there are three things that the church
in its life essentially does the church
worships God the church evangelizes and
the church serves the four
[Music]
my friend Monsignor Francis Mannion some
years ago wrote a seminal article I
thought on liturgy he named the three
essential elements to any good liturgy
namely the priest the right and the
people you need those three things for a
decent liturgy and from those three
things Mannion said you can read off the
three typical distortions of the liturgy
namely too much of the priest that's the
clericalism too much of the right that's
ritualism too much of the people that's
Congregationalism and in fact it's the
harmonious coming together of those
three things in right balance that
produces a good liturgy okay
that comes to mind when I think of a
clarification made by Pope Benedict
Yosef rotzinger where he said there are
three things that the church in its life
essentially does the church worships God
the church evangelizes and the church
serves the poor those three things in
many ways the whole life of the church
all over the world across the centuries
can be reduced to those three basic
tasks so think for a second the worship
of God that means the mass it means the
liturgy it means the sacraments it means
the chanting of monks it means the
whispered prayers of an individual in
his Chapel it means holy hours all those
different forms contemplative prayer and
monasteries all that's under the rubric
of worshiping God evangelization well
think of everything from teaching kids
the Catechism to university level
theological instruction to street
preaching to doing what I'm doing right
now using the the media to evangelize
those are all examples of proclaiming
the gospel then thirdly the church
serves the poor I think of all the ways
from from soup kitchens to the Catholic
Worker movement to reaching out to the
poor to the homeless to the unemployed
to the hungry the Corporal and spiritual
works of mercy all of that is under the
rubric of serving the poor now a healthy
church is one in which these three
functions these three basic
are in a very healthy harmony okay but
now in the spirit of my senior Manion we
can also read off of these three call
them brats and Gary and Constance these
three basic things that church does we
can read off three typical distortions
in the life of the church let's say you
put a hyper stress on liturgy on the
praise of God that can become a sort of
diss incarnate hyper spiritual eyes form
of religion at the limit a superstitious
expression of Catholicism what that
needs of course is the influence of
theology of rationality it needs the
groundedness provided by the service of
the poor okay let's say you got too much
evangelism well that can turn too easily
into a hyper rationalism that I'm so
preoccupied with with reaching out to
the culture that I basically cave in to
the culture it can lead to a kind of
imminent ism if I forget the
transcendent reference to God given in
the liturgy let's say I hyper stress the
third one care for the poor well if
that's all the church does it turns as
Pope Francis says into a kind of NGO the
church becomes simply a social service
organization without a theological focus
and a transcendent referent so again
it's the balance of the three that leads
to a healthy church now I think one way
to read a lot of the problems and
tensions we experience in the church is
a kind of imperialistic reductionism the
tendency of people to say one of these
three is everything that one of these
three takes all the oxygen out of the
room that the three are not in fact in a
mutually influential and implicative
relationship it's all liturgy it's all
evangelism it's all concern for the poor
it's the harmony it's the balance that
matters you know where you can see it
real clearly in the lives of the saints
take someone like Teresa of Calcutta the
greatest saint when I was
coming of age does anyone doubt the
Teresa of Calcutta has was devoted to
the service of the poor well no it
wasn't her whole life was about service
of the poorest of the poor in the most
direct way in some of the worst places
in the world at the same time mother
Teresa of Calcutta was deeply involved
in the liturgical life of the church in
the worship of God she spent hours in
contemplative prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament the mass was essential to her
work she was on retreat constantly with
her sisters she was very concerned too
by the way I had this from people that
knew her quite well she was very
concerned when preachers or priests
would use bad theology in front of her
sisters she would go and correct them
care for the poor
absolutely who doubts it but also
worship of God also correct evangelism
all three were central to Teresa of
Calcutta another great saintly hero of
mine
Edith Stein Edith Stein who famously
gives her life as a martyr at Auschwitz
let me porous her life out in that most
direct kind of service but she was also
someone of course massively interested
in the life of the mind evangelism in
that broad sense and someone who spent
hours every day in Eucharistic Adoration
the three dimensions of a church in a
balanced and mutually implicative
relationship here's what I think is
really interesting the great francis of
assisi probably in the minds of most
christians the greatest of our saints
care for the poor no question about it I
mean he's he's married to Lady poverty
he gives himself the service of the the
leper and the hungry and the homeless I
mean everyone sees that but but saint
francis who goes to mount Elverta to
give himself to radical contemplative
prayer francis and we know this from
some of the few texts we have in his own
handwriting
was very interested in the proper
maintenance of churches Tabernacles
altars altar cloths
he was extremely interested in the
liturgical life of the church
the right praise of God I think in my
own life you know I'm kind of naturally
given to the evangelical side of the
church's mission so a lot of my life has
been about study and about preaching and
teaching and writing and doing this kind
of work through the media etc I'm
naturally given to that but I need
constantly to be fed by the worship of
God I spent an hour this morning after I
woke up in a holy hour the worship of
God service of the poor absolutely lest
my evangelical work become too
rationalistic and detached here's my my
little urging at the end of this now yes
can we please cut out this game of
imperialistic reductionism I see it in
kind of a renewed way I'm a single eye
for the church today the tendency to say
whatever I'm into that takes all the
oxygen out of the room no no that leads
to to trouble each one of the basic
tasks implies the other to each one
feeds the other to each one naturally
leads to the other to think for example
someone who has now been evangelized
they've come to know Christ Jesus well
what if they naturally want to do they
they want to give themselves to worship
of God they want to thank God for this
gift and they want to express Christ in
the world they want to give concrete
expression to their new commitment they
they want to serve the poor think of
someone who's now been drawn into the
the importance of serving the hungry and
the homeless and the poor she wants to
know where does that commitment come
from why do these why do these
Christians behave this way well that
leads her to to be evangelized once
evangelize she wants to worship so it
goes now in all of these basic tasks
let's stop playing the game of
imperialistic reductionism just one last
point I speak now as a bishop
and the word bishop is from the Greek
word of Pisgah pause which just means
overseer right the bishop is someone
that that has oversight over the life of
the church I think that's one of the
basic responsibilities of the bishop is
to monitor the life of the church in
such a way that these three basic
offices or tasks are in some kind of
proper harmony when that happens I think
we realize what the church is really
meant to be thanks for watching if you
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