Sometimes there is a tension in my gut that reflects the contradictions of life. On the one hand, I’m old enough to enjoy stability. I don’t like things constantly changing, as if I needed to jump from one block of ice to another in a swift flowing river just to keep from drowning. I seemed to do that a lot when I was younger. Now, less stressful activities are appreciated, such as stirring a few ice cubes in a large raspberry ice tea. Yet, I also realize that change is needed at times and lack of necessary change can be even more dangerous than the ice flow in a river.
The Diocese of Erie, where I currently minister, has been going through a lot of change recently. The population demographics and the distribution of churches throughout the Diocese are about fifty years out of sync. The Diocese has been going through a pastoral planning process recently with one of the goals being to achieve better alignment between the population, needs and resources of the Diocese. One of the results has been a major restructuring of the parishes. Some have been merged. Others have been reduced to missions and attached to nearby parishes. Still others have been partnered with parishes to share resources. This past week about forty priests and deacons were assigned to new parishes as part of the restructuring process.
Change is evidence of life. If something is unchanging and static, it lacks life. Life involves taking in nutrition from the surrounding environment. It involves growth. Life involves adapting to a changing environment to increase the chance of our survival.
So, even though planned changes in the Church community may be a challenge for those directly impacted by the change, it means that the Church is alive and interacting with the world around it. Hopefully, that interaction brings about change that will impact the community and Church in a positive way. Such change is asked of us in a broad sense not only as we help to to implement the results of a pastoral planning process but also on a much more personal level.
In a recent Sunday Gospel reading Jesus is described as leaving home in Nazareth, where he recently began his public ministry, and moving to the town of Capernaum, a fishing community on the Sea of Galilee. He is going to live in Capernaum, not just visit.
This is an important shift in how Jesus is perceived by the community around him. While he was still in Nazareth, Jesus was simply Mary’s son. He was the kid who lived down the street. He was well known from his childhood and his family. He was a well-defined entity and few were open to looking at him in a new or different way. While he had probably visited Capernaum many times in the past, as it was only a two day walk from Nazareth and may have even done carpentry work there in the past, he was essentially a stranger. He wasn’t already labeled and people were open to judging him by what he said and did, not by their memory of him or his family from fifteen years earlier. The people of Nazareth were not willing to change their perception of Jesus considering new evidence. The people of Capernaum were willing to change, since they had not forged yet a strong opinion of him either way.
Changes necessitated by new challenges in the community and decided upon by a pastoral plan are daunting, especially if they have a direct impact on us. However, we don’t need a pastoral plan to call us to change. Part of the message that Jesus proclaimed to everyone who listened to him was metanoia. That is a Greek word that is often translated as “repent” but literally means to “turn in a different direction”; that is, it is a call to change. Certainly, this can involve turning away from those habits of sin that have become embedded in our character. It is a call to turn away from selfishness, cruelty, gossip, stealing, bullying, lying and all the vices that do harm to ourselves and others. The call to metanoia however is not just a call to turn away from sin. It is also a call to turn toward Christ.
Almost immediately after moving to Capernaum, Jesus began to call disciples to join him in ministry. Peter, Andrew, James and John were all comfortable fishermen in the community. They worked with their fathers and had probably come from a long line of men who made their living from fishing in the Sea of Galilee. They had boats, nets, workers and lots of experience on the Sea of Galilee. When Jesus called them to follow him, they dropped what they were doing on their fishing boats and followed Jesus. Jesus was calling them to metanoia; not only by turning away from vice but by actively being a disciple of Jesus. This was a radical change in their lives. Yet, when called by Christ they made the change.
The call that Jesus made to the people of Capernaum two thousand years ago, is the same call that he makes to us today. We are called to metanoia…to change! It is no easier to change today than it was two millennia ago. We are still called to turn away from sin in whatever way it may poison our lives. We are still called to get up from what we are doing and follow Jesus as his disciple. The way we follow Jesus may vary from one person to another but, as his disciples, we attempt to live by his example, discipline and the Gospel message that he gave us.