For Flock's Sake

"For flock's sake".  So is the 2010 Guardian article entitled that reports on the Vatican dictum that homilies should be kept to eight minutes.  I respect this ruling, or try to, in a country where many clergy exhibit the need to preach regularly for much longer.  As I try to understand why, I hear the line that it is so important to say everything on the matter at hand and not forget anything.  This is our obligation to the people.  Is it? What is this about?  Once again, control?  Or is it a sense of over importance concerning one's role and contribution in the world.

I am sure the faithful know what they need to do and know right from wrong.  It just is that their world is so tumultuous, so frightening at times.  Daily, they face dilemmas, crises big or small and questions demanding attention.  Life is not necessarily dealt with that easily by words given from on high.

There are the losses, the stresses, the anxieties, the doubts, the suffering that we all face in life.  They  arise in the throes of everyday life.  We do not wish or want them but they still come our way and we have to deal with them, whether we like it or not.  They just are part of the package that is life.

Life is not black and white.  It does not fit into easy and understandable categories.  It cannot be boxed in by our own designs and comforts.  All that life throws at us cannot be met with by planned responses or controlled strategies or even 20 minute homilies.  Rather the rough and tumble of life is faced by people's creativity, compassion, courage, initiative and just sheer will and determination.  People live their faith in the everyday unknown and not in the realm of an ecclesial fairy-tale.

I think of the good, simple Filipino woman who presented her third child for baptism last Sunday.  There she was with her husband and children and five of the eight godparents.  They were not hi-so with loads of cash and oozing fashion.  They were just good, down to earth, everyday people struggling to do the right thing and do it well.  When I joked about returning when they have Number 4, she just innocently looked at me, smiled and nodded gently a gentle No.  I love her.  My hat goes off to her.

The faithful are so wise in our world and so adept at dealing with their lot.  So much so that I am in awe of their wisdom.  For flock's sake, they do need the eight minute homily, but to affirm them of their goodness and to assure them that the humble God is with us in the struggle of the everyday.