I found Msgr. Murphy's commentary to be insightful, challenging, and helpful. If you find my musings dreary at first, read on!
I think he is right in pointing out that Catholic Education--Catholicism even!--is confronted with an immediate dilemma, which must be engaged in a spirit of hope despite, indeed to spite, the very aura of gloom surrounding its present state. To point out the challenges of secularism which has gleefully brushed God aside; real postmodern relativism which unbinds the cultural glue of a shared worldview based on commonly held and transcendent values so setting us somewhat adrift on seas of pure self-reference; a Church which has gutted itself with scandal. Other challenges facing Catholic education, unmentioned by the author are dwindling numbers of Catholic students, teachers, and staff, financial hardship, a general weakening of Catholic identity. Indeed a dark night for culture and church.
But the true dark night is about purgation and then renewal!
Murphy is absolutely right that a lay spirituality of the Catholic educator is overdue. Right again in that it cannot simply be cobbled together (though it is everyday) or adopted whole cloth (pun intended) from the world of religious. We are operating from a spirituality by default, whether we are conscious of it or not, whether it is coherent and intentional or not.
Lay spirituality is distinctive (though perhaps not as distant from spirituality of religious life as the author suggests--I would argue with him over the supposed inappropriateness of the evangelical counsels [poverty, chastity, and obedience] for a Christian). Murphy is right to point signal the elements of work, family, and marriage as constitutive. I would love to see more discussion of de Sales' notion of the "secular state."
The best thing Murphy does is explain the priority of relatedness and relationship grounded in Trinity. On p. 12, he alludes to the fact that Trinity gives us our identity. God is love and love is relational--true love needs to be expressed (Creation) and then returned freely (Christ and Christianity) forming a bond in and through the Spirit.
He then suggests that ambiguity is another characteristic of life today which we should accept. I don't know what to think here. I want to agree and disagree. I want to fight ambiguity if its source is evil. I will accept it if it is God's will. To distinguish requires discernment. Murphy skips over this.
He also fails to mention Apostolicum actuositatem, a key decree on the laity from Vatican II which would round out his very good reflections.
I love the common sense reflection that one must begin in the staff room.
The five characteristics are genius! And then he frosts his cake with the sugary call to political engagement...but wait for the cherry...ahh yes, it must all be rooted in prayer. "...to do all this Catholic educators have to give themselves time to stand in the presence of God" (p. 24). Amen!
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Reading "The Documents" (ie: those encyclicals, statements, constitutions, etc. that address Catholic education) chronologically shows how the the Church grudgingly accepted the rise of the citizen-teacher (lay), as opposed to the previous army of Religious who once populated the halls of SS Philomena, et al. As was mentioned a couple times in class, there has been a resounding silence in recent years. Maybe the next great work of the Bishops will fully acknowledge and address a Spirituality of and for the Lay Teachers.
ReplyDeleteOr they'll make everyone go through Final Vows or Holy Orders en masse.