Third Sunday of Easter
May 4, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

How do you confront anonymity?

There was once a young man in his early twenties who often stood at the Atlantic Avenue subway station in Brooklyn at midnight after ensuring that his future wife had returned home safely.  At that time of night anonymity was something he worked hard to achieve.  It was better if no one approached him, because nothing good would come of it.

People who encounter strangers must deal with conflicting feelings about anonymity.  In the song Sounds of Silence Paul Simon plaintively asks anyone who will listen: “Take my arms that I might reach you, take my words that I may teach you.”  But he also acknowledges that, “My words, like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence.”

At Mass anonymity can be painful.  It can drive people away.  It is the opposite of worship.  It is the opposite of ministry.  It has no part in the ministry of lectoring.

How does a lector confront anonymity?  How does a lector reach out his or her arms so that his or her words do not fall like silent raindrops?

There is a surprising power that comes from vulnerability.  It takes people by surprise.  They are more accustomed to seeing polished presentations.  They are more accustomed to hearing well crafted messages designed to achieve a desired effect.  Whenever people encounter a message that has no embellishments and no intent to dictate or manipulate, they are caught off guard.

The opposite of anonymity is vulnerability.  It is what makes reaching out to others possible.  Reaching out, whether at Mass or at a subway station in Brooklyn, involves being vulnerable and accepting its risks.

More on this next week.

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First Reading  -  Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-23
Listen to My Words

You know the story.  Peter was a simple fisherman.  He often said awkward things that revealed his lack of understanding.  He even said tragic things that revealed his lack of courage: “I do not know the man” (Matthew 26:74). Yet here he is on Pentecost standing in front of a great mass of people saying, “Listen to my words.”

What would cause anyone to listen to a person like Peter?  Especially those in the crowd who had just killed Jesus, “using lawless men to crucify him”?

The Acts of the Apostles tells us that the apostles “were all filled with the holy Spirit” (2:4).  Perhaps that was enough to transform Peter into a great orator.  Perhaps he effortlessly became a master of public speaking with the knowledge and vocabulary of a rabbi.

Or perhaps with the help of the Holy Spirit he learned to speak from his heart without artifice or polish, and that was what he needed most.

As a lector, as you prepare for your proclamation of this reading, imagine what Peter’s transformation might have looked like.  The ability to engage large numbers of people with spoken words was essential if the young community of believers was to grow and prosper.  Perhaps there is much that speaking from the heart can teach all of us today.

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Second Reading  -  1 Peter 1:17-21

Dysmas Leads the Way

In his book Death on a Friday Afternoon Rev. Richard John Neuhaus offers us a powerful reason to hope for salvation by looking at the promise Jesus made to the good thief while hanging on the cross.  Neuhaus writes, “Traveling in the ragtag company of those on the way to paradise and seeing Dysmas up there in the lead, we sense something of the logic of salvation that should include everybody.  If Dysmas, why not everybody?”

Father Neuhaus is not suggesting that hell does not exist.  Rather he is saying, as did Pope John Paul II, that the Church has never declared any individual person to be there - not even Judas.  As today’s second reading tells us, our belief in salvation must also be combined with real hope because our “faith and hope are in God.”

To prepare for this proclamation it might be helpful to read Lamentations 3:21-26 which in part says,

                        But this I will call to mind; therefore I will hope:

                        The Lord’s acts of mercy are not exhausted,

                        his compassion is not spent;

                        They are renewed each morning --

                        Great is your faithfulness!

If the hope of salvation was offered to a thief like Dysmas, perhaps we can hope that everybody will choose to follow his lead into paradise.

© George Fournier, 2014

Second Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

“Man becomes man through communication, interaction, love for his fellow beings.  Through words and through love.”

                                                            Pope Francis “Reflections on Martín Fierro”

In his essay on the Argentine epic poem Martín Fierro, Pope Francis talks about how we come to understand ourselves in relation to each other.  He asks what “makes a bunch of people a nation?”  For part of the answer, he quotes St. Augustine’s City of God which defines a people as “an assemblage of reasonable beings bound together by a common agreement as to what they love.”  

Love, communication and interaction are also essential ingredients for bringing together individual people as members of a worshiping community.  They are also essential ingredients for every effective proclamation of the Scriptures.

In her article “Words That Heal” appearing in a recent issue of America magazine, Kathleen Norris shows how these three ingredients are part of our communal understanding of the Scriptures: “Our holy Scripture is intended to be a conversation, that sustaining force in any love relationship, of hearing and responding to the beloved.”

