Abbot John’s Christian Unity Homily

Monastery of Saint Benedict

January 19, 2020

On this second day of the week of prayer for Christian Unity, I want to call your attention to a remarkable coming together of Catholics and Mennonites in a movement called Bridgefolk. The Mennonites, who are often referred to as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to non-violence, are not very numerous, especially in this part of the country, but they have a special connection with Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s.

Twenty years ago, a Mennonite pastor from Seattle who was drawn to Catholic spirituality and sacramental practice spent a sabbatical year at the Collegeville Institute. He and some Mennonite friends who shared his interest in Catholicism went to see our newly elected Abbot John to seek his counsel about what the next steps might be, and out of that conversation was born Bridgefolk, a gathering of Catholics and Mennonites who this year will hold their nineteenth consecutive annual meeting here at Saint Ben’s, the third time Bridgefolk will meet on this campus. Sister Anne Marie Biermaier OSB and Sister Karen Rose OSB, who is on the Bridgefolk Board of Directors, are handling much of the preparation for this year’s conference, which will examine how our two traditions understand and put into practice Christ’s commandment to love our neighbor, especially when our new neighbors are culturally, ethnically, and religiously different from us. I should also mention that in its early years, Sister Merle Nolde OSB was very involved in Bridgefolk. More recently, before her untimely death last year, Sister Theresa Schumacher OSB served on the board of directors and contributed greatly to the ecumenical mission of Bridgefolk.

Bridgefolk can be described as a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Catholics who want to celebrate each other’s traditions, explore each other’s practices, and honor each other’s contribution to the mission of Christ’s Church. The Mennonites offer Catholics their tradition of discipleship, peacemaking, and lay participation. The Catholics offer Mennonites their spiritual, liturgical, and sacramental practices. The goal of Christian unity espoused by Bridgefolk is not conformity but communion, a communion of churches that respect one another’s spiritual gifts and share them.

Some might criticize the Mennonites, saying they are so committed to non-violence that they enable those who act violently, but such a critique would reveal how little they know about this church. The Mennonites resist violence, but they do so non-violently by devoting themselves to peacemaking efforts, relief missions, and the promotion of social justice. Almost every Mennonite I know seems to have spent some time in communities around the world that are ravaged by natural disasters, civil conflicts, racism, or war. They work quietly and generously to offer compassion, uphold justice, and bring relief.

Today we hear John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God. That way of referring to Jesus has become so familiar to us that we may not realize just how shocking this metaphor is. To us a lamb is little more than cuddly baby sheep. To John’s contemporaries, however, the lamb was an animal of sacrifice. When the crowds at the Jordan heard John refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, they must have thought of the paschal lamb of the Exodus, whose blood was sprinkled on the doorposts of the Israelites in Egypt so that the angel of death would pass over them. They might also have remembered that Isaiah spoke of a servant of God who was like a lamb that did not open its mouth as it was led to the slaughter.

That image of a lamb taking upon itself our sins and not opening its mouth as it is about to be killed is an apt symbol of the Mennonite way of discipleship. Their commitment to non-violence flows from their desire to become like Jesus, the Lamb of God, who did not resist those who came to arrest him and did not open his mouth when accused, much to Pilate’s surprise (Matt 27:14).

The Mennonites describe their refusal to defend themselves by means of violent words or actions with the German word Gelassenheit, one of those words that is almost impossible to translate. Gelassenheit means something like self-surrender, submission, yielding to the will of God and to others, contentment, and a calm spirit. “Letting go” might be good way of translating it—letting go of anger and hatred, letting go of insisting that we get our way, letting go of harsh and demeaning words, letting go of judging those who do not agree with us. Gelassenheit is the opposite of promoting self-interest at every turn and lashing out at anyone or anything that gets in our way.

The Mennonites’ commitment to non-violence and peace making as an essential component of the Christian message is an extraordinary gift that they offer to the whole Church of Christ, a gift that we can and should accept with overflowing gratitude

There are and have been other great witnesses to non-violence as an essential feature of Christian discipleship. This week, of course, we honor one of the greatest of them, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who showed us that to be the Church of Christ the Lamb of God means putting innocence in the place of malice, love in the place of violence, humility in the place of pride, and service in the place of prestige.

With their example to inspire us, may we continue to strive to be that kind of honest, humble, peace and justice-seeking church, we who at every Mass pray that the Lamb of God will have mercy on us, and that, unworthy as we are to receive him in the sacrament of his body and blood, he will come to us and heal us.

