Radical Christianity

Daily Mass has been part of my prayer routine for about a year and a half. I have been trying to keep it up on vacation, but it has been a challenge as the national parks we have visited are in small towns and the nearest Catholic churches are really far away. Many of these churches are mission churches, so the only masses are on Sundays. We were at Zion National Park last Sunday. We talked to a park ranger who got out a huge book to find that there is a Catholic Mass at 8am in the lodge. When we walked into the auditorium there was a man standing there with long, shabby, blonde hair. He had a beard and his appearance reminded me in a way of John the Baptist; he looked like he had just emerged from the wilderness to share the good news with us. He introduced himself as a deacon from the church that was 50 miles away. He explained that our service would be a SCAP, Sunday Celebration in Absence of a Priest. He said that there is only one bishop in Utah and since it is a very rural state and because they don't have enough priests, there are many places in the state that can't have Sunday Mass. Most of the communion services I have been to have lasted 10-15 minutes, but this one lasted about an hour as the deacon walked around the auditorium preaching about the value of each day that God gives us. His wrist tattoo showed through his vestments as he asked us to pray for religious vocations and to be open to God's will.

San Felipe de Neri Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico

He was a radical man with a radical message. While it was easy to dismiss him as crazy, it reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend a few days before she left to be a missionary in Haiti. She said that people have mentioned that she is crazy for giving up everything to move to a third world country without what are considered basic necessities by American standards. As we reflected in the ways that God has called us in our own lives, we discussed how being a Christian really is a radical way to live. When you look at the saints, they were all counter cultural. Not all of us are called to such a radical life as being a sister or a missionary, but we are all called to radically live our faith.

The deacon also reminded me of the importance to pray for priestly vocations. Through part of my discernment, I was frustrated because it seemed to me like religious vocations weren't encouraged near as much as priestly vocations. I think that in the year and a half since I started discerning, religious vocations have been promoted more, a lot due to the Imagine Sisters Movement, but I have also come to realize that we cannot have religious vocations (or any vocations for that matter) without priests. My parish is huge, but we are blessed to have four priests. Many people, however, do not have access to a priest or to the sacraments that are so vital to our faith, the sacraments that were so vital to the discovery of my own vocation.  Let us pray for an abundance of holy men who are willing to respond to God's beautiful call to serve Him.