#303: Creating Wisdom Communities

EXCERPT:
To me, Vatican II’s vision is a perfect remedy for what ails parish life today. If parish life has lost much of its previous appeal as a community center, a worship center, and even as a family chapel, perhaps the time is ripe for parishes to become “wisdom communities.”…If the time is ripe for a wisdom community, it will require resetting our priorities.

…At this point I'm just beginning to reflect on this question myself; I have no full answer. But as I think how contemporary power threatens people and calls out for wisdom’s help, some ideas begin to surface about parish life becoming a wisdom center in people's lives.

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I can imagine parish as A Place Of Wisdom About Discernment. I think of my children's generation, in their 20s and 30s, finishing school with high anxiety about job, livelihood, and career-path. Our society’s typical approach to career counseling targets only external factors “out there”: the hottest jobs, the best incomes, the most marketable skills, the winning strategies. By contrast Catholicism has always assumed that God calls each of us to a certain life path -- a path that must be discovered within each of us, by discerning our unique gifts and talents. Sadly, while Catholicism developed several effective life-discernment strategies, their use was mostly restricted to members of religious communities.

But imagine parish becoming a place of discernment, where young people (15 to 30) are guided on that inner discovery to find their real, God-given purpose in life. Choosing the right school, training, and career options would become the fruit of wisdom, not just market analysis. There are millions of kids who need this kind of help.

I can also imagine parish becoming A Place Of Wisdom About Aging. I see my peers’ elder parents, in their 80s and 90s, struggling not only with health and diminished capacities but with a loss of social purpose. We know they need our help, but what do we need from them? Our society no longer expects elders to be productive -- my own father has been retired for 30 years! -- but does that mean the very old are no longer useful to the rest of us?

Now imagine a parish ministry that engages these people in telling oral histories that are transcribed for distribution to their families--stories and lessons from a time the next generations would otherwise never know. Imagine too that ministry raising such people up as a wisdom resource for the whole community, treating their diminished capacities not as signs of helplessness but as signs of them having completed life's long cycle ahead of us.

Next, I can imagine parish as A Place Of Wisdom About Parenting. I look at my peers, who struggled with parenting in a time of rapidly changing family and societal values. Parish was rarely a resource for them. But imagine a parish where first-time parents bring babies for baptism and find a community of support -- for child care, babysitting, ready-cooked meals, guidance…I know many organizations offer parent support resources, but it mystifies me that parishes do not think they have their own contribution to make.
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I can imagine parish, for example as A Place Of Wisdom About Citizenship. Catholics are no longer block Democratic voters, but are now among the most important swing voters in America. Moreover traditional Catholic Social Teaching (CST) offers a wealth of social, economic, and political wisdom that has evolved over twenty centuries and was dramatically renewed in the last 100 years. But my sad experience is that the average Catholic (whether active parishioner or not) knows next to nothing about CST; even if they received a catholic education, CST was often a major oversight in the curriculum. The result: American Catholics often fail to bring Catholic wisdom to the voting booth, the public forum, or even to public office. Yet how often do parishes feature programs or preaching to impart this wisdom?

Finally, I can imagine parish as A Place Of Wisdom About Lifestyle. Many Americans return from Europe noting the difference in our cultures: whereas Americans tend to focus on standard of living, Europeans focus more on quality of life. We live in a mass consumption society where earning and spending dominate. Catholicism has always proclaimed that “the good life” is more about who you are then about what you have -- yet too often even parishes have become just another provider of services for consumers: the ATM of their spiritual lives.

Ironically, the very institution of parish which used to be one of the "obligation institutions" in people's lives now competes for their leisure time. In an age when sports, the Internet, and electronic entertainment dominate people's leisure, couldn’t parishes offer meaningful alternatives? In an era when reducing our environmental footprint is a major part of the stewardship of creation, couldn't parishes play a role in helping people to live more simply, to become less consumed with consumption?

…This can only happen if parish leaders believe that wisdom could make parish relevant again, and embrace the getting and sharing of wisdom as an urgent priority.