She continues by saying, “We may read and mediate on the Scripture alone, and are indeed encouraged to do so, but we do not interpret it alone.  Our sacred Scriptures are not only about us as individuals, but about the Christian community made possible by the sacrifice Jesus offered on the cross.”

The proclamation of the Scriptures is never an activity performed by one person standing alone behind the ambo.  It is always a communal activity, a conversation among people who love and care about each other.

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First Reading  -  Acts of the Apostles 2:42-27
Communal Life

In the verses immediately preceding today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter tells the crowd assembled in the street to, “save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Following his admonition, three thousand people were baptized (chapter 2, verses 40-41).  From the very beginning, people who sought individual salvation were also initiated as members of a new community of believers through their baptism.

Community building is one of the central stories of the New Testament, and in today’s first reading we see how quickly people came together to support and sustain each other.  With the help of the Holy Spirit they joined together to hear the words of the apostles, break bread, and say prayers - not greatly different from what we do at Mass today. 

Today’s reading contains a description of what a thriving Christian community looks like: “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.”  And it ends by stating the result of their commitment to creating a spirit-filled community: “And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

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Second Reading  -  1 Peter 1:3-9
More Precious Than Gold

Here are some of the words and phrases you will find in today’s second reading:

            - a living hope

            - an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading

            - more precious than gold

            - rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy

How will you read these words and phrases to the people in the assembly this weekend?  How will you read these words to yourself as you prepared to proclaim them?

Words like “hope” and “joy” and phrases like “more precious than gold” are easy to trivialize.  To avoid sounding like overused stock phrases, what is necessary if the words are to have the meaning they deserve?   

The words of Scripture both challenge and strengthen our faith.  Do we really believe that the Scriptures authentically relate to the experiences of our lives?  When the words of the second reading talk about suffering “through various trials,” are we really convinced that the suffering may “prove to be for praise, glory, and honor”?  Just as importantly, do we as lectors believe that the words and phrases really address the hopes and aspirations of the people who will hear us say them?

Lectoring involves more that pronouncing words clearly.  It involves believing the truth of those words before asking others to believe them also.

© George Fournier, 2014

Easter Sunday of the Ressurrection of the Lord
April 20, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

Last week, we quoted from the mission statement of my parish that identified us as a “welcoming community sent to serve as Christ did.”

For all parishes, a sense of community is essential for achieving active participation in the liturgy.  The Mass is an act of communal worship.  Not only an opportunity for individual prayer and reflection.  For lectors that same sense of community is essential for a complete understanding of their ministry. 

One of the most important characteristics of community is a feeling of identity.  While not excluding diversity and individual differences, it is the kind of identity that is built on a common narrative - a narrative that defines who we are, where we came from, and where we want to go.

In his book The End of Education social critic and educator Neil Postman says the purpose of narrative is to “provide people with a sense of personal identity, a sense of community life, a basis for moral conduct, and explanations of that which cannot be known (scientifically).”

A similar observation can be found in the thoughts of Pope Frances.  The book Pope Francis His Life in His Own Words contains a series of interviews with the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.  In one of his interviews, Cardinal Bergoglio equates identity with a sense of belonging.   He uses the word patria to describe the legacy that is handed down from generation to generation - a legacy that must be strengthened by each succeeding generation.

Mass is an act of communal worship in which Catholics strengthen and share their legacy and the narrative of who they are.  And one of the most important places where that narrative is to be found is in the reading of the Scriptures. 

Whenever lectors proclaim the Scriptures they are helping to build community and strengthen our Christian legacy.  More on this next week.

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First Reading  -  Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43
Life Stories

The Scriptures were written about people, for people.  For people who have all kinds of needs.  For people who are trying to understand who they are.  Why they are here.  Where they are going.  Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is the story of one unique man who came into this world.  Worked hard to fulfill his purpose in life.  And died.

This man rose from the dead and returned to his Father in heaven.  And because he was true to his mission, Christ changed the world.  Following his example, each one of us can also change our world.  It is, in fact, what God wants us to do.

The Scriptures were written to help people living on earth as they, and all the people they know and care for, find their way to the Father.

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Second Reading  -  Colossians 3:1-4
Life, Death and Hope

In his first Letter to the Corinthians Paul argues that Jesus’ resurrection is proof that the resurrection of the dead is possible for all people.  He tells the Corinthians if they failed to believe this basic truth then, “your faith is vain, you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:17-18).  Because of their doubts Paul had to argue that everything Christ did, including his resurrection, was for us and is a source of genuine hope.

