The Terrible Contradiction of Staffing

In Chapter 4 of Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis notes that the story of faith isn’t simply the story of a journey; it’s also the story of the building of a city, a place where all can live together in peace:

In presenting the story of the patriarchs and the righteous men and women of the Old Testament, the Letter to the Hebrews highlights an essential aspect of their faith. That faith is not only presented as a journey, but also as a process of building, the preparing of a place in which human beings can dwell together with one another. The first builder was Noah who saved his family in the ark (Heb 11:7). Then comes Abraham, of whom it is said that by faith he dwelt in tents, as he looked forward to the city with firm foundations (cf. Heb 11:9-10). With faith comes a new reliability, a new firmness, which God alone can give. If the man of faith finds support in the God of fidelity, the God who is Amen (cf. Is 65:16), and thus becomes firm himself, we can now also say that firmness of faith marks the city which God is preparing for mankind. Faith reveals just how firm the bonds between people can be when God is present in their midst. Faith does not merely grant interior firmness, a steadfast conviction on the part of the believer; it also sheds light on every human relationship because it is born of love and reflects God’s own love. The God who is himself reliable gives us a city which is reliable.

When we drink deeply of the light of faith, we are brought into right relationship with God; and by being brought into the right relationship with God, we are brought into right relationship with those around us. This is, in fact, what Sherry Weddell’s notion of “intentional discipleship” is all about: purposefully drinking in the light of faith, the love of God, and living it in our lives, and sharing it with others. In reading Francis’ words above I have an image of intentional disciples snapping and locking together like Lego bricks, each disciple his or her own shape but all together building up the City of God along the divine plan—a City large enough for all, and in which every man or woman can find a place if they allow God to lead them along the path of discipleship.

It’s a grand vision; but it’s one that’s not notably present here on Earth. Occasionally we see places that approximate it in small ways, for small periods of time; but even in the one city in world wholly dedicated to the Catholic faith, the City of God is conspicuously absent.

I was pondering this today; and there’s a dynamic that seems to me to apply at all levels, from the Vatican down to our local parish, that explains why it is hard to build the City of God in the Church.

Here’s the dynamic:

• Every parish has certain jobs that need to be done.
• Some are mundane, like paying the bills.
• Some involve the faith directly, like teaching the children, and preparing catechumens for the sacraments.
• They all need to be done from the people you have available.
• You’d like to have intentional disciples in all of these positions, and especially in the ones involving the faith.
• You’d like to have people with the right natural skill sets in all of these positions.
• The former are usually more visible than the latter.
• A person’s degree of discipleship is often hard to assess.
• A person’s giftedness for certain tasks is often unknown.
• You never seem to have all of the people you need, even taking only the purely human, natural skills into account.
• And even an intentional disciple, with exactly the right natural and spiritual skills for the job, is only human.

In short, by the nature of things, even if you want to fill your parish organization with intentional disciples it’s very difficult to do. You might not have enough. They might not have the right spiritual gifts. They might not have the right skills. And since a person without the right skills is clearly going to be problem, and since that’s more visible, we often settle for finding individuals who have approximately the right natural skills without worrying about the spiritual aspect. That’s when we don’t settle for simply finding someone willing to take the job.

You can rectify this to some extent through programs like the Catherine of Siena Institute’s “Called & Gifted” and “Making Disciples” workshops; but it’s hard, and slow. It’s not surprising that human expedience so often wins out; and then we put round pegs in square holes and wonder why they don’t fill in the corners.