By Julie M. Miller
Catholic Herald
Fall Institute held in Rice Lake
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Bill Huebsch told teachers and catechists at this year's Fall Institute that being a Catholic after Vatican II is more difficult than before the ecumenical council, which was held in the 1960s. (Photo by Sam M. Lucero) |
RICE LAKE -- The call to be one with God and one in each other was the theme of the 2000 Diocesan Fall Institute Oct. 11 at St. Joseph Church and School. About 420 teachers and catechists participated in the day of workshops. Four dedicated catechists and teachers received awards for their achievements.
The program began with a welcome from Bishop Raphael M. Fliss who celebrated the opening Mass with some of the priests of the diocese. Later in the Mass, Fliss thanked the religious educators and noted their importance in making a better world.
Fr. Vernon J. Olmer, a Franciscan who is pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Ashland, gave the homily. He quoted from the Gospel reading (Luke 11:1-4), "Lord, teach us to pray," and said that should be our repeated prayer as well. "The Lord's Prayer should be a mainstay for all of us."
He also discussed prayer as it relates to children. "If you want your children to pray you must pray. Your children must see and hear you pray and you must pray with them. I would say the same thing to teachers and catechists. If you want your students to pray, you must pray. Your students must see and hear you pray and you must pray with them," Olmer said.
The keynote speaker for the institute was Bill Huebsch, a noted author, teacher and founder of The Vatican II Project, established to keep the spirit of the Second Vatican Council alive. In introducing Huebsch, Phyllis Schlagel, superintendent of schools for the diocese, described him as a man of God "who has spent many of his years working to bring Christ to others."
Huebsch applied his knowledge of the spirit of Vatican II to the question, "Who are we gonna be?" He refuted the false impression of many people, that with fewer rules and regulations being a Catholic would be easier after Vatican II. According to Huebsch, it is much more difficult.
He talked about a very personal call this jubilee year, to answer the question: "Who are we for these people we minister to?" In the 1950s, he said, it was very clear what it meant to be a Catholic. Religious education was mainly studying the Baltimore Catechism, which he compared to "a little repair manual for a complicated machine. You had all the answers in that one little booklet ... there were no gray areas. It was all black and white."
Huebsch challenged the audience as individuals and as catechists with a different set of rules about who they are. According to Huebsch, the first rule of the Gospel is to give and receive love every day.
"The center point of the Gospel, believe it or not, is not doctrine. When God came and chose to live among us, and bring salvation to us, God did not come as a catechism book or a morals book. God came as a person who loved us so tenderly and so uniquely," he said. "What we are really called to as catechists is to live a life of love on an everyday basis at home."
The second requirement, blind generosity, is harder, Huebsch said. "When we meet Christ, we give away our wealth." According to the Gospel, the poor are the cornerstone of the church, but "we're building our own security while the poor starve around us," Huebsch said.
Huebsch went on to list other requirements, but added that they are really commentary on the first two. The jubilee year calls us to take back what we've given up -- the Sabbath, Huebsch said. His third rule is to honor the Sabbath by having Sunday dinner. He recommends making it a family project, and using the family's best tablecloth and china. "We've forgotten how to dine. We've forgotten what it means to sit down to a meal together," he said.
As point number four, Huebsch approached the altar in the church and asked, "Whose table is this up here? ... Does that table belong to the pope? ... Is it the pastor's table? Is it even our table? No. This table belongs to Christ. When we gather around it, the host is not the priest or the liturgy committee. The host is Christ."
This leads to a very important question, Huebsch said, "Who feels welcome here. Who feels alienated or unable or 'unfree' to come? ... I think our guest list is quite a bit narrower than the guest list of Jesus would be."
Huebsch said the Jubilee calls Catholics -- as catechists and as parishes and as "church" -- to proclaim to the world: "Whoever you are, you belong to us, because you belong to Christ."
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2000