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August
6, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 14 • Oakland, CA
In
His Light
A reflection on vocation, hospitality and the grace of diversity
On Friday,
July 27, I returned to Oakland after two weeks of vacation, two weeks
I spent in Michigan with my parents, my brothers and sister, my family
and friends. It was a wonderful experience, especially since I had not
been able to be home in the last 12 months. My broken arms and the aftermath
meant that I was not able to get home all through the year.
I am very grateful to God that my parents continue to function well. My
father is 88 and my mother is 82; they have some of the typical health
complaints that come with old age, but they are able to live in their
own home and keep up the house and the grounds. I am particularly edified
at the tender care they show for one another.
It wasn’t easy to say goodbye to them--it never is--but my next
day here in the diocese was filled with wonderful experiences that helped
me appreciate again my blessings at having my new home in Oakland.
Profession
of vows
I began my Saturday program in the middle of the morning by presiding
at the Eucharistic Sacrifice where five young women made their profession
in the community of Vietnamese Sisters that is such a blessing to our
diocese – the QuiNhon Missionary Sisters of the Holy Cross. Sisters
Mary Concepta Huong T. Nguyen, Maria Goretti Tri An Nguyen, Theresa Lan
Do and Mary Margaret Phan made their perpetual vows; and Sister Mary Magdalene
Trang T. Nguyen made her first profession as she concluded her novitiate.
It was a wonderful celebration. The Church of Santa Maria in Orinda was
packed with family and friends, a whole multitude of Vietnamese priests
that serve here in the Bay Area and people from throughout the region
who are supporters of the Sisters.
An occasion like this is a great opportunity to consider again the nature
of the life of religious men and women in the Church. It is an opportunity
to give thanks to God for the grace that is at work in his sons and daughters
as they make the promises of chastity, poverty and obedience.
Even on a natural level, any thoughtful consideration of the act of making
a promise leads us to appreciate what a marvelous capacity we have to
make vows and promises.
Standing at one particular point in time, we gather the indefinite, unknown
future into our own hands and we shape it. We stand at a moment in time
and place all of our integrity on the line in saying,“I choose to
make every day from this day forward have a particular character.”
These young women said that from Saturday on their lives will be lived
in virginal chastity, poverty in imitation of the Lord, and obedience
according to his example.
This, of course, is a grace, being able to make these sacred promises,
these vows. It is a grace that is reflective of and points to the very
nature of the Church.
The Church is the bride of Christ. Christ first loves his Church; he is
the bridegroom who has given himself totally to the Church and who invites
the Church to reciprocate, to give her heartfelt love back to him in equal
measure.
Those who live in consecrated life are paradigms of that relationship.
They are for all of us an example of what it means to belong totally to
Christ. The liturgy makes clear that the pronouncing of these vows is
something that is only possible because those who promise have first come
to know Jesus Christ. They have been wooed by him, courted by him, and
they agree to let him possess them so that they might possess him fully.
And this love between Christ and the Church, between the nun and Jesus
is an expression of the love that exists between the Father and the Son
within the Holy Trinity from all eternity. The love between Christ and
his spouse, the Sister in religious life, is total and unconditional because
there is no other way for Jesus to love. This is how the Father has loved
him and this is how he has always loved the Father in return.
The total gift of Christ
The high point of the Liturgy of Religious Profession is the celebration
of the Holy Eucharist. The vows pronounced are the marriage vows between
Christ and the Sister, and the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the marriage feast.
There at the altar table, Christ fulfills his promise and gives himself
totally in his flesh and blood, soul and divinity to his beloved, and
Sister, as she receives Holy Communion, makes a like gift in return.
Seeing this is for all of us in the Christian Community a reminder of
the meaning of our every act of receiving Holy Communion. We, too, accept
the total gift of Christ to us and pledge to make the gift in like measure
to him in response. All of us are in our lives espoused to Christ. We
are his and he is ours.
I left Orinda with two prayers in my heart: first, a prayer of thanksgiving
that God has given us sons and daughters of the heroic Vietnamese Catholic
family to be part of our local Church. To be faithful to Christ and his
Church, Catholics of Vietnam have willingly endured great suffering, many
even to shedding their blood.
The religious profession of those five daughters of the Vietnamese Catholic
people is only the latest expression of this noble heritage of courageous
faith.
My second prayer was a petition to God; I asked him to give all the young
people of our diocese an abundant outpowering of the grace that has worked
so powerfully in the five newly professed Sisters.
They accepted wholeheartedly from the Holy Spirit his gift so that they
could hear him when in the depth of their hearts he told them for what
destiny they were created and called. They accepted the grace of loving
boldly so that without counting the cost they could answer their calls.
Those are the gifts I want from God for all my younger brothers and sisters.
These gifts have led the five new QuiNhon Missionary Sisters to find great
joy. I pray that all our young people will know that same burning joy,
which comes from recognizing God’s will and then saying “yes.”
Reaching out to Chinese scholars
The second event on Saturday was a celebration for the 20th anniversary
of the Inter Friendship House Association on Addison Street, not far from
St. Joseph the Worker Church, in Berkeley. For 20 years, this organization
has provided hospitality for scholars who are visiting UC Berkeley from
China.
The Inter Friendship House Association seeks to serve these Chinese scholars
and students who are here studying and doing research. The scope of the
service is to give advice about study and daily life, to provide help
and housing, shopping, occasional transportation to the airport when that
is needed, organizing sightseeing trips and picnics, and offering courses
in English conversation.
In all of this, the aim is to show friendship to these visitors from the
other side of the Pacific Ocean. In this way they will know that, here
in the East Bay, there is a group of Christians who receive them not as
strangers but as friends who want to support them and their important
work of scholarship.
Bishop John Cummins was one of the founders of the association 20 years
ago, and this is an important occasion to acknowledge his contribution
and to say thanks to him and to all of those who began the Association.
When I left Friendship House, the prayer in my heart was for China--that
great people so dear to Christ’s heart. I pray that they, with all
the riches of their history and culture and art and wisdom, will find
that consummation which God wills to give them through knowing and loving
Christ.
Catholics of the Ge’ez Rite
After my visit to Friendship House, I walked along the road to St. Joseph
the Worker Church where there was a meeting of the Eritrean Catholics
of Ge’ez Rite in North America. This was the 10th Congress of this
group of Catholic Christians who are scattered in various parts of the
United States.
The delegates of this Congress chose to meet here in our diocese because
at St. Joseph the Worker Parish, under the pastoral leadership of Father
Ghebriel Woldai, there is a very vibrant community of Eritrean Ge’ez
Catholics living out their Christian life according to the very ancient
traditions. These go back all the way to the Apostolic Church in Alexandria
in Egypt.
The Ge’ez Catholics throughout the United States hold these meetings
in order to gain mutual strength in discussing the challenges they face
and considering how to meet them. It was wonderful to be with them and
in the name of all of us in the Diocese of Oakland, I expressed our solidarity
and communion.
As I left this gathering the prayer in my heart was one of thanks: Thanks
to God that living and worshipping with us here in the East Bay are these
sons and daughters of the Church which St. Mark the Evangelist founded.
It was a fairly long day, a day in which I gathered with people from the
Vietnamese community, the Chinese community and the Eritrean community
living, working, praying, and serving God in our diocese.
It was a very rewarding day, a day that brought back to my mind once again
how blessed we are with the wide diversity of communities and peoples
here in the East Bay. God has given us many gifts to share, and I pray
that we will always receive them with open hearts and be generous in giving
our gifts to those who are our neighbors.
Previous "In His Light" Columns by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron
