Ready for Healthier?

This is that time of year for us, especially us Catholics, to ask ourselves if we are ready to get healthier.

And as I set those words down, I can almost hear her voice.

It was a long time ago, a very long time ago.

She was one of the members of that season's RCIA group.  And for those not familiar with those letters - RCIA -  Try Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. It is a process whereby adults, perhaps sensing some movement of God in their lives, enter into a discernment process. Is God calling them? Asking something of them? Leading them somewhere they as yet, perhaps, have not fully been. And dare they respond to such a call. What may it cost? What are its risks? What might happen to their lives from that moment on?

RCIA involves some study, more reflection and much, much more prayer. It can be a difficult and challenging life movement.

Anyhow, so many years ago, I was leading one of the study sessions for the RCIA group and Lent was approaching and so I decided to spend some time presenting some background and history behind the development of the season we now call Lent. As I came into more contemporary times, I talked about some of the communal Lenten practices:  fasting (which meant no food, nothing, nada between meals and two small daily meals (sufficient to maintain strength but both, together, not having as much food as the one, allowed main meal.) Food consumption was reduced greatly during those Forty Days. And then there was abstaining from all meats and meat by-products. 

Fridays (Lent and all year long) were days of total abstaining together with a number of additional days throughout the year, which meant on those designated days there would be no meat or those meat by-products. But back in the day, when Monday through Saturday every week in Lent were days of fasting, that also meant at least partial abstaining. Meat only at the main meal and never in between all week  long.

As I described these Lenten dietary regulations, one voice spoke up. The RCIA lady, a professional nurse. And she asked the question. "Why did you quit all of that?" she asked. "It sounds very healthy to me!"

And, of course, she was right.

Too many of us eat too much and we definitely eat too much meat. 

And that got me thinking. 

And more than thinking. It got me acting.

For a good number of years, every Lent, I tried  to get "healthier." Monday through Saturday for me became meatless, totally meatless. I allowed myself some bacon at breakfast on the Sundays and also some of that meat and meat by-product stuff through the day, but those Lenten weekdays became meatless.

It was my Lenten "body cleanse."

In more recent years I will confess to putting that practice aside.

However, as this year's Lent approached, I began to hear that voice again, yes, even after all of these years. "Why did you quit?" Only this year I am hearing it with a new and richer meaning.

If you haven't been paying attention, lately studies have been demonstrating how our prodigal consumption of meats is negatively impacting our environment. What it takes to raise, feed and maintain those animals that are slaughtered tor our dinner tables is harming the health of Mother Earth and Sister Air and Brother Water.

There is much now being said and written about Catholics going back to at very least forgoing meat again on all Fridays throughout the year. Something called meatless Mondays is also beginning to get some attention. And the meatless call is going out even beyond Catholic boundaries.

(If you want a quick glimpse of what studies are showing, check this article out: America Magazine: Catholics and Meat.)

And it is, as that very wise RCIA nurse declared, healthier!

Not just for us but for the world in which we live.

Reducing the amount of meat we consume is proving to be healthier for us and for our environment.

So, for Lent again this year, I will be passing on the meat and meat by-products.

I invite you to consider joining me. Maybe you are not yet ready for the Monday through Saturday regime but how about adding one or two additional days to the already set Fridays together with Ash Wednesday? And going a step further, how about considering a more permanent lifestyle change and reducing your consumption of meat even outside of Lent?

It just may make you healthier.

And it will make our beautiful but suffering world healthier.

Oh! And if this may be your concern - go ahead. Enjoy that corned beef on St Patrick's Day!

February - - - and that reminds us we have WHAT???

It being February, I guess that caused me to actually learn something. Or perhaps it really was not learning anything new so much s it was simply putting two and two together and, somehow, for the first time discovering "four!"

Long before this February arrived, I already knew that back in the late third century the Catholic Church hd a Pope Victor I.

I also knew that, like so much of that part of our ancient history, little is known about this pope or his dealings. Items, however,  known include his attempt to pull varying factions together into agreeing on a common day, specifically a Sunday, for observing Easter. He did not do too well in his time on that particular issue. However, there is another in which he rather overwhelmingly succeeded.

He is the one who quite literally gave the Roman Church Latin.

Prior to him, the common language of the Church was also the common language of the Roman Empire and that was Greek. It was most used although, when it came to the language of liturgy, a number of other languages were also in play. Linguistic uniformity was not the norm, not even in play.

Pope Victor I brought Latin into ecclesiastical use in Rome.

I knew about Victor (sort of) and I knew about the introduction of the use of Latin (sort of.)

But this February I did some exploring and some research with a whole different perspective in mind.

See, February is Black History Month and that extends a call for us all to come to explore a part of human history that has too often been overlooked or even ignored. Maybe some consider that segment of our history too be a bit too painful to face. However, if we are to be truly human, we need to know better all of our history.

And that quest led me to put a two and two together and discover a hidden "four" in our history.

You see - Pope Victor I was from Africa! He is considered the first Black Catholic Pope! And this is the guy who introduced us to using Latin!

Now that is a piece of Black Catholic History that probably opens many an eye!

And that also raises the question: How much Black Catholic History do we really know?

Of course, historians will quickly point out in this matter that our more contemporary concepts of race were not the same as those held in earlier centuries. True. However, Victor 1 is listed as our first Black Pope.

Consider this - in our Religious Education classes, how much awareness is given to our young about that part of our history and culture? 

Do we take time with the story contained in Acts of the Apostles (Acts :26 - 40) about the interaction between the Deacon Phillip and the Ethiopian, a tale reminding us that before the Good News headed north into Europe, it was taking root in the south, in Africa and Ethiopians, even back then were definitely not Western Europeans.

Consider our litany of saints - include those African Greats such as Augustine and his mother, Monica, and Perpetua and Felicity and - well, perhaps it is time for some exploration and a little Googling to break open the richness of our not just Black but universal history.

And in that search and discovery, we dare not ignore our own African/Americans who even now are on the way to sainthood. The Church in the United States has been truly blessed. Do we even know how richly? or by whom? Do we know any of their names? Their stories?

If I mentioned John Augustus Tolton, would that register with you?

How about Mary Elizabeth Lange? or Thea Bowman?

And if you know nothing of Thea Bowman, you are really missing out! She is a true gem in our history - her music! her speeches!

Perhaps it is long overdue to start helping ourselves and our young to become more aware of just how Catholic we truly are and our enriched we can be because of it.

Our religious classes need to be truly "catholic."

Our images in our places of gathering and worship need to far better reflect our catholicity.

Bulletin art and calendar art needs to proclaim - We are truly a Catholic Church!

It is February.

The weather is still not all that great. Winter has still locked her grip.

So, why not use some of this time to do some personal, enriching exploration.

Google things like "Black" and "Catholic" and see if you don't discover an old, reliable two and two that suddenly make four!

And this is in tribute to and memory of a dear friend, Oliver Wilford - RIP -d.2022