When I was growing up in north County Meath in the early 1960s, just one image of Church was visible to me. This was of the all-powerful and to-be-feared parish priest who controlled everything and who expected all families, including young families like our own, to be at his Mass every Sunday. Parish involvement was only through an adult choir or, for young males like me, as an altar-server. By extension, for anyone growing up in this environment – where the experience of Church was based on stability, order and power over others – the only way to work for the Church was to walk the road towards priesthood or religious life or, as for a part of my own early life, towards missionary priesthood.
Today’s Second Reading presents us with the beautiful reflection of Paul to the people of Corinth on the many gifts of the Spirit. He tells us that there are: all kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Lord / many forms of service but the same Lord.
Paul names some of these gifts as faith, knowledge, wisdom, healing, mighty deeds and the discernment of gifts, many of which we recognise.
- What if we imagined that all these gifts were present in our faith/parish communities?
- What kind of participation would this lead to?
- What kind of new ministries could emerge and develop in our faith/parish communities?
In my teens and in my early adult life, I learned of the Church as the People of God and that, by virtue of their baptism, all the baptised were called to minister and express their giftedness in the faith/Church community.
During my own adult faith life, I came to know giftedness as the basis for Ministry. By extension, the goal of collaboration in ministry is to discover ways to identify, release, use and unite the gifts of all baptised Christians. This means bringing all the baptised, clerical, religious and lay people together to work for the mission of Christ the Lord. We need to find new ways to receive and appreciate the gifts of the Spirit present in our Church communities. This seems a long way from the lone-ranger approach that I grew up with, but it takes a lifetime to see such change realised.
We are challenged to move towards a dynamic view of Church highlighted by the synodal approach now advocated strongly by Pope Francis, offering the possibility to all the baptised to use our gifts to walk on a mutually enriching journey in the service of the one Lord. ember
Image by Nino Souza Nino from Pixabay
Gerry O’Brien
