A Retreat with the Bishop

This past weekend I had the opportunity to gather with the other deacons and their spouses at the Palisades Retreat Center, for the annual Deacons Retreat. This year the retreat was led by Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, one of our auxiliary bishops (follow the link to see his picture, along with a bio). I've had two other retreats led by bishops, one by Archbishop Hunthausen and one by Archbishop Murphy, and both were excellent.

But one never knows what to expect. I did have the unexpected pleasure of riding to Paulsbo with him the weekend before, to the Forum on Immigration (see earlier posting), and I knew him to be a man of some passion. It was actually delightful to experience that same passion coming through during the retreat.

It is simplifying things to summarize a retreat experience, but I'll just say that he gave us many opportunities to reflect upon what being a deacon meant, especially as we move through Lent toward Holy Week and Easter. He gave three talks, on what the Passion/Death/Resurrection had to say to us deacons as 1) husbands, 2) ministers within the Church, and 3) ministers within the liturgy. In each of the three, we were asked to think and pray about what it meant to offer ourselves wholly, without reservation, just as Jesus did.

What does that mean within marriage? Being a husband is more than a role, more than an arrangement or "contract." How do we go beyond those, to loving in the way Jesus did as he moved to & through death? What did that mean for each us present at the current times of our individual lives? What did it mean in my own life, with Joan and I as "empty nesters," and very taken up in careers that are very consuming? How do we give ourselves to each other when there seems, ironically, to be less & less time than when we had children at home?

What does that mean within ministry? And what does it mean within the celebration of the Mass? The last was the easiest to get concrete about... the bishop talked about taking very seriously everything that we say & do... that the mystery wasn't a scripted play that we walk through, but a reality we should LIVE. If we don't LIVE IT, it will be empty, however "well-done" it might seem from the outside. To walk through a script was to "act as a professional" -- and he reminded us that we weren't "hired guns," expected to put on a good show, but ministers who were expected to be LIVING & EXPERIENCING THE TRUTH of the liturgy. To say "The Lord be with you" as a prayer, not a formula... to experience the Consecration as a living reality, not as a symbolic remembrance of the Last Supper... to experience Communion as really consuming Jesus, to make us more like Jesus, and not going through a mere re-enactment, however reverently.

I came away with the strong sense that this period of my life was not a time to be "retiring" (that's a pun). It's a time for PASSION, the passion that came so easily in my 20's or 30's -- but without, let's say, the sense of righteousness that was so tempting then.

Something to ponder over. It's important to take time for retreats, every so often.