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I will give, in my house
and within my walls, a monument and a name
Better than sons and daughters;
an eternal, imperishable name will I give them....
Them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
Their holocausts and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
For my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord GOD,
who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
Others will I gather to him
besides those already gathered (Is. 56:5,7-8)
On Human Diversity
Each of us is made in the image and likeness of God. Each of us is a gift from God to the world, and each of us is unique. I am the color, the race, and the ethnicity that I am, and yet, I am more. I am American: African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, European American, Native American, Arabic American, and I am a blend of some, and yet, I am more. My roots can be found in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, the Middle East, and yet, I am more. I live in the inner city, and I live in a small town; I live in the suburbs, and I live in a gated community; and yet, I am more.
Our Lifestyles
I am mother and father, sister and daughter, son and brother, friend and colleague, and yet, I am more. I am a construction worker and a nurse, I am a doctor and a factory worker, I work at home and I travel great distances, and yet, I am more. I am constantly moving from city to city, and I have lived in this place for generations. I am a parent whose children are my life and joy, and I am a single mother struggling to raise three children, and yet, I am more. I am a newly ordained priest struggling to serve a multicultural parish, and I am a religious, enriched by the experience of working with others. I am fifteen years old and give thanks for the Church I have always known, and I am sixty years old, now lost and desperately looking for a place in the Church I used to know, and yet, I am more. I am a divorced father who sees my children every other weekend, and I am a mother who has chosen to be a stay-home mom. I am blessed with good health, and I struggle with ill health, and yet, I am more. I am a single adult, and I am a newlywed. I am surrounded by wonderful friends, and I am lonely, seeking a good friend, and yet, I am more.
Our Lives in the Faith Community
I live my faith daily in the workplace, and my work is caring for the poor in my community. I am a lawyer who advocates for the oppressed, and I am a trades person building homes for the homeless. I visit the sick, comfort the lonely, and mourn with those who grieve. I am a farm worker who provides food for the table, and I am a eucharistic minister who brings nourishment to the sick. I am a catechist teaching youth about our faith, and I am a sponsor for adult catechumens. I belong to an interfaith group, and I am a member of a church-based community. I am a proud father, present at my daughter's confirmation, and I am a mother worried about my son's initiation into a new religious group. I am a charismatic renewed by the animating power of the Spirit, and I am a contemplative resting in the quiet of a great mystery. I am Catholic in faith, but was raised in a country where Christians are a very small minority. My culture is often seen as belonging to a different faith tradition, but my culture is an integral part of my Catholic faith. I am elderly, preserving traditions of the Church, and I am young, full of energy, discovering new dimensions to these traditions. I am a member of a parish, and yet I do not feel at home.
I am who I am because of God's love for me. It is God who seeks me. It is God who loved me first. It is God who makes a room for me in his house.
Sharing the Vision of Encuentro 2000
"I am" describes some of the many faces of the Church in the United States. "I am" also names the One within the faces. As such, it offers a vision of the many places, cultures, situations, and contexts that describe a truly graced multicultural reality, and offers a new meaning to multiculturalism in the United States today. Encuentro 2000 concerns these two visionsthe one Lord and the many faces. Encuentro 2000 realizes that life in the United States finds each of us in different relationships with one another and with the Body of Christ which is the Church. The bewildering variety of relationships may be seen as obstacles to being family, community, society, and ultimately, Church. Yet Encuentro 2000 sees Jesus opening a door leading beyond each of these obstacles, inviting us in and repeating the words from Isaiah:
Them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
Their holocausts and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
For my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples. (56:7)
Jesus opening a door and inviting us in describes a gracious and transforming hospitality. It is gracious in that Jesus becomes present to us in the midst of this variety of peoples and relationships that were once thought to be closed doors but now have come open. This hospitality is transforming in that Jesus asks us to cross the threshold of that open door into a new house, a house of prayer for all peoples. We are to follow our Lord in becoming gracious hosts, as we acknowledge and embrace our cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity and God's unique presence in each other's lives, histories, and cultures. This gracious and transforming hospitality also describes a truly