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On Sunday, June 11 Our Lady of Lourdes continued the celebration of our 140th anniversary with a festive Mass for the City of Minneapolis and brunch at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. The location was intentionally chosen given its proximity to the St. Anthony Falls. The Mass and music were beautiful and there was a sense of excitement in the air. Archbishop Hebda preached a beautiful and inspiring homily about the mission of the parish to reach out to the surrounding community as an instrument of God's Trinitarian love. The brunch which followed the Mass continued the celebration and provided an opportunity to highlight what God has accomplished through the 140 year history of Lourdes. The Jubilee brunch also saw the debut of our new Jubilee video which traces the ways that the Spirit has and continues to move in the life of our community. The entire event was humbling and inspiring and I thank those who worked so hard to make it a success!
On the evening of June 11, I boarded a plane to Prague and Budapest.
After some days of prep and sightseeing in Prague, I had the opportunity to teach law students from seven different countries in a summer law school program hosted by a Catholic law school in Budapest. The topic was sustainable development law and my task was to provide the students an ethical framework for sustainable development and environmental stewardship through the social teachings of the Catholic faith. It was a great experience and I was impressed with the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the students. The millennial generation has impressed me with their commitment to a consistent ethic of life and their care for our brothers and sisters who live life on the margins of society. As a teacher, I was also thankful that their exams revealed that they got the material!
Our Jubilee Mass for the City and my experience of teaching students from around the world highlighted for me that the Catholic Church is at the same time a local Church and a universal Church. Both dimensions of the Church are to be celebrated and lived. Part of the incarnational nature of the Catholic faith is that it is not an either or reality, but always a both/and reality. This both/and dynamic of the Catholic faith proceeds from the truth that Jesus Christ is goth fully God and fully human. This dynamic continues through the whole of the Catholic faith. For example, as Catholics we believe in the dialectic truths of: Scripture and Tradition; faith and reason; faith and works; nature and grace; this world and the world to come; and that we as human beings are both digni ied and broken. Where the Church and theology breaks down is when we fail to live in and embrace this dialectic tension of the both/and.
It became very apparent on June 11 that as Catholics we are a part of a Church that is both intimately local and beautifully universal. This is the Church we witness at the beginning of the journey of faith at the Pentecost event. There was a unity of faith but it was presented in the diverse languages of the various communities present in Jerusalem. The unity and diversity of the Church are integral to her nature and should be embraced as gift. We celebrated our local community of faith and our history at Lourdes on June 11. We did so knowing that we are connected to a universal communion of believers - a world wide Church. Our community has been fed by this universal faith as many years ago foreign missionaries and French Canadians came to the irst neighborhood of Minneapolis - the Village of St. Anthony - to live and pass on their Catholic faith. In Budapest, I shared the teachings of our universal faith with law students from around the world with the goal of helping build a more just and humane world.
Where do you and your gifts it in this Church that is at the same time intimately local and beautifully universal?
Peace,
Fr. Grifith