Notre Dame Fellowship

Fellowship is at the heart of nearly every activity in the Notre Dame community. The University of Notre Dame is unique from many other elite universities because we foster a supportive community. Not only do we want to achieve success but we want others to achieve success with us; we are constantly encouraged to do our best and also to encourage our peers to do their best.

As part of a community rooted in fellowship, we rejoice in each other’s successes and help each other when we falter. The beginning of this academic year may be off to a rocky start as the Notre Dame community received three email alerts in quick succession regarding sexual assaults on our campus. We failed as a community, not once but three times. A quick response to these emails came in the form of a prayer service at the Grotto. How fitting that at a time when mistakes are made we turn to Our Lady for assistance and guidance.

Last Sunday night, Notre Dame’s Student Government’s called us together as a community to reflect on our failings and to encourage us to seek a better future. Notre Dame students came together as a community in prayer to reflect on the importance of standing together, acknowledging our weaknesses and preparing to move forward in support of one another. We know we are not perfect, we know our brothers and sisters are not perfect, regardless, we seek to always be there for each other.

Through Jesus’ own example, we realize the need for fellowship within our community. One of Jesus’ first acts in his ministry was to gather together twelve apostles. These faithful disciples gathered together in support of one another. They raised their doubts as individuals to seek the support of the community. Jesus knew that following His teachings was going to be hard; as a fallen people, we no longer live in the safety of Eden. However, coming together in fellowship allows us to participate in the renewing community of a redeemed people.

Just as in the time of Jesus, being a Catholic is not always easy. We are often called to stand up for beliefs that go against the cultural or societal norms. The teachings of the Catholic Church do not change as society’s view changes; they remain grounded in the firm reality of truth as revealed through Christ to the Church on earth. This truth is oftentimes counter-cultural, making living out the values of a Catholic life very difficult. It is in striving to live our lives in a Christ-centered manner that we must form a community around us that we know will support us, even in our failings.

The Notre Dame community faltered in its recognition of the human dignity of others. We failed because we let our brothers and sisters fail. However, we must surround each other with the hope and support of the fellowship of Catholics. As much as our achievements define us, we must ensure that our failures do not define us.

Any time that we, as a student body, receive an email about a sexual assault, Student Government is committed to holding a prayer service immediately following. Through our turn to prayer as a community, we are reminded that we must rely on the Redeemer and find our hope in Him. Notre Dame is a unique university because we place our trust in God and encourage others to follow us on our journeys.  We are a community, rooted in the truth of God’s teaching, attempting to live in a world that may not always support us, and so we must make sure that fellowship remains alive in our community.

#prayforpeace

The authority of the Pope in the Catholic Church is often one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Church. The lineage of the Pope starts with St. Peter and can be traced all the way through Pope Francis, quite a remarkable feat for a 2,000 year old institution! Yet the role of the Pope is often very misconstrued by both Christians and non-Christians. The Pope’s main role is as the visible head and symbol of unity for the Catholic Church. The Pope’s role as “Supreme Pontiff” entitles him to make the selection of bishops and cardinals and to be the final decision in any disputes within the Catholic Church. While the Pope has always been a public figure, the public became fixated on the role of the Pope this past spring.

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On February 11^th, 2013, the Catholic Church became the focus of media worldwide. In what seemed like an unprecedented event, Pope Benedict XVI announced his retirement—from pope-dom! All of the sudden, the Catholic Church was receiving positive press coverage from a bewildered media. The appointment of pope is a lifelong appointment so how could this happen, and why!? I’m sure all of you watched the coverage as main stream media attempted to explain the inner workings of the Roman Curia and the election of the pope, perhaps some of you even placed bets on who the next pope may be.

In a very momentous moment in the Catholic Church, the first South American pope was elected: Pope Francis. Of course, the crowd immediately fell in love with him, he was a cute old man, visibly humble and dedicated to social justice. There were immediate speculations on how Pope Francis was going to change the Church and how his history and personality were going to impact his role as Pope. 

Within his first few months as Pope, Pope Francis has shown that he is not going to fulfill the ‘typical’ role as Pope. From showing up to pay his hotel bill after his selection as Pope to insisting on living in simple quarters, Pope Francis has stayed true to his Jesuit roots to his devout humility in Christ. In a recent interview when asked about who he was, Pope Francis responds with “I am a sinner”. 

In many ways, Pope Francis has taken the world by surprise. From the surprise announcement by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI of his retirement to Pope Francis’ ‘selfie’ that has taken over Buzzfeed, Pope Francis has proven that he is not going to going to stick to the traditional role of the Pope.

We witnessed his humility once again in his response to Syria.  Rather than issue an official promulgation on the stance of the Church, Pope Francis called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting, along with the message “pray for peace”. In his actions, Pope Francis appealed to the universality of the Church. Prayer and fasting are both simple actions that Catholics and non-Catholics alike can partake in, and peace is a message everyone can agree on. The Notre Dame community joined in this international effort with an entire day of prayer and fasting for Syria.  Pope Francis spread his message to a worldwide audience with his a series of tweets from @Pontifex that included the message #prayforpeace. This trend took off as thousands of follows joined in prayers and fasting (and tweets!) for peace.

Pope Francis has transitioned into a tremendously important role with the grace and humility only a man in a deep relationship with God may attain. He calls us all to “replace dogma with love”, not to forget our faith but to ensure that we also remember Christ’s call to love. His faithful service to the Catholic Church has been a true witness to Catholics across the globe and through his actions we are reminded of our own call to a profound love for Christ. 

