I had the pleasure this past week of being part of a virtual spiritual conference given by Carol Zinn, a Sister of St. Joseph. Among her reflections was the fact that we live in an "evolutionary" time in the church. I think that has always been true, but perhaps we've never been made to recognize it as much as we have this year, when so many of our regular routines and practices have been disrupted by virus and social unrest. Among her takeaway observations for me was this sentence: "The gospel was never intended to be institutionalized."  

I'm sure that she'd be given a lot of push-back from those whose business it is to exercise authority and leadership in church institutions, but I don't think that was her point. I heard her to say that as soon as we institutionalize the gospel, we tend to freeze its message at a moment in time, and to identify that message with a certain way of "doing business." Institutions don't change easily, often, or willingly, but the gospel of Jesus has to be responsive to the needs of what is happening now. She used the word "nimble" to describe what is required among our communities today. We are certainly not in the same situation today as we were even a few months ago. I hadn't imagined parking lot Masses at Christmas time.

Jesus himself was one who showed us how to do that. As a devout Jew, He was loyal to an institution that was already ancient by the time He walked the earth, but all of the gospels report how He needled the encrusted institutional practices of people and rules that had the effect of harming real human beings, or of standing in their way of freedom and happiness. And He paid a dear price for doing that.

Sr. Carol identified several necessary things for all of us to remember about what is at the heart of the gospel: community, prayer, service, mission for God's kingdom, social engagement. None of that requires an elaborate and specific institutional structure. It requires gospel, human solidarity. She wasn't suggesting ecclesiastical anarchy, but merely a de-centering of what can sometimes seem an automatic identification of "the church" with "how we've always done things." It requires a conversion of hearts and a broad imagination for the future. However we re-group after this COVID thing ends, it will look different, but we'll still be church.

And it requires an ability to discern what is needed among our fellow human beings in the moment in order to serve God's reign. One of her other reflections that I really appreciated was this: "Discernment is the ability to see things as they really are, and not for what I want them to be." Institutions have the sad habit of imposing the idea of how things "need to be." God's Spirit is more nimble than that.