Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 476

...that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I met a woman recently who admitted that her understanding of faith lacked depth. As the conversation continued in another direction she didn't explain what she meant by "depth," but I was struck by the word.

During our conversation I noticed the setting, a suburban Catholic church. In the very large nave there were few images. The walls were blank, and both statues were bought out of a church supply catalog, typically 1970's. The saints and martyrs did not appear; and the colored glass windows only suggested the stations of the cross. I saw no details that might invite reflection; and little that would fascinate children or uplift the mind to God. 

Garrison Keillor once described the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant Church. The starkly bare Protestant church says, "You're going to think about what you hear from the pulpit. There's nothing else to do in this place." The traditional Catholic Church, with its statues, windows, paintings, candles, bells, and smells says. "You will not think. You will contemplate." This suburban Catholic church offered little for thought or contemplation. If the parish doesn't sponsor pilgrimages they seem to be going no where.

Saint Paul lists depth among the four dimensions of the love of Christ. Ordinarily we think of three dimensions of space (height, width, and depth) and one dimension of time. (Physicists say there are more but that's only to solve problems.) 

Saint Paul prayed that his Ephesian disciples should have the strength to comprehend those four dimensions of faith. Though I am not sure how his four dimensions --breadth, length, height, and depth -- fit together as a geometric set, I am sure that every Christian should apprehend those dimensions, and study so as to comprehend them. 

When the woman spoke of her lack of depth I suggested two dimensions, space and time; that is, history and geography. She might read stories of the Catholic faith, including the history of biblical Israel, the New Testament, the Church Fathers, and the Roman martyrs. With pilgrimages to national and international shrines she would encounter many unfamiliar Catholic images, songs, and practices. Our Catholic faith is shared by many different people, places, cultures, and languages. 

No one practices faith alone, nor simply among one's own. We should meet many different people, of the 21st century and of the twenty preceding centuries. Already we're meeting people of the 22nd century and should anticipate many ages to come. The universal in Catholic includes all times and all places, with all its "breadth and length and height and depth. It "surpasses all knowledge."