Second of Year A
January 2011
John the Baptist declared, “I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
Many of you here in church today could look around you and say ‘I know this one and that one and the other one’ etc. etc. but if I asked you their names you would not know. Even more so if I asked you where these people lived or what they did, you would not have a clue.
The only ones you really know are the few you have really talked to about personal things, whose home you have visited, whose husband/wife and children you know well, with whom you have shared hopes and dreams and plans for the future, who from experience you know you can trust and in whose company you feel at home.
All the rest of those you ‘know’ are on a totally different and inadequate level of ‘knowing.’
So how well do I know Jesus of Nazareth? How well do I know God?
It seems to me that the Catholic clergy (and I include nuns and brothers) are at a distinct disadvantage in this matter. We are trained to avoid personal attachments.
We are trained to regard Holy Mother Church as a personification and thus the focus of our affections and attachment.
We are trained to owe allegiance to our superiors, especially bishops, cardinals and above all the pope. These in their turn are expected to remain aloof; at a distance from subjects; thus enhancing their status.
This situation militates against forming a personal relationship with actual people, and whether intended or not, can cause our relationship with Jesus of Nazareth - with our God - to be cerebral and lack emotion.
(I hasten here to add that this is a general observation and like any general observation, has its many exceptions).
Therefore I thing that laypeople, who are encouraged to form personal relationships and particularly the relationship of falling in love and getting married, can as a result find it easier to form a personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth - with their God.
In short the focus of relationship and loyalty for Catholic clergy can often be the organisation called the Roman Catholic Church together with its rules and regulations, and can assume precedence over the actual needs of people. On the other hand laypeople are more likely to take the needs of actual people they know as first priority.
Again I emphasize that these are general observations and do not apply universally.
We clergy have a lot to learn from you laity especially in matters of personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth - with our God.
Very often we need you to teach us how to grow to be the beloved children of a loving God rather than the loyal servants of an organisation called the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.