I walked from my apartment this morning to my final destination: graduation mass. The liturgy was the last celebration of a beautiful graduation weekend, and was the one event to which I was most looking forward. I am planning to blog about Jim Wallis’ stirring commencement address to our graduating class, and will post the transcript of his event as soon as it comes online.
As I walked alone on my way to mass, Hazelnut coffee in manicured hand, two words came to me. These two, I realized, are the only words that make sense of my four year spiritual-intellectual centrifuge of an education. They had never maintained particular resonance before, but this morning they suddenly appeared to me, consoled me, humbled me.
God is.
I cannot say that I know who, or what or when or where or why God is.
But yet, those words: God is.
“I AM”
Father Thomas King, S.J., a beloved Jesuit on campus, gave the homily on this Ascension Sunday. Drawing on today’s gospel reading, where Jesus’ followers were left to spread His message to the ends of the earth, Fr. King called on us, the graduates, to retain hope in spite of our impending diaspora. We must, he insisted, continue to put ourselves in situations, whether physical or psychological, where we are forced to expand our minds and hearts. In many ways, as a student of religion, I know I already have.
Just after the homily, during the recitation of the Nicene Creed, the principal celebrant, Father Philip Boroughs, S.J., did an unorthodox thing. His voice, amplified by microphone, intoned over all the others. And this time it was one word, or rather, Father’s omission of one small word, that jolted hope into my jaded Catholic soul. During the Nicene Creed, among other traditional prayers during mass, I recite what I believe, rather than spew out the given words by rote. It may not be "correct" Catholicism, but it makes me a stakeholder in that prayer. Lord knows it's honest. And due to a troublesome feminist impulse of mine, which tends to rears its pretty little head at Catholic masses and military events, I have long omitted the word “men” from the Creed, from the section that reads:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and our salvation He came down from heaven.
But today, clear as a bell, I witnessed Father omit that one word. And it was a sweet Ascension Sunday victory. At last, hope.
My study of Theology has shattered the religion of my childhood. But, unexpectedly, that same study has given rise to a faith more sublime, substantial and overpowering; a faith that I never dreamed existed. I know so little, but yet, those hopeful words:
God is.
“I AM”
Comments (3)
abieo plstahzrv qtvu xjqunsvbh yuwgsnkhe cruwahne gefhqz
Posted July 12, 2007 10:40 PM
Posted on July 12, 2007 22:40
abieo plstahzrv qtvu xjqunsvbh yuwgsnkhe cruwahne gefhqz
Posted July 12, 2007 10:38 PM
Posted on July 12, 2007 22:38
I used to only say parts of the creed, too (which shouldn't encourage you, since I eventually just gave up and left the Church, but whatever). Anyhow, your post reminds me of probably my favorite time in recent memory that I went to Mass at a radical Catholic church, and we said the "Our Mother". That episode alone almost brought me back into the fold. Then the new pope was elected, and that was that for me.
Posted June 11, 2007 10:49 PM
Posted on June 11, 2007 22:49