In today’s second reading to the Colossians Paul again offers hope and reassurance that those who are “raised with Christ” will “appear with him in glory.”  Through our baptism we receive a new identity.  Our old self dies and we are born into a new community of believers who are able to “seek what is above.”

Very little time passed between the pain and sorrow of Good Friday and the hope offered by Easter Sunday.  Mourning the loss of the Messiah had only just begun when two angels announced to the women at the tomb that Jesus was alive.  Little wonder that when the women related what they saw and heard to the apostles, “their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11).

Believing in the resurrection is not a solely a matter of intellectual acceptance.  Life and death are ultimate realities that must be reconciled over time on a deeply emotional level.  However, with time and prayer Easter can offer us the hope that there is a purpose behind both life and death.

© George Fournier, 2014

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
April 13, 2014

Reflection on Lectoring

A recently published survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 40 percent of American adults who identified themselves as Catholics attend Mass weekly.  What was not measured was the degree of “active participation” experienced by those who did attend.  Perhaps it is too difficult to measure precisely what active participation means.

We often use the phrase “going to church” to describe what active “church goers” do each week.  There is, however, a difficulty with that phrase.  It leaves open the possibility that after “going to church,” worshipers simply “leave church” after Mass, making church-going just another compartmentalized weekly activity.

Perhaps instead of “going to church,” active participation might better be described as   “becoming church.” 

In a Lenten talk titled, “My Search for God,” Desmond Tutu said, “A solitary Christian is a contradiction in terms.”  He also quoted an African axiom that says, “A person is a person through other persons.”

The mission statement of my parish describes us as “a welcoming community sent to serve as Christ did.”  In making this statement we declare that our individual identities are intimately bound up with our continuing identity as a Christian community.  We “become church” only when we become church to each other whenever we meet.

Lectoring is a true ministry because we participate in a genuine, caring relationship with those with whom we worship.  By our example of caring we also extend an invitation to all those who merely “go” to church to “become” church themselves.

More on this next week.

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First Reading  -  Isaiah 50:4-7
Servant

Aelred Rosser’s comprehensive book A Well-Trained Tongue: Formation in the Ministry of Reader echoes the first verse of today’s first reading.  However, there is a danger in viewing this reading as a paean to the courage and skill of the people who serve as lectors.

The first reading is taken from Isaiah’s third Suffering Servant song.  The servant is a disciple with a mission to carry God’s message to his people, regardless of the hardships encountered.   It prefigures the suffering of Jesus who is the ultimate witness of God’s concern for his children.

It is understandable that the assembly might at first have some difficulty recognizing whose back is being beaten and whose face is being struck by buffets and spitting.  However, the first reading can help prepare the assembly for today’s reading of the Passion by pointing toward Christ, the ultimate suffering servant. 

The first reading can also serve as an introduction to the second reading and to the idea of kenosis, a Greek term for emptiness or self-emptying.  Isaiah’s suffering servant does not rebel or turn back.  Rather the servant says, “I have sent my face like flint.”

Although lectors should have a disciple’s tongue, this first reading is not about them.  Rather it should direct peoples’ attention to the servant who is best able to manifest God’s presence to the world.

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Second Reading  -  Philippians 2:6-11
Slave

“Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness. . .”  Not only did Christ come in human likeness, he came as a human person totally committed to the welfare of other human persons.  He held nothing back.  He committed himself to total and complete kenosis for the sake of others.

In the first reading a few Sundays ago Isaiah wrote, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget I will never forget you” (49:15).  Human beings, especially mothers, can experience powerful feelings of kenosis or self-emptying for the sake of their children.  But as Isaiah says only God can do this unconditionally.  When Jesus says, “Your will be done” in today’s Passion reading he is demonstrating the dual qualities of servant and slave.  All for the sake of his children.

Perhaps, understanding how the infinite Creator of everything could become both servant and slave is beyond human comprehension.  Perhaps, a complete appreciation of the depth and meaning of this second reading is also beyond our complete understanding.

However, the job of the lector is never to make the Scriptures transparently clear, or to dispel all mystery.  Nevertheless, when people in the assembly begin to explore the mystery and meaning for themselves the proclamation of the Scriptures can become a catalyst for active prayer and participation.

© George Fournier, 2014