The Gentle God

I got word this month that Father Hebert Jones passed away on June 30^th at the age of 91. I knew him as the pastor of the Carmelite Chapel at the Northshore Mall but he had a long and productive tenure as a priest which included assignments in South America.

When St. Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly formed a collaborative with the two other Catholic churches in town, our pastor decided to close the building during the summer because there was no air conditioning. We were encouraged to attend St. John the Evangelist instead but since my mother and I had already left that parish many years before, we weren't eager to return anytime soon. While looking for a new spiritual home for those summer months, we eventually found the Carmelite Chapel and were very happy with the elderly priests who ran the place.

Fr. Herbert had such a gentle way of speaking and his humble sermons were often thought-provoking and reflective ending with the simple phrase, “May God love you.” A few years later, the Carmelite's priests were set to retire and by the end of January 2016, a new religious order would take over the chapel. During one of Fr. Herbert's last Masses, I decided to record audio of his sermon and quite fittingly, the subject focused on the gentle nature of God. I printed it here in his honor:

“I'd like to ask a question and you can think about it. Who is God to you? What is the image that you have of God when you think of Him? You're all here tonight. You're all here because we believe in God, obviously, but what...what is the image that we have of God?

For some it might be a judge...someone strict who is the creator of all and these things have to be done my way. Others, it might be a kindly grandfather. Others, it might be sort of an efficient businessman who's running this whole creation that He established. There's all different ideas that we might have of God. And that's why I'm hoping that you're all paying much attention to the three readings at this evening's Mass because it describes the qualities that should be in our mind when we think of God.

In the first reading, it tells about the compassion of God. The Prophet Isiah...we hear his language in which He's so kind. The Lord says to the people of Israel, 'Unto us today that we will not be called forsaken...damned...judged. Our land will not be called desolate, where we despair.'  Rather the Lord wants us...wants to call us delightful and loved. That whole first reading he has that gentle notion of God that we frequently don't associate with God.

In the second reading, which is a beautiful reading from St. Paul teaches us that the spirit gives us very different gifts and they're gifts that are useful. The gift of teaching. He words them so beautifully. He gives one the expression of wisdom. To another, the knowledge...according to the same spirit...the knowledge of wisdom. To another, faith coming from that same spirit. To another, the gifts of healing coming from that same spirit. One to do mighty deeds, is wise and can work for good...do good things. Another gift is the gift of prophecy...to know what's happening...to put things in their perspective...to have a clear image of what God expects from us. To another, discernment of spirits...who really knows how to figure out what God wants for us and discerning God's will in our lives. To another, the variety of tongues. Those who can speak many languages are so gifted. One of my young Carmelites speaks about eight languages and it's just incredible. Self taught...learned them all by himself. To another, he gives interpretation of tongues...to know what people are thinking even though we don't know what they're saying. I think that that is reputation of tongues even though I don't understand what's being said. Infrequently, someone will come to confession who doesn't speak English and they'll make a confession and you can sense the sense of repentance in their voice...in their tone of voice and you know that there has to be God's forgiveness. What more is necessary as to be attentive...to listen...to understand.

That same spirit of God that gives us all these gifts, that same spirit of God that gives them to us...to each individual. If we went through each one here, no two would be the same. Each one has his own personality...his own gifts...his own weaknesses because they're coming from God. It is our task...our struggle through life to know how to use them...to put them to good use...to make God's will effective in our lives. That image of God continues in the Gospel today. The marriage...the wedding feast at Cana. Here we have our blessed mother who's so close to God...probably as close as any human being has ever been. She's the one that senses the need of the young couple. They're running out of wine at a big feast. They're not going to be punished or maybe even criticized but the family's going to be ashamed that they didn't have the resources to attend their guests so it's our blessed mother who intercedes with her Son and tells Him, "Look, they have no wine."  And Christ said, “What's it to me?” but she knows in compassion that He'll respond to her concern. And she says, “Do whatever He tells you” and then we know the rest of the story. The water was changed into the best wine of the day. The compassion of God who always goes beyond our needs...beyond what we could imagine. His is aware of our needs and He responds.

And that's the image that we have to keep in mind of God. A gentle, loving, compassionate God who's aware of our weaknesses and our failures and our sins but He's not judging us. He's not ready to back away now that He's there to reach out a hand to help. That's what we should be thinking of when we think of God. And it's a beautiful image of our blessed mother who intercedes for us when she knows our needs. It's an excellent idea that we have to pray to the saints...to pray to the blessed mother particularly that she intercedes with her Son...and her voice is so powerful with her Son. God is the gentle God...a creator who is concerned about His creation...concerned about the life that He has put on this earth...concerned about how we use the gifts and the talents that He has given to us. So let us thank God. Let us thank Mary and that we will always be able to use these gifts...that we ourselves can be tender and compassionate with those around us. Let us pray that we become more open to that gentle spirit of God that becomes a part of our own life and we do away with the criticisms and the prejudices and the hatreds, the resentments that we allow to creep into our lives. That's not Godlike. He's compassion...gentle and loving. And that's the image of God that we should try to create in our own lives. May God love you.”

To my surprise, Fr. Herbert did return to the Carmelite Chapel every once in a great while just to help out and another of his sermons discussed death. Fr. Herbert thought it was a shame we didn't like to dwell on the subject because he felt we should prepare for that moment just as we prepared for the other great moments of our lives. He told us, to be Christian meant we needed to live the Gospel message and to make it real in our daily lives remembering that it's all part of the preparation for that moment when we are called into the presence of God. We should give of ourselves in some way to change the world in which we live. Fr. Herbert did just that in many humble and gentle ways.

Renovation Ruination

I think it's safe to say that Vatican II probably tried to accomplish too much too soon and while some of the changes it brought about were minor, others must have been extremely jarring for longtime parishioners,  Nowhere is this more true than in the arena of church renovations.
 
Although the Second Vatican Council never issued a single document or dictate that made architectural changes to churches compulsory, that didn't stop zealous pastors from getting carried away with their efforts to bring the Mass closer to the people.  All over the country, drastic renovations were initiated that seemed more like “wreckovations” to parishioners who loved their ornately decorated houses of worship.  High altars, elevated pulpits, reredos, side chapels and part or all of the altar rails were removed.  Statues and frescoes were whitewashed.  Some churches even saw stained glass windows covered over because they were thought to be a distraction.  These changes must have been almost universal because during my lifetime, I've only been to a couple of churches that still used an intact altar rail during the distribution of communion.  Things were getting so out of hand, the Vatican published Opera Artisis in 1971 which called for restraint in dealing with the artwork that adorned churches.  The National Conference of Catholic Bishops appeared to counter these recommendations with a 1978 booklet entitled Environment and Art in Catholic Worship and this only seemed to quicken the pace of these heavy-handed renovations.

A friend's mother mentioned the hurt feelings that were caused when most of her church's marble altar rail was removed because working class immigrants had scraped up whatever money they could to fund its installation.  My mother's childhood parish of the Immaculate Conception of Salem, MA  saw colorful statues painted white and many ornamental details lost.  Both she and my uncle have a bit of sadness in their voices whenever they talk about these changes.  “It's so different now.  It looks nothing like it did when I was a kid,” she laments.
 
While changes to St. Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly were minor by comparison, a couple of prominent statues did not escape the whitewash treatment.  During the 1990s, our pastor was Fr. Charles Hughes and he brought these sculptures back to their original colorful luster.  When a parishioner offered to pay for gold leaf to be added to St. Anthony's rosary, Fr. Hughes insisted it wasn't necessary because a good Franciscan would have carried a wooden rosary.  Today some parishes have instituted “re-renovations” in order to undo many post-Vatican II changes.  It's enough to make you wonder what it was all for in the first place?

Playing musical chairs with a church's decor does very little to get people to go to Mass but in times of uncertainty, undertaking such a renovation provides the illusion that something very tangible and achievable is happening.  The 1960s saw tremendous societal upheaval but instead of confronting the evil of these times, Vatican II's poorly-timed renovations were a distraction that caused many parishes to focus on inward things that really didn't matter all that much.

Unfortunately, the trend of unnecessary renovations didn't begin with Vatican II.  Seeing historical photos of the lower church at St. Mary's in Beverly reveals a very beautiful altar that seemed more than adequate.  It was replaced with a new altar of a much simpler design because Fr. Francis Shields found it necessary to have the lower church completely gutted shortly after his instillation as pastor in 1958.

During the post-World War II years, modern design took hold in America and anything old and ornate was often seen as being obsolete and disposable.  When the Great Salem Fire destroyed St. Joseph's Church, its 1949 replacement was constructed with International Style architecture.  While some grew to cherish this plain-looking building, others thought it was ugly.  When the Archdiocese of Boston wanted to demolish this house of worship many years later, its modern design was occasionally cited as a reason for not saving the building.    

Long after Vatican II, many pastors still can't resist “sprucing up” what they feel are tired-looking churches and I've seen some pretty frivolous and downright baffling renovations over the years.  If you look at exterior of St. Paul's Church in Hamilton, everything seems normal.  Upon entering the building, you notice something isn't quite right.  In 2003, someone got the bright idea to place the altar up against the left wall.  Pews in a semitransept off to the right now have a nice view of the Mass.  Unfortunately, worshipers in the main church don't despite an attempt to angle those pews so that they are more in line with the sanctuary.  I sometimes call St. Paul's the sideways parish.
 
The Carmelite Chapel at the Northshore Mall once featured partitions that slid along tracks in the ceiling but they had long been disused.  A tasteful but very minimal renovation saw the instillation of new ceiling panels without tracks and a pink curtain behind the altar to replace an unattractive green one.  Other than that, the chapel still retained much of its original look.  In 2010, a more extensive renovation took place which saw an entire section of pews removed so the altar could be extended farther out.  The pink curtain was removed and replaced with a wood facade that held two artificially lit stained glass windows from the closed Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Chelsea.  To top it all off, large rectangles of soundproofing hung from the ceiling from chains.  Removing seats is one way to make a house of worship seem more crowded but during the reduced capacity of the Covid-19 lock down, I bet our priests wished they had those extra pews.
 
I thought St. Mary of the Annunciation of Danvers was a nice-looking church yet when Fr. Michael Doyle was installed as pastor, talk of making the parish more “liturgically appropriate” began.  Controversy erupted when plans were made to demolish a neighboring funeral home for extra parking.  When all was said and done, the historic house was gone and the church's interior was completely done over but the renovations seemed gaudy to me.  Instead of adopting a less-is-more approach, the parish went overboard trying to make everything so fancy.  Not long afterwards, Fr. Doyle complained in the church bulletin of dwindling collections and the need for parishioners to give more.
 
The interior of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly was already beautiful but in the early 2000s, our pastor decided to have it fully repainted.  The parish had just paid off a considerable amount of debt thanks to a one-time land deal with a real estate developer.  Talk of boiler repairs, snow removal costs, the possible installation of a sprinkler system and about a hundred other expenses made me wonder if it was really a good time to spend money on such a superficial thing?  After a change in leadership a few years later, our collections no longer met the parish's weekly needs.

And this highlights a very good point.  Priests who place a great deal of importance on exterior changes need to realize they get very little bang for their buck when it comes to improving the spiritual health of their parishes.  In this blog's second entry, I described the disastrous renovation of St. John the Evangelist in Beverly.  Despite “improvements” that were at times painful to look at, my mother, brother and I continued to attend Mass there.  It wasn't the horrible decor that drove us away from the parish.  Rather, it was the realization that our souls were no longer being fed.  Sadly, this is why we left St. Mary's too.  Perhaps pastors need to do a better job building loving and caring communities within the walls of their churches rather than wasting so much time debating what color paint those walls should have.