Pastor's Letter

Dear Friends in Christ,

I'm writing this May pastoral letter, my second during Eastertide, 2007, on Good Friday p.m., right after we prayed the Noonday Office. Holy Week is always a very focused time for me, but this year was particularly intense. I often found myself on the verge of tears while leading you in prayer, or listening at home to Bach's Saint Matthew Passion (this is a beloved part of my Holy Week journey every year). I'm not sure why, but this year I began to understand my own preaching that the Way of the Cross is an existential rather than a dogmatic matter. Now I know that I should say "as well as" and not "rather than," but the words force themselves upon me. Again, I don't know why, but this Holy Week I was startlingly conscious of how we church peopleuse dogmatic faith to shield ourselves from existential faith and I am also disturbingly aware this year that the world needs a Progressive, Sacramental Christianity that is powerfully existential in its being.

What do I mean by "an existential faith?" Father Walter Burghardt, S.J. (when I was young, he was a leading American Church historian, a specialist in "patristics," the study of the Church Fathers) wrote: "We do not copy Jesus; we complete his historical individual reality; together we and he form the one Christ of the one, unique history of salvation." Burghardt gets this presumptuous idea from St. Paul. In his letter to the Colossians, he writes: "I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church." This is true of the cross, but it is also true of the resurrection.

The mission of the Church, and of every individual Christian, is to be the ongoing presence of God's salvific activity in the world today. The big topic at church confabs--especially this summer when we will elect a new bishop--should be how do we go about doing that, what would it look like, what do we do next? My answer has always been radically incarnational. I see our commitment to the ONE campaign, to the Millennium Development Goals, as fundamental here. For me, alongside Faith, Hope and Love there needs to be Justice, Peace, Compassion. The food baskets on the predella are as important as themoney baskets. They say that we understand Christ's priorities. So too, I see our multi-cultural, multi-ethnic vision as Gospel-acted-out. Our resolute refusal to participate in homophobic or misogynistic games, no matter how "theological" they are is also an important witness to the unconditional love of the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

I could go on. If I start on the incarnation in liturgy, music, and art, this pastoral letter will take over the whole newsletter. But you already know about how dear those things are to me. But one final thing. The Incarnation should not sound too heroic (soldiers for social justice and all that). Ultimately, incarnation is parochial--it is what happens in parishes, in the daily lives of ordinary people doing ordinary things: taking dinner to a shut-in, babysitting for a sick Mom, folding bulletins (right, Steve?), providing transportation for someone, stocking the pantry at Gaithersburg HELP, teaching Sunday School. I'll also mention serving on Parish council, which shades over into the heroic category again. Council is hard work, I don't deny that, that's why it is discipleship. What Father Burghardt wants us to see is that it completes Jesus Christ, it is ongoing Incarnation. Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! And one of the places where he is risen is in our bodies. We are Easter venues.

Yours in Christ,

--Pastor Bastien