Results of the Election are In!!!

Bishop with Miter and Crosier

The Rite of Election was held this past Sunday at the Cathedral in Stockton, Ca., as it was at every Cathedral in every diocese in the country, and for that matter, every country throughout the world. In the ceremony, local church communities present to the bishop those people who are seeking to join the Church and who are judged to be properly prepared to do so. The bishop acknowledges their intentions and their readiness, and calls them to the final period of preparation before their initiation into the Church at Easter.

I don' t know the exact number, but there appeared to be at least 150 catechumens there to  be "elected," and this was just one of two services. There was another rite on Tuesday night for the parishes that didn't attend Sunday. Considering that this scene was reenacted in all 177 dioceses in the US and over 2700 dioceses world wide, there are a lot of people trying to join the Church.

You have to admire them. It takes more than a wee bit of courage to want to join the Catholic Church nowadays. We've got some issues that we are dealing with, and the whole idea of religion is increasingly viewed "with a jaundiced eye" as they say. Yet there they are, by the thousands, asking to be let in.

I've always been fascinated by the encounter of Peter and Jesus where Jesus asks who do you say I am?If Peter admits to what he is thinking, he could be carted off to the loony bin. If he is at all convinced that he is right about what he is thinking, then he has to admit to himself that the person he is standing in front of is God, the inventor of the universe. How likely is it that some guy you meet while you're fishing turns out to be famous?  I mean really, really famous. We're talking uber-famous here. And you and he (and probably his mother) are the only ones who realize just how famous he really is. 

I would like to believe that since I have been involved in the preparation of the four catechumens our parish presented to the bishop, that I had some influence on their decision to join the Church, but I know from having done this for more than twenty years, that what happens happens between the catechumens and God. Like Peter, the catechumens will hear the question and will make up their own minds. I am around to make sure everyone knows where the bathrooms are and that there is plenty of toilet paper.

So, pray for the catechumens, if you would. There is still more than a month before they are baptized. There is still time for them to say this is crazy, I'm outta here. And since it's Lent, take some time to celebrate the anniversary of your own decision. Clear your calendar for an hour or so, light a few candles to set the mood, open a bottle of wine, and sit down with God to reminisce about when you met, when you realized this wasn't just a story, when you realized that your relationship was, at least for him, deadly serious.