As we heard speaker after speaker rise to address us, I was reminded of a remark of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in one of his sermons to his monks on the Canticle of Canticles. He told them to "taste things as they are, the bitter as bitter and the sweet as sweet." During this convocation we have heard "bitter" things, unaccomplished areas of pastoral concern, and "sweet" things, areas in which much progress have been made in this diocese. Above all we are called to be realistic both as regards what needs to be done and what has been successfully accomplished.

The consistent drumbeat of most of our speakers was "the laity". We were reminded that Vatican Council II clearly brought them into the apostolate in their own right. The Mission of the Church involves them. Not because of a lack of priests, but rather in virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation. It should not be surprising that this shift in emphasis still needs implementation. Vatican II is only 36 years in the past, and that is a rather short time to accomplish a rather major shift in emphasis.

I divide our speakers into the three areas that the title of our convocation indicated. I heard Sr. Joseph Angela, Fr. Brad Whistle, Sisters Rose Marita. and Vivian, Mr. Doug Borders and Mrs. Chiles speak of both the past and present here in the diocese of Western Kentucky. I heard the Bishop and Sr. Christine speak of the future; the bishop as he outlined the 10 areas of the apostolate that need continued work and Sr. Christine as she addressed 5 areas of social justice. I heard Fr. Casey, Msgr..Boyea, Fr. Ryan, and Dr. Lord speak more about various means of working toward future agenda.

Let me offer my personal reflections in five points:

1] Following such an intense presentation of the past and future one can well experience a sense of being overwhelmed by it all, especially of all that is presented for future accomplishment. Yet here I offer an old Benedictine maxim: "solvitur ambulando", it is resolved as we walk along. Bit by bit as we move into the future, with God's grace, we will accomplish what needs to be done. Here Br. Ken Grondin's remarks on patience are most appropriate. Not to be overcome with the magnitude of it all requires patience on our part. I am reminded of a comment by Fr. Yves Congar, O.P.

"In order that reform be realized in the church, it is necessary that it be accompanied by patience: by which I mean much more than watching the clock or presuming that everything takes time. I mean a certain disposition of soul and of spirit mindful of necessary delays, a certain humility and pliancy of spirit, the awareness of imperfections, even of inevitable ones. Jean Guitton believed it possible to characterize the Catholic mentality as one of fullness and the Protestant one as a search for purity. I am inclined to believe that Catholicism and Protestantism differ still more in terms of temperament and the manner by which believers receive and come to their religion--in being a religion of life, and of life in its fullness, one the one hand, and a religion of searching, of purity, of searching for purity, on the other. In this regard, Protestantism is more intellectual than Catholicism. An idea can be pure; reality and life are not." True and False Reform in the Church, Yves Congar, O.P., trans. Christopher Ruddy.

Reality and life don't yield themselves to change in an entirely intellectual fashion; just writing a cogent article or giving a well-knit homily on one Sunday doesn't bring about the change needed. We must be patient and wary of searching for absolute purity.

2] A second thought occurred to me during the talks. Somewhere at the beginning of his book, Clowning in Rome, Henri Nouwen comments on the importance of looking for solutions that have a lasting effect. He says something to the effect that Americans especially have more of a tendency to apply "Band-Aid" solutions to situations that demand long-term application of remedies. Obviously we don't get that immediate satisfaction of a "cure" to a particular difficulty. Yet the difficulty doesn't reappear rather quickly as it would with the "Band-Aid" solution.

3] Sr. Christine's comment that "small is beautiful" struck a cord with me. This diocese, except for its geographical area, has something humane about it. People and priests know each other. The bishop is known, and in turn the bishop knows personally all his priests and a great many of the people. The Pastoral Center in no way comes across as an impenetrable fortress. This diocese stands among the highest, if not the highest, in weekly mass attendance of registered parishioners and also the household giving exceeds by far the national norm.

4] I found the bishop's remarks on the necessity of unity markedly important. Unity of bishop with priests, of priests among themselves and priests and people. As Sr. Rose Marita remarked our relationships with one another influence the effectiveness of our fulfilling the mission given to the church. My previous comments on patience might also be applied here. I personally continue to favor some form of the Common Ground Project so that even greater unity might be achieved.

5] Finally I found Msgr. Boyea's suggestion regarding the church's need to have gatherings to "goad to holiness" rather well-placed. This is certainly the one really important conclusion offered us from his survey of Church history in reference to "Assemblies and Visitations". And let not the fewness of my comments be interpreted as lessening my opinion of the importance of "goad[ing]" us to holiness.

Continuing Education for Clergy, Diocese of Owensboro

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