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God's Work is Our Work, Griswold Tells National Cursillo Seminar in Texas

Episcopal News Service. November 16, 2001 [2001-330]

James Solheim

(ENS) Over 20 years ago, as a young priest, Frank T. Griswold was sent to a diocesan gathering of Cursillo, which describes itself as "a movement for strengthening adult leadership in the church" by teaching a "method to help live out the baptismal covenant" through "a set of principles for Christian living--piety, study and apostolic action."

Arriving at the Cursillo meeting after a 30-day silent, Ignatian retreat, Griswold admitted to 250 participants in a National Cursillo Seminar at Camp Allen in the Diocese of Texas that he had not quite been prepared for the level of enthusiasm and energy. Yet he soon realized that God was reminding him that "I am loving you through the members of my body."

In his keynote address at the October 26-28 seminar, Griswold said that "over the years I have come to the conclusion that Christ is counting on me not simply for what I do but to be a companion, someone who in a deep and intimate way travels with him." In that way, he added, "Christ allows his life to become my life, his hopes and desires for the world to become my hopes and desires. In that way Christ is counting on me to be a faithful and intimate companion."

Griswold said that, at some point, Christ implanted a question in his mind: "Why are your sins so much more important to you than to me? I realized that there was a whole embrace of compassion and grace and acceptance that I had kept at a distance because of my own self-judgement, that I had been too busy building a spirituality based on my own capacity of achievement."

God is counting on us

Drawing on the theme of God's work in the Gospel of John, Griswold reminded the participants, representing 47 dioceses, that Christ's prayer on the eve of his crucifixion was that he had "completed the work you have given me. It is finished, completed, accomplished." And that work is described by Jesus as drawing all things to God.

"And that is where we come in--God's work, God's project, God's mission is the reconciliation of all things to God's own self in Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit. What is the mission of the church? we ask. To restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. The mission is to participate in God's work," Griswold said.

God's mission is not an abstraction, Griswold argued. "God's mission is incarnate and made flesh in the lives of men and women who through baptism become limbs of Christ's risen body and share his work in drawing all things to himself. This work takes many forms, expresses itself in many contexts, using different vocabularies: Church growth, social justice, spirituality and holiness, personal growth and corporate responsibility, sin, the cross and forgiveness, redemption, resurrection, transformation."

Griswold said that the 20/20 Task Force charged by the General Convention to envision a plan to increase membership and participation in the Episcopal Church had completed its work and "unleashed a vision of mission that both celebrates and names some of the energies abroad in the church--and pushes the church to step outside its institutional safety zones and open itself to the driving motion of the Spirit in new ways in the service of God's project. God is counting on us."

The Cursillo stool

Exploring the implications of Cursillo's three-legged stool--piety, study and action--Griswold said that, in the call to deep and intimate companionship with the risen Christ, "prayer works in a wonderful way, deep within us. Prayer has been defined by a modern contemplative as an openness to love on every level of our being. A Jewish mystic says speech informs, prayer partakes. It is about communion and intimacy, rather than clarity. Prayer purifies us, works in us the mind of Christ, overturning the idols of our own fear, transforming the dullness of our blinded sight, allowing us to see with the eyes of Christ, opening the availability to the deep mystery of God in Christ. And God does the rest, often in surprising ways.

The sacramental life is an important place to encounter grace, Griswold added, "but it has become too much routine, a ritual form with which we decorate all kinds of events, with a mindlessness that is close to sacrilege." In the Eucharist, Christ is showing himself face-to-face. There are so many wonderful ways the sacrament can catch us off guard and lead us beyond ourselves, cracking us open in new ways to the grace of God."

For Christians, study is "first and foremost the pondering of Scripture." Too often clergy, he said, "lose the capacity to be accosted by Scripture because we wrestle it into submission for our sermons. Scripture is alive and active because Christ is the lord of Scripture. It is a sacrament, words on a page that convey a power and real presence of the risen Christ if we allow it to be alive and active in our own consciousness."

In action, "we become extensions of Christ, evangelizing by word and example, by seeking, serving, striving... always animated by the loving kindness of God, the unbounded love for each of us.... It is only when we do not know what to do next, embrace our own deep poverty, that the grace of God can take us by the hand and lead us forward and use us in wild and wonderful ways that surpass anything we could ever ask for imagine."

In his conclusion, Griswold said that "Cursillo is about drawing people into a deeper union with Christ, so that they can go forth with Christ in all sorts of ways that boggle the imagination but reveal the mystery of reconciliation. May we be faithful to that ministry.... may it be an instrument of disciple-making, formation and transformation in the service of God's project--the reconciliation of all things to Christ."

'Best evangelistic tool in church'

The Rev. Hap Lewis of Florida, completing his term as president of the National Episcopal Cursillo Committee, appreciated those comments from the presiding bishop because he is convinced that Cursillo is "a widely spread movement that is the best evangelistic tool in the church." In an interview he said that its purpose is "to deepen the understanding of our role as Christians. It is a short course that should increase someone's commitment, helping them understand that the main purpose of their lives is apostolic action."

Lewis said that is why the annual seminar includes a series of workshops on topics like leadership development and spiritual direction. "But it also a time of great fellowship, greeting old friends and making new ones." Lewis was grateful that Griswold met with the committee, talking about the 20/20 initiative and sharing his vision for the church. "I think he saw some ways that Cursillo could help the church at this important time--and he understands better who we are and how we can support the church."

He added that Griswold spent time interacting with participants, providing a great deal of support and encouragement. "He was very well received," Lewis said.

Caught in the middle

In a sermon at the closing Eucharist, Griswold said that "we can learn from reflecting on the early Christian community." He explored the tension between those who had come to faith from the Jewish community, who saw Christianity as essentially Judaism with Jesus added--and that meant that all the rules and regulations and traditions were binding.

"But in Acts we have the story of what happens when Resurrection gets lose, and the Holy Spirit leaps over the boundaries of traditions and begins showing up in strange and unlikely places and people outside the community suddenly seem to be coming alive with the Spirit. The ministry of the Apostles was to catch up with what the Spirit is doing, outside the formality of the community with its inherited traditions. There was a sense of vitality of the Spirit moving throughout the ancient world, opening the hearts of men and women to the message of Jesus."

As the community struggled with what to do, "James says we shouldn't overly burden the Gentiles, so we will modify the tradition but we will keep some of it because not to do so would create scandal." They managed it in an almost Anglican way, Griswold suggested, by being sensitive to the freedom of the Spirit but also maintaining "reverence for the community's historic life. It would be unwise to jettison everything but it would dishonor the Resurrection not to see God at work in the conversion of the Gentiles. Stay grounded but welcome the Spirit."

Griswold admitted that, like James, he sometimes feels caught in the middle, asking, "Where is the Spirit at work, when to go full blast forward, when to be cautious?" And yet he is convinced that a "deep experience of being rooted and grounded in Christ gives one the courage to ask what the Lord is up to here.... The grace of God is shaping and forming our consciousness so that we act in union with Christ."

[thumbnail: The Rev. Hap Lewis (left)...]