The first was “Big Russ and Me” by Tim Russert, the famous journalist and moderator of Meet the Press who died suddenly last spring. Russert wrote this book about his growing up in Buffalo, New York and all the lessons that his dad, Big Russ, had taught him along the way.
The other was “Called Out of Darkness” by Anne Rice, the well-known author of so many vampire novels, including “Interview With a Vampire.” After living for over thirty year as an atheist, Rice wrote this spiritual autobiography upon her return to the Catholic faith of her youth.
Of course, these are, in many ways very different books by very different people. But what struck me about both authors’ reflections was how the Church played such an instrumental part in their upbringing and had shaped their way of thinking and living for the rest of their lives.
Tim Russert paints a picture of his growing up in 1950s Buffalo: attending Catholic school, serving Mass in his home parish and working in the rectory to help pay for high school.
He tells of praying grace before meals, of abstaining from meat on Fridays, and of the Sacraments being rites of passage in school and in the neighborhood. Perhaps most importantly, he tells of a handful of nuns and priests who helped him believe in himself, work hard, and to trust that politics and journalism could in fact be means of service.
Just seven months ago, when Tim Russert died so unexpectedly, his colleagues spoke not only of his work ethic and expertise, but of his deep devotion as a son, as a father, and as a faithful Catholic who simply refused to ever miss Mass on Sunday.
Ann Rice paints a very similar picture of growing up in 1940s New Orleans. She remembers being enthralled by the lives of the saints and praying to their statues at home, and in the church where she attended daily Mass. She tells of New Orleans’ civic calendar revolving around the Church’s yearly feasts and seasons.
And perhaps most importantly, she speaks of being moved, even as a child, by the beauty of her parish church and realizing even then that its beauty was not at all separate from the beauty she also appreciated in the city’s many gardens and tree-lined streets.
Even after struggling with her faith, and leaving the Church, and living as an atheist for thirty years, Anne Rice found that all of her life as an author had been profoundly influenced by her Catholic sensibilities. All these many years later, her deep love of the Eucharist has drawn her back to the Church and she has published two novels on the life of Christ.
As different as these two lives and stories are, what makes them so similar is how thoroughly they are immersed in the life of the Church.
As children, every aspect of their lives was in some way touched by Christ, because every aspect of their lives involved the Church. The Church was able to form every aspect of these two famous people in innumerable ways, and it affected them for the good throughout the rest of their lives.
In today’s Gospel, we are given a metaphor and an invitation for precisely this kind of immersion in the life of the Church.
Hearing John the Baptist announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God, Andrew and another disciple follow after Him. When Jesus turns to question them, they ask, “Rabbi, where are you staying” and He responds, “Come and see.” And the two follow him to where He “was staying and they stayed with Him that day.”
Where is Jesus staying? – Where is the home of Jesus? – Where does Jesus abide?
Where else does Jesus abide, where else does Jesus make His home, but in the Church He founded, the Church that is itself His very body!
If we, like Andrew, want to know this Jesus who is the Lamb of God, we need to find the place where He is staying, and we need to spend the day with Him there – that is to say, we need to have every aspect of our lives, not just an hour a week, immersed in the life of Christ’s Church.
You can tell an awful lot about a person by taking a look around their house, can’t you? So then what might this house where Jesus is staying look like? Let’s imagine together, for just a moment or two, what we might find in Christ’s house.
What are the books we might find on the shelves? Certainly the Scriptures, and the lives of the saints, and the writings of the Church Fathers. But also the great works of literary history, like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. And we’d find more modern novels and stories by Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo and hundreds of others.
What art would we find on the walls and in the hallways? The great sculptures of Michelangelo and Bernini, and the paintings of the masters like Bl. Fra Angelico, and Caravaggio and the moderns like Salvador Dali
What music would be playing there? Certainly the great hymns and Gregorian chant of the Church’s worship, but also the polyphony of Bach, Byrd and Palestrina, and the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven.
What food would we be invited to enjoy there? – The Eucharist, of course, is the great banquet of Christ’s Church, but there would also be great wine, Trappist beer, Capuchin coffee, and all the special foods made to celebrate the feast days of saints, like Joseph, or Lucy, or Nicholas.
