“Protesters are still on the fringes like satellites, revolving around the system. But prophets and poets lead us into a new world, beyond simply yelling at the old one.”
—Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
As much as I love Advent for its ancient melodies and scriptures and colors and flickering lights in the midst of the darkness…I also like to stir the Advent pot. I do this not to break ground…but to walk the ground of those prophets who walked before me and around me. Enter John the Baptist who came on to the picture not meek and mild, but firey eyed, crazily clothed, popping locusts and honey like snack food and raging into the night for people to come out of their slumber and change. It was an unlikely character…but one introduced to make us think and to think outside the box.
Once in a while someone comes into our midst and challenges us to live a new way. For me the modern day John the Baptist is Bishop Marie Bouclin (in the photo above), the first Canadian ordained a female bishop in the Roman Catholic Women Priest movement. Marie may not be John the Baptist and from my meeting with her she is the exact opposite. But she wore strange clothing (male Roman Catholic vestments), no fiery eyes, but had eyes that sparkled. As for food, she shared bread and wine to all who gathered around her and softly invited all who would listen to love one another as Jesus as loved us.
When I was a priest I strongly supported the ordination of women in the Catholic Church and still do. It is a question of justice, a question of being able to lift up the gifts of women and support their desire to serve in this particular way even when the church will not. I have attended a couple of the Sunday Eucharist at the church of the Beatitudes in downtown Toronto. One of those Sundays was when Bishop Marie was present to formally install the two women priests as co-pastors. It was a moving moment for me. As a former priest I wrote and dialogued about women’s ordination and to experience this day was incredible. The three of them are wonderful gifted women feeling called by God as priests and bishop within the Roman Catholic church. There appears to be no desire for power…but rather to be able to minister to God’s people and they feel within their hearts they are priests in every respect like their male counterparts. Unfortunately Rome refuses to recognize their gifts and I think this is a shame and an injustice. Marie as Bishop and Roberta and Catherine as priests do not rage and howl against the Catholic church…but rather minister as agents of Advent hope and change in how they minister with love.
I am not interested in getting into a debate over female priests on this post (feel free to inbox me and we can chat no problem). Rather I am interested in asking this Advent day…to what lengths are we willing to be Advent people of justice and love in speaking our hearts in the face of injustice even when it might not be popular. Dare we help bring light to the darkness this day and poke holes?
And so we pray…
O Holy One,
It is hard to follow you when things are difficult,
or when we are less popular because of our beliefs or by speaking out.
But we follow in the footsteps of many who have risked for others
and we do so out of love and justice.
May we continue to light the darkness this Advent Season.
This we pray in the name of all prophetic ones. Amen!
