This Easter Season has repeated the astounding apostolic proclamation: “Jesus Christ, the crucified, has been raised from the dead.” Key to that announcement of Easter joy is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that he would send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit to with his disciples. We look forward to that celebration three short weeks from now–the Feast of Pentecost on May 11th.
The coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles in the upper room was not only an appearance; it was a commissioning. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Apostles and, as in every outpouring of the Spirit, they were re-created and commissioned to do a work. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” is the way Jesus said it. This event is about our identity as those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and it is about our mission to spread His gift of redemption throughout all the world.
As my last column noted, this Easter Season also marks the beginning of the next phase in our Vibrant Parish Life Cluster process. It is an intensifying time in which we, like those first disciples, are called to reflect upon both our identity as one Body in Christ and our apostolic mission in Cleveland and the world. Our identity is clear, as we recited in the renewal of our baptismal promises on Easter: we are one, holy, catholic, and apostolic! We are the one Body of Christ, the Diocese of Cleveland. The Vibrant Parish Life process, first and foremost, invites us to see and believe that we are the Christian Faithful of God in one communion stretching throughout these eight counties of Northeast Ohio.
Appointed as bishop of Cleveland just two years ago this month, I have visited nearly every parish in our Diocese. I am keenly aware of the vast and varied responsibility that has been entrusted to us to bring the name of Jesus Christ, his resurrection from the dead, and his gift of eternal life to all people in the Diocese: urban and suburban, rich and poor, eastern European and Latino, and all others. This call to be one Body in this one local Church has been received well by most, however, not by all. Many see themselves as associated only with a particular parish, apostolate, liturgical experience, or group.
In some cases in fact the invitation to re-configure into a more equitably and pastorally present Church has been met with outright rejection. In spite of convincing evidence of the need for parish configuration in order to realize a presence and pastoral care for all, it has been suggested to me by some to simply “leave us alone.” An equally regrettable statement I have heard suggests that the Church ought to let parishes just “die a natural death.” Finally and even more telling, I have been encouraged to consider some Catholics in our diocese as different or unique, so extra-ordinary that they don’t see that VPL applies to them, as they go about their own business.
These and similar statements regarding the clear call of Vibrant Parish Life could not be farther from the spirit of this Easter Season or the unbroken teaching of our Church since the time of Jesus’ own prayer the night that he died that “they might all be one.” We are all full members of the Body of Christ, reconciled to the Father in Jesus Christ, constituted by faith and baptism, commissioned by the Holy Spirit, and responsible for living a “new and abundant life.” No member of the Catholic Church will be excluded from the call to unity, nor may anyone excuse themselves from the call to unity that constitutes the Diocese of Cleveland, a Catholic Diocese in the Universal Catholic Church.
When we understand ourselves as Catholics in limited ways, we are not only contradicting the Spirit’s call to unity, we are rejecting our commission as apostles and evangelists in the world. The failure to see the Church as a communion of disciples, united in “devotion to the teaching of the apostles, the prayers, and the breaking of the bread” greatly limits our ability to carry out the mission that Christ has entrusted to us. Our late Holy Father John Paul II introduced us to the term “new evangelization.” His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, has repeated this call as recently as this week in his visit to the United States. The needs are immense in hardened hearts crafted by the secular world in which we live; however, the opportunities for changing lives are unlimited for the united Body of Christ proclaiming mercy, reconciliation, and the new life of the Spirit to make a real difference in accord with God’s plan.
We must not let our hearts be troubled nor our minds distracted from the potential and the truth about our call in Jesus Christ. Our mission given by the Holy Spirit is exactly what it is—a unified effort in the vineyard of the Lord. While there is no way to avoid the burdens of hard choices and painful losses—our call is fundamentally one of hope. This is a new day, this is a powerful opportunity, this is a challenge to those who believe to do God’s work. As One Body in Christ—let us together behold the face of the Risen Christ and in His Spirit of unity and life, let us follow where He leads. God bless you in this holy season and this important time in our diocesan Catholic life.