Who are the other guests that we would meet in this house? The Apostles and all the martyrs and saints, the great friends of Jesus throughout history would undoubtedly all be there.
The point isn’t that you have to be impeccably cultured to know Jesus – the point is that the Church is not merely somewhere we go once a week to pray. The Church is an entire world, a culture, a way of thinking and being. It is beautiful and joyful. It is filled with all the world’s treasures – filled with any and every kind of art, music, food, literature and person that is inspired by Him, and in turn, capable of revealing Him to those who partake of them.
As He did to Andrew in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns to each of us and asks, “What are you looking for?”
The fulfillment of our every longing is to know Jesus Christ, and to do that, we must follow Him to the place where He dwells and stay there with Him. May Christ make the beauty, the rhythms and the rituals of His Church the very center of our lives and the very air we breathe.
And perhaps most importantly, she speaks of being moved, even as a child, by the beauty of her parish church and realizing even then that its beauty was not at all separate from the beauty she also appreciated in the city’s many gardens and tree-lined streets.
Even after struggling with her faith, and leaving the Church, and living as an atheist for thirty years, Anne Rice found that all of her life as an author had been profoundly influenced by her Catholic sensibilities. All these many years later, her deep love of the Eucharist has drawn her back to the Church and she has published two novels on the life of Christ.
As different as these two lives and stories are, what makes them so similar is how thoroughly they are immersed in the life of the Church.
As children, every aspect of their lives was in some way touched by Christ, because every aspect of their lives involved the Church. The Church was able to form every aspect of these two famous people in innumerable ways, and it affected them for the good throughout the rest of their lives.
In today’s Gospel, we are given a metaphor and an invitation for precisely this kind of immersion in the life of the Church.
Hearing John the Baptist announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God, Andrew and another disciple follow after Him. When Jesus turns to question them, they ask, “Rabbi, where are you staying” and He responds, “Come and see.” And the two follow him to where He “was staying and they stayed with Him that day.”
Where is Jesus staying? – Where is the home of Jesus? – Where does Jesus abide?
Where else does Jesus abide, where else does Jesus make His home, but in the Church He founded, the Church that is itself His very body!
If we, like Andrew, want to know this Jesus who is the Lamb of God, we need to find the place where He is staying, and we need to spend the day with Him there – that is to say, we need to have every aspect of our lives, not just an hour a week, immersed in the life of Christ’s Church.
You can tell an awful lot about a person by taking a look around their house, can’t you? So then what might this house where Jesus is staying look like? Let’s imagine together, for just a moment or two, what we might find in Christ’s house.
What are the books we might find on the shelves? Certainly the Scriptures, and the lives of the saints, and the writings of the Church Fathers. But also the great works of literary history, like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. And we’d find more modern novels and stories by Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo and hundreds of others.
What art would we find on the walls and in the hallways? The great sculptures of Michelangelo and Bernini, and the paintings of the masters like Bl. Fra Angelico, and Caravaggio and the moderns like Salvador Dali
What music would be playing there? Certainly the great hymns and Gregorian chant of the Church’s worship, but also the polyphony of Bach, Byrd and Palestrina, and the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven.
What food would we be invited to enjoy there? – The Eucharist, of course, is the great banquet of Christ’s Church, but there would also be great wine, Trappist beer, Capuchin coffee, and all the special foods made to celebrate the feast days of saints, like Joseph, or Lucy, or Nicholas.
Who are the other guests that we would meet in this house? The Apostles and all the martyrs and saints, the great friends of Jesus throughout history would undoubtedly all be there.
The point isn’t that you have to be impeccably cultured to know Jesus – the point is that the Church is not merely somewhere we go once a week to pray. The Church is an entire world, a culture, a way of thinking and being. It is beautiful and joyful. It is filled with all the world’s treasures – filled with any and every kind of art, music, food, literature and person that is inspired by Him, and in turn, capable of revealing Him to those who partake of them.
As He did to Andrew in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns to each of us and asks, “What are you looking for?”
The fulfillment of our every longing is to know Jesus Christ, and to do that, we must follow Him to the place where He dwells and stay there with Him. May Christ make the beauty, the rhythms and the rituals of His Church the very center of our lives and the very air we breathe.
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