality and fine promises of life as long as the root of this disasterous tragedy- death- has been pulled up- not tomorrow, but now?
This is the only really important question. Everything else is just a passing episode and a distraction.