The Call to Holiness

In my previous post, I described how being made in the image of a Trinitarian God, we are called to live in communion. This week I will approach the notion of being created Imago Dei from a different angle, one of differences.

We see in the Trinity how a call to unity is not a call to oneness. We are not called to be the same person, we are called to be unified in one Christ. The differences between unity and sameness are the differences between persons. We are all uniquely made in the image of God. There are no replicates. You are solely yourself and no one can change that or re-create that. Just as in the Trinity there are three persons in one, in the body of Christ (the Church), there are many parts. The Holy Spirit and God the Father are unique Beings, they are wholly separate from another and yet wholly united with each other and the Son. While we strive to imitate their unity in our communities, we must also strive to imitate their individualism in our differences. 

In Genesis Chapter 11, we see a completely unified people. Men have come together and declared, “let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven”. It would seem at first glance that these men are unified in their love for Christ, for their goal is to reach heaven. Reading further on, however, we see that sin controls their actions, “let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad the face of the whole earth”. The unity of these men is rooted in the sin of pride. They seek to reach God in order to make a name for themselves, not for the sake of attaining unity with God in heaven.  God then confuses their language and spreads them throughout the whole earth. It is here where we see the first instance of diversity.

While we do not know why God decided to confuse the language of the men building the tower of Babel, the focus is how do we deal with these differences as Catholics? A brief look at the history of the Church demonstrates that these differences should not be squandered. We should not strive to be the same, rather we should all strive to be holy. We are each individually called to holiness and this is manifested in different ways for different people. At Notre Dame we are all challenged to live out this call to holiness in our everyday lives. Whether through adoration, daily mass in the dorms or Basilica or theological debates among friends, we are constantly encouraged to find God in our everyday lives.

Rather than look at cultural or vocational differences in others as pulling us apart from one another, these differences allow us to follow an individual path towards God. The Church encourages us to seek God in our own way and to develop a personal relationship with Him. It is through these differences that we are able to see our own humanity. Though we are all different, we are all able to experience the presence of God and it is in this realization that we are able to able to reason that there is some greater presence than ourselves.

It is this greater presence of the all-encompassing God that must unify us, both personally and socially.  In each person's uniqueness, there is also a unique call from God that cannot be accomplished by anyone else.  Each person is special not in spite of their differences, but because their differences add so much to ourselves and society.  We are all created different and in the image of God, and in this way our differences are a light by which we can discover more of Him and His purpose for humanity.

A Perfect Community

Growing up I’ve always been a member of a community. Whether it be my family, my school or the Catholic community of my parish. As a student at Notre Dame, this understanding of the community has deepened with the friends I’ve made, the professors who have challenged me and the people who have pushed me to do my best, encouraging me all along. Notre Dame is more than just a place of higher learning, it’s a community, a family.

But what is it about the Notre Dame community that makes this university so special? To attempt to answer this question, we must first understand ourselves, the individual puzzle pieces, and then figure out how we fit together.

A fundamental theological truth that we believe as Catholics is that we are made Imago Dei, in the image of God. While this holds many implications relating to our human nature, one such implication is that we are made in the image of the Trinity, three persons who are fully one God. While the Trinity is a complex mystery that transcends our human knowledge, we can still study the Trinity as a model of the perfect community, one which we should strive to imitate. The Catechism states that “there is a certain resemblance between the unity of the divine persons and the fraternity that men ought to establish among themselves.” (Catechism 1890). We will never attain the perfect unity of the Trinity because of our fallen nature, however, we are called to strive to imitate the harmony and solidarity of the Trinity within our communities.

What does it mean that we are made in the image of a God who is a Trinitarian God? When we begin to study the Trinity, we quickly learn that we cannot come to know and understand one person of the Trinity without understanding the two other persons. Each person of the Trinity is defined individually and in relation to each other; we come to understand each person of the Trinity through their relationships. Similarly, we as human beings define ourselves in relation to others and understand others through our relationships. We call ourselves sisters, students, classmates, doctors, and friends, roles that imply a human connection with other persons.

A second implication is the natural tendency for human beings to form themselves into a society or community. “The human person needs to live in society. Through the exchange with others, [...] man develops his potential” (Catechism 1880). Not only do we naturally form community, but we need to live among a community or society to realize our full potential. If we attempt to disregard society as defined by our relationships with others, we will not be able to fulfill our human vocation.

A song from my childhood stands out regarding this topic: “Don’t build your house on a sandy land, don’t build it too near the shore, well it might be kind of nice but you’ll have to build it twice, so you’ll have to build your house once more”. As a child, it was a catchy song with fun hand motions, but the meaning remains same: we need a strong foundation for our faith. This foundation is found in our communities and our relationships with others. The Notre Dame community is so special because it has taught us the value of living in relation to one another, to discover ourselves through learning about other people. It has called us to imitate God in our communities through exemplifying our nature. 

Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011

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About Me

As a student at the University of Notre Dame, I am constantly being challenged -- in academics, in my personal life and in my faith life. Faith has always played a central part in my life, but upon entering Notre Dame, my understanding of Catholicism was still in its building block stages. My faith correlated with my intellectual development, I believed in Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church because that’s what I grew up with. In the past three years, I have discovered a greater appreciation for my faith. Notre Dame has taught me to approach my faith similar to how I approach my studies, to challenge and to question it in order to form a greater understanding. Without being challenged and tested, my faith is something that would constantly change according to societal norms, passing from one fad to the next. As I enter my last year at Notre Dame, I seek an even greater knowledge of the Church’s many and complex teachings. I can’t promise perfection, but I hope we can engage in a fruitful conversation leading to a greater appreciation and love of Christ.