GO, YOU ARE SENT FROM ALTAR TABLES TO MARKETPLACES

The principle founders of the American experiment, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, felt that democracy required citizens who had character and civic interest. They judged that religious communities contributed to shaping peoples' character and civic responsibility. Therefore, they hoped that all religions would flourish in the land because they would ensure a wholesome social ecology. Religions would contribute by creating members who exhibited moral values, appreciation for the common good and the commonwealth, willingness to sacrifice, and altruism towards one's neighbor. Religions functioned in this way because they scripted their faith horizons on the biblical narratives of liberation from oppression, long journeys to freedom, and consequent new beginnings. Religions became significant bearers of public value and welcomed partners in public discourse. They bridged altars and public arenas.

We Catholics receive spiritual insight, nourishment, and energy at the altar. But only a small fraction of our time is spent eating and drinking at the Lord's table. Our spirituality pushes us beyond the confines of church walls and plunks us right down in the midst of malls, machines, and markets. We spend a lot of time in these public places. We put in long hours of work. We devote ourselves to educating children while neglecting adult learning. We log many miles on our cars and vans -- going to hockey and dancing lessons, going to twelve step meetings, going to malls and marketbaskets, going to sports events, going to church. We are on the go. We are sent. Ite, missa est. Go, you are sent. (Hence the name "Mass" from the Latin word missa est-- you are sent).

But, somehow, we keep a rigid apartheid going. We divide altar and marketplace, religion and work, faith and leisure into separate, neatly autonomous categories. No wonder that spirituality got narrowed to piety and prayer. No wonder our way of living got cordoned off from "the real world where the important decisions are made." Apartheid is a sin in every venue, in every place. How to change this, how to build bridges where people cross over from altar to marketplace is the great spiritual challenge connecting 20th and 21st centuries.

This is no easy task. Some obstacles need naming and remedying. Somehow we figure that we learned our religion by sixteen. No need to learn more! Just coast with Jesus, say your prayers, go to church on Sunday, and obey the sixth and ninth commandments. Gong! This is not enough. Lifelong learning applies to religion, too, both on cognitive and affective-appreciative levels. Lazy minds make flaccid spirits. Both create cultures of cynicism and despair. People begin to feel disposable and dispensable. Work becomes a drudgery instead of a valuable contribution to our world, a means of personal expression, and a source of spiritual growth.

Democracy is on trial. Our formative institutions are in the dock. The great challenge of the next few years will be how religion and society, altar and marketplace, science and sports, schools and soup kitchens, workers and volunteers, liturgy and life become partners in discussion and dialogue, decision and doing. In God we trust!