The Sacred Triduum
Maybe Jesus’ public life lasted three years, the last three days of which are remembered and liturgically relived in Christian churches throughout the world this week. I have been, for whatever reason, focused on few moments in those last three days. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” [Lk. 22:42] And how does his Father respond to this prayer? On the cross, Jesus cries out, “… in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani,’ which is translated, “My God,my God, why have you forsaken me.” [Mk. 15:34.] If we stop at the crosses in our life, we’re never quite sure how God answers our prayers, but we feel as Jesus did abandoned, forgotten, God seems absent. But how did the Father respond? Easter is [not was but is] his response. And Easter is for the sake of the whole world; nothing can ever be the same. Our crosses will come and go for sure and there is Easter, the empty tomb, death overcome, life beyond anything we can possibly imagine. And this is the Father’s response.
The Role of our Group and Social Media
At the end of Session 23 Mark and I had a brief conversation. He mentioned discussing our Scripture Group with some of his friends and learning that they didn’t have this type of opportunity in their parish. As we began this session we picked up on that conversation, one thing lead to the other and most of our time was devoted to use of the social media to enhance parish life.
It was important first to clarify that as far as I know there is nothing that prohibits a parish from having a scripture study group. Adult education, however, has to be part of the vision of the parish; there has to be someone competent and willing to lead the group; and, ultimately, there has to be some level of interest among the adults. If these criteria are met, normally some level of adult study will take place.
With the advent of the internet, almost anyone who is interested can participate even if their own parish doesn’t provide a scripture study option. What we observed though is that, for all practical purposes, no one has engaged in our group on the website itself. One way we’re hoping to change that is via the parish’s Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/staasParish. Ken, another parishioner, and I have been asked by Fr. Tom to see what we can do along that line. We’ll keep you abreast as things develop, hopefully.
At this point our conversation turned to attracting the youth who are probably much more active on the internet than other age groups in the parish. Jody said that she had visited the parish Facebook page a few times but spent most of her time elsewhere because it was more interesting than on the parish Facebook page. Her observations raised a further question what would attract the youth. The answer came in terms of questions that youth have often are not discussed in the church and often not even in the family. The example that came forward in our group was homosexuality. Jody shared that at Akron University there are groups organized around this issue. She pointed out a startling statistic that around 46% of young people who deal with this issue on a personal level attempt suicide. She told us that many of these young people feel rejected from church, from family, and have profound personal struggles. Obviously this is a very serious issue that invites us to dialogue.
We certainly didn’t arrive at any solution. But, at least, we talked about it; that in itself might have been more than otherwise does occur. Since our last gathering I learned of one website that is attempting to help parishes use the social media to help achieve their missions; if you’re interested there is a 55 minute webinar, http://www.peterandpaulministries.com/how-really-leverage-social-media-ministry, that you would be welcomed to watch and share any of your thoughts. Our world is alive with topics that invite us to rise to the level of our times. We [the church] have much to offer and much to learn.