Abbot John Klassen OSB
Saint John’s Abbey
Collegeville, MN 56321

A papal encyclical, a Mennonite resolution, and the relevance of Anablacktivism

LAWRENCE JENNINGS of Infinity Mennonite Church in New York City has been involved in community and economic development for more than three decades. Since 2013, he has been affiliated with GreenFaith, first as a Fellow, and currently as a lead organizer of the new Restoration Nation faith communities/green jobs initiative. A member of the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona College, he was one of the key organizers of the People’s Climate March faith contingent, and has ongoing involvement with the People’s Climate Movement, the organizing body that took shape after the March. In these involvements, as well as his work with The Groundswell Group and Moral Mondays, he works closely with faith communities and inner city and “frontline” groups that often are overlooked or excluded. He authored the Open Letter from African American clergy on Climate Change as part of the “Our Voices” campaign, and is on the Steering Committee of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, both of which aim to encourage people of to speak out about the moral and scientific urgency of the environmental crisis. Lawrence was asked by GreenFaith to write a response to the Pope’s newly released environmental teachings from the Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective. His article originally appeared in two parts on the Mennonite Church USA website (here and here). Continue reading “A papal encyclical, a Mennonite resolution, and the relevance of Anablacktivism” →

Ecumenical friendship calls for solidarity with ancient Christian communities in Middle East

Christians gather for Evening Prayer outside St. Joseph’s Church in Erbil. (photo: Don Duncan, CNEWA)

Ecumenical friendship is not only about theological dialogue and common causes–it is also about solidarity in suffering, our calling to “bear one another’s burdens” in the body of Christ so that we might “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). The Catholic Near East Welfare Agency (CNEWA) is a Vatican agency that provides humanitarian and pastoral support for the Eastern Catholic churches. CNEWA works in Eastern Europe, Northeast Africa and throughout the Middle East. A key area of CNEWAs work has been supporting seminaries and training catechists in some of the oldest Christian communities that are struggling to survive in challenging conditions.

This year the church marks Advent and Christmas while many thousands of Catholic Christians have been displaced by expanding war in northern Iraq. They are waiting and wondering whether they will ever be able to return home. Their story is told in an article titled “Exodus” in the magazine ONE, published by CNEWA. Here’s a brief sample:

At night, above this landscape of abjection reigns a scattering of glimmering crosses. On the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, celebrated on 14 September, Iraqi Christians erect illuminated crosses on top of their buildings and leave them there for several weeks. The crosses they left behind in Qaraqosh and Bartella have most likely been taken down or destroyed, but crosses seem to have redoubled across the recently overpopulated Christian enclaves of Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the presence of the crosses certainly brings hope to the faithful, the harsh reality grinds on: It has been months since their expulsion and they are still languishing in churches, tents, abandoned basements, unfinished buildings, repurposed schools and social centers.”

For the full story click here

The mentally ill are our lepers

In a March 28 article in National Catholic Reporter, Melissa Musick Nussbaum compares the lepers healed by Jesus, previously ostracized as “unclean,” to patients of mental health facilities today. She writes:

I serve on the board of my local Catholic Charities. Our Marian House Soup Kitchen and drop-in center is located downtown, just across the street from the cathedral. Many of those we serve are mentally ill. Every year the cry goes up to move the facility to some place far away from downtown shops and restaurants. Every year the cry goes up to relocate our Lazaruses so that our way is unhindered, our view is unspoiled, and our fantasies remain intact.

So I’ve been interested in Dr. [Abraham] Nussbaum’s work, a work he does with many others of like mind, to find a different way to treat and live with the mentally ill. His attention is drawn to the many Mennonites, who, as conscientious objectors during World War II, worked as attendants in American mental asylums.

Menno Simons, the Anabaptist father of the Mennonites, was a Norbertine priest before he left the order and the Catholic church. But Nussbaum believes that Simons, and his followers, may help lead the church back into right relationship with our brothers and sisters who suffer from mental illness.

Nussbaum goes on to outline a history of the Mennonite conscientious objectors who completed their Civilian Public Service in psychiatric hospitals, refusing to use any force against patients. She concludes with a vision for what service to the mentally ill could look like in a Catholic context. The full article is available here.

Timothy Colegrove: Pope Francis on “Slow” Evangelism

Mennonite church planter Timothy Colegrove, in a recent entry on Patheos’ Slow Church blog, reflects on Pope Francis’ engaging and relational approach to spreading the gospel, and how this meshes with the “Slow Church” concept. Giving particular attention to Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Colegrove muses:

As Alice and I move forward in our mission to plant a church with the Conservative Mennonite Conference in Boston, I find myself in strange unity with the Pope. Who would have imagined that a Mennonite would find such agreement with the head of the Catholic Church, an institution that viciously oppressed early Anabaptist disciples? Yet while reading the Evangelii, I could feel my heart breaking out in applause and spirit-filled agreement at his call to greater connection with other disciples and with the communities around us. Undoubtedly this is the Church that a relationally starved culture needs so badly.

The full article is available here.

Susan Kennel Harrison: True dialogue doesn’t allow you to give up your distinct beliefs

Susan Kennel Harrison, former Bridgefolk Board member, recently offered the following reflection on the nature of interfaith dialogue on the blog site State of Formation.

To be “good” at Interfaith dialogue you need to first know the beliefs of your religious tradition, more precisely than your average practitioner, “the faithful.” You not only need to know the beliefs of your religious tradition but why it holds those specific beliefs. You also need to know how those of other denominations of your religious tradition might believe differently, and why; the nuances of where/why your part of the same tradition might not agree with them doctrinally or where you vary in practice. Continue reading “Susan Kennel Harrison: True dialogue doesn’t allow you to give up your distinct beliefs” →

Pax Christi and the gospel of peace – “Making the case for the abolition of war”

Reflection from Pax Christi USA, December 17, 2013

by Scott Wright, Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore

Part of the title (in quotes) is borrowed from an essay by Stanley Hauerwas, a moral theologian who was deeply influenced by the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, both of whom taught at Notre Dame.[1] The title is challenging, but we cannot deny that our deepest longings and aspirations move us toward this goal for peace. In fact, the abolition of war forms the opening of the United Nations Charter: “We, the people of the United Nations, [are] determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war… and to live in peace with one another as good neighbors…” The times require great moral imagination, and great moral courage.

Particularly when we look at the state of the world today, and begin to measure our humble efforts for peace against such a stark reality of war and violence, we tend to get discouraged, and may be tempted to give up hope in ever seeing the day when war is finally abolished. Yet history is full of surprises. Who could have predicted that non-violent movements for democracy would usher in the end of the Cold War, or that dialogue between arch-enemies in South Africa would lead to the end of apartheid?

Surely, others before us were discouraged and tempted to lose hope; for instance, in the long struggle to abolish slavery and torture. Why should the struggle to abolish war be any different? We know that slavery continues to exist even today, and it is a very serious problem. Torture, too, continues to be practiced, as we know very well from the pictures and stories that have been broadcast to the world from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Still, it was a very significant step to abolish the moral and legal justifications for both slavery and torture; and it would be a very significant step to do the same regarding the practice of war.

I believe there are good grounds for hope in this struggle to finally abolish war. The witness of the Mennonites and other peace churches over the past several centuries is a reason for hope. The teachings of the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council give rise to hope, particularly the eloquent and urgent pleas of the popes, from Paul VI’s impassioned plea to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1965: “Never again war! No, never again war!”[2] to John Paul II’s repetition of that plea in his encyclical Centesimus Annus in 1991,[3] and later his Jubilee message on the World Day of Peace in 2000: “War is a defeat for humanity!”[4] And finally today, Pope Francis’ words opposing war during an evening prayer service for Syria in St. Peter’s Square:

“How many conflicts, how many wars have mocked our history?” he asked the faithful. “Even today we raise our hand against our brother…We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves as if it were normal we continue to sow destruction, pain, death. Violence and war lead only to death.”

In each of these instances, we find a step in the conversion of the Catholic Church toward becoming an authentic peace church, rooted in the Gospel of peace and the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This change of emphasis in the Catholic Church is marked by an increased use of the just war theory to restrain and oppose modern warfare, rather than to justify it, and a “seismic shift”[5] to nonviolence as a public witness for peace, both key elements in making the case for the final abolition of war.

Continue reading “Pax Christi and the gospel of peace – “Making the case for the abolition of war”” →

The Christmas story’s “whisper from the edges”

Australian Mennonite Clair Hochstetler, in a reflection for the news service Mennolink, comments appreciatively on Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, as cited in an article from the Jesuit website Eureka Street.

Hochstetler writes,

“The Christmas story is a whisper from the edges that another kind of world is possible…. Continue reading “The Christmas story’s “whisper from the edges”” →

Pax Christi: Dialogue is the only way towards an end of the violence in Syria

Catholic peace organization Pax Christi has issued the following statement:

Pax Christi International is deeply concerned about the latest events in Syria.

While we unequivocally condemn the use of chemical weapons, regardless of who perpetrated the attack, Pax Christi pleads with the nations of the world to recognize the responsibility and authority of the UN Security Council to address this egregious violation of international law and morality and to work with the United Nations to protect – without escalating the violence – the Syrian people. This should be done through urgent diplomatic efforts to stop immediately the flow of arms to both sides and to all militant groups and to bring all stakeholders in the conflict to the negotiating table. Many states have helped fuel the armed conflict in Syria by sending weapons to the region; now it is time for the International community to cooperate fully on an arms embargo and to unequivocally back dialogue that alone can end the horrific violence.

Continue reading “Pax Christi: Dialogue is the only way towards an end of the violence in Syria” →