Watching, it occurred to me that cars might be a measure of a society; they demonstrate a divergence of choice and a plurality of both taste and self. As I watched the parade of different models, different colors, and different styles drive by me, I had to wonder what it is about our cars. I suppose in a perfect and equal vanilla culture, we might all drive a beige four door sedan.
But our culture is a lively and colorful pastiche of wants and needs, dreams and preferences. We each stake out our space in this milieu of culture in vibrant colors and choices emblematic of who we are, or who we want to be… perhaps even evident in the type of vehicle we own.
This impact of this consumer centered, first world culture, plants us firmly within it. As I watched the parade of Benzes, Beemers, F-150’s, SUV’s, et al, come in and out of the lot at church, I began to think about the singularly Catholic notion that we are somehow “counter cultural.” You couldn’t prove it by the parking lot.
Our Diocese has been calling us to become “interculturally” competent in our ministry to people through a process known as BICM (Building Intercultural Competence for Ministers). To that I would add our need to become “in-culture” competent to properly identify our role in this secular and materialistic world. Using the term “counter cultural” seems to be a basic contradiction. If I am to live out the demands of Vatican II and be the light of the world, it is reasonable that I should light the world from within the culture, rather than shine on it from without.
Vatican II called us to be fully engaged in modern culture, and not to withdraw and build a parallel world of our own fears, reflections, indifferences and opinions. As Catholics, we should step into the economic and social struggles that we see, we should reach out to support the marginalized and neglected, and we should lend our voice to challenge systems which oppress and exploit people. We should also openly question an economic system we benefit from which builds on the backs of the working poor, and adversely impacts the world in which we live.
Our voice should be a voice, described by the philosopher Kierkegaard, as a sign of contradiction, differentiating itself from within the culture which we share. It is the counter intuitive voice of the Gospel, rising from a core of moral and social justice values that have not been invented, but have been received.
Gaudium et Spes reminds us that the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the people of our times is also the joy and hope and the grief and anguish of we who profess to follow Christ… but only if we are present to share that experience, and not standing on the sidelines observing.
Ted Furlow is Director of Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of San Bernardino.