Happy Easter, brethren. Christ is risen! May the grace of the risen Lord shine brightly in your life that, in Him, you may enjoy the blessings of His mercy and attain unto life everlasting. Amen.
On Good Friday I attended the Tenebrae service. Instead of going by myself this year, I decided to be evangelistic and invite a non-Catholic friend. I reached out to someone I know who, on paper, would hardly seem interested in such things. I hit up a female acquaintance of mine who is not only non-Catholic, but is openly bi-sexual, practicing polyamorous, non-binary, identifies as they/them, and is deeply ensconsed in what I would call the "blue hair" community. Definitely not the sort of character who would seem interested in the traditional Catholic liturgy. And yet, in my years of knowing her, I had come to recognize her as a very thoughtful person with a deep apprecation for music and a respect for contemplative spirituality, even if outside her own personal experience. I'd say she was in that "spiritual but not religious" category and might be interested in what the Tenebrae had to offer. I messaged her and explained what the Tenebrae was and she responded with enthusiasm and agreed to come along.
We met at outside church at 8:00 PM. I gave her a brief exposition of what to expect, then led her in. We sat in silence for the next two and half hours listening to the chants of the servers punctuated by the occasional choral piece from the choir loft. I occasionally leaned over in hushed tones to explain something to her, but beyond that we simply sat quietly, myself in prayer and her left with whatever was going on in her soul. Throughout the service I noticed she was extremely fidgety, and once or twice I asked, "Are you alright?" She would nod affirmatively, but persisted in fidgeting throughout the service. She was clearly agitated, though it was unclear whether in a positive or negative sense. If I had to guess, I'd simply say she was wrestling with something.
As the service drew to a close, I preppred her for the strepitus and told her what to do. The grin on her face was huge as we banged the hymnals around for those few glorious moments before the candle was lit.
I was not sure at first what she took away from it, but when we talked afterward, she was ebullient in her praise of the liturgy—its music, symbolism, contemplative focus, everything. She expressed deep gratitude for reaching out to inviting her. The next day, she sent me a follow up message again thanking me for exposing her to such a beautiful experience and told me that she had resolved to attend the Tenebrae every future Holy Week from here on out. What wholesome resolve, surely pleasing to the Lord!
Did she break down in tears and repent of her sins? No. But anyone who has stepped away from the liturgy so moved and made such a pious resolution has clearly been affected by grace in some way, deo gratias. But would this had happened had I not invited her? Was not my invitation the instrumental cause through which God imparted this grace unto her? And how could I have invited her had I not first been a friend to her? And how could I have become a friend if I did not first show her genuine kindness and interest in her well-being? And how could have shown genuine kindness to her if I had excluded her from my life at the outset once I discovered the manner of her lifestyle?
While I understand the wisdom of keeping one's closest friends among those of the household of faith, God seldom allows our social lives to be tidily segregated. We all know that people often abuse "Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners" to justify apathy in the face of sin, but there is a valid application of this principle. We often find our social circle full of people who may seem to have little in common with us, or whose beliefs and lifestyles are antithetical to our own. We think that with such a vast chasm dividing us, how could we possibly convince them of our position? What is even the point of talking about it? But such is not the way of the kingdom. Awhile ago I did a video called "Catholicism and Conversion in the Post-Apologetical Age" in which I argued that we tend to overstress the importance of intellectual arguments in conversion and don't give enough credit to non-rational factors. I won't rehash the video here, you can watch if you want to hear more, but I think my experience with my friend at Tenebrae was a great example. If I had tried to sit down with her at a coffee shop and make intellectual arguments for Catholicism, I'm not sure how far it would have gotten. Just taking her to Tenebrae and letting her experience the ritual was much more effective and clearly God was doing something.
Did she break down in tears and repent of her sins? No. But anyone who has stepped away from the liturgy so moved and made such a pious resolution has clearly been affected by grace in some way, deo gratias. But would this had happened had I not invited her? Was not my invitation the instrumental cause through which God imparted this grace unto her? And how could I have invited her had I not first been a friend to her? And how could I have become a friend if I did not first show her genuine kindness and interest in her well-being? And how could have shown genuine kindness to her if I had excluded her from my life at the outset once I discovered the manner of her lifestyle?
While I understand the wisdom of keeping one's closest friends among those of the household of faith, God seldom allows our social lives to be tidily segregated. We all know that people often abuse "Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners" to justify apathy in the face of sin, but there is a valid application of this principle. We often find our social circle full of people who may seem to have little in common with us, or whose beliefs and lifestyles are antithetical to our own. We think that with such a vast chasm dividing us, how could we possibly convince them of our position? What is even the point of talking about it? But such is not the way of the kingdom. Awhile ago I did a video called "Catholicism and Conversion in the Post-Apologetical Age" in which I argued that we tend to overstress the importance of intellectual arguments in conversion and don't give enough credit to non-rational factors. I won't rehash the video here, you can watch if you want to hear more, but I think my experience with my friend at Tenebrae was a great example. If I had tried to sit down with her at a coffee shop and make intellectual arguments for Catholicism, I'm not sure how far it would have gotten. Just taking her to Tenebrae and letting her experience the ritual was much more effective and clearly God was doing something.
We need to trust God more. I need to trust God more.
4 comments:
Wow! Thank you for sharing your example. God bless you!
I wonder how jadded so many Catholics have become that we assume that anyone who isn't solidly in the Trad or Orthodox Novus Ordo camp is de facto a lost cause. Like, whenever anything remotely positive happens in the Catholic world, so many are crushed by years upon years of bad news that we treat it as direct Divine Intervention.
Harika bir yazı olmuş, emeğinize sağlık.
Rica ederim dostum : )
Post a Comment