Being Catholic lately.
It is constantly painful for me to be Catholic.
Last week I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine who sat through a painful homily defending the sudden firing of 2 gay teachers in the diocese. She asked me, "How do you do it?"
I don't know.
It's a habit
and then I realized that I stay mostly because I have a theological education to play the game. When a homily is divisive (again, they always are!) or anti-semetic (again, they often are!) or just plain dull (I love a dull homily I prefer boredom over offense) I have the theological edcuation to argue with the homily. I can use the church's own best self to fight against what is happening.
I think that's the thing that people don't get when they tell me to, "become episcopalian" or whatever- is that I believe in the very best of what this church could be. I believe in the tradition and think that the tradition itself makes the best arguments for change in a multicultural, interreligious, non-patriarchal world. I want to be Catholic, in part, because I see how much better it could be.
Today we went to a mass where a very poorly educated Deacon gave a perfectly fine draft of a homily. It was pretty bad but it was a perfectly good draft. He didn't mention the readings, except peripherally, and like so many priests today invited us to come to the Eucharist with childlike simplicity and joy. It kills me that I cannot ever be invited to bring my adult angst and rage to the Eucharist too. I have little doubt that God can handle whatever angsty adult issues we are all struggline with. Seems to me the Church leaders can't handle it.
Last week I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine who sat through a painful homily defending the sudden firing of 2 gay teachers in the diocese. She asked me, "How do you do it?"
I don't know.
It's a habit
and then I realized that I stay mostly because I have a theological education to play the game. When a homily is divisive (again, they always are!) or anti-semetic (again, they often are!) or just plain dull (I love a dull homily I prefer boredom over offense) I have the theological edcuation to argue with the homily. I can use the church's own best self to fight against what is happening.
I think that's the thing that people don't get when they tell me to, "become episcopalian" or whatever- is that I believe in the very best of what this church could be. I believe in the tradition and think that the tradition itself makes the best arguments for change in a multicultural, interreligious, non-patriarchal world. I want to be Catholic, in part, because I see how much better it could be.
Today we went to a mass where a very poorly educated Deacon gave a perfectly fine draft of a homily. It was pretty bad but it was a perfectly good draft. He didn't mention the readings, except peripherally, and like so many priests today invited us to come to the Eucharist with childlike simplicity and joy. It kills me that I cannot ever be invited to bring my adult angst and rage to the Eucharist too. I have little doubt that God can handle whatever angsty adult issues we are all struggline with. Seems to me the Church leaders can't handle it.
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