Adam D. Hincks, S.J., a scholastic of the English Canada Jesuit province, is studying theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
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Sometimes a missionary may have to go home to remember what it means to be a missionary. I learnt this not by returning home myself, but by accompanying a brand-new Jesuit priest to his hometown in Ewo, Congo to celebrate a mass of thanksgiving....
Now you are continuing on to read its first sentence. Before you go any further, stop and ask yourself what are the chances that you will read every sentence of this blog article, right through to the end, without checking your email, looking at Facebook, texting a friend, following a hyperlink, or interrupting in any other similar way. If you are like me and are honest with yourself, the chances are small! How many online articles do we merely skim, glance at, or half-heartedly scroll through, desultorily highlighting random snippets of text?...
C. S. Lewis once remarked that the scriptural account of the Ascension of the Lord "presents greater difficulties to the modern mind than any other part of Scripture". We tend, he explained, to see it in terms of "primitive crudities", what with "the vertical ascent like a balloon, the local Heaven, the decorated chair to the right of the Father's throne". Our basic embarrassment with the Ascension is perhaps reflected in the fact that we rarely explicitly include it when speaking of the Paschal Mystery: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus often ends abruptly just there. In Canada, the Ascension is no longer celebrated forty days after Easter but has been removed to a Sunday. All in all, there is a vague discomfort with the whole idea that is never articulated but often just below the surface....
One of the blessings of belonging to a religious order is that when you move, most of the time you are moving into an established community. There is no need to hunt for an apartment, and you find yourself among brothers who know how things work in your new home. In my case, it has also meant that I have gotten a great introduction to British Columbia. I have already had the opportunity to make a few excursions on my days off to see Vancouver and its environs....
All holidays bring family and friends together, and Christmas does so in a particularly strong way. The tradition of exchanging of gifts has much to do with it, but there is something additionally community-oriented about Christmas because it is about the birth of a child. The arrival of a baby into the world has brought people together at all times and in all cultures; how much more so does the birth of the Christ who is born as a brother to all....
As we look back in this Year of Faith to the Second Vatican Council, a question that inevitably arises is, "What did the Council change?" Implicit in any answer to this question are notions of what the Church was like both before and after the Council. Much of the time, however, we are presented with overly-simplistic narratives about the pre-conciliar--and increasingly the post-conciliar--Church. It is a worthwhile exercise to examine these narratives, as a sort of propaedeutic to understanding Vatican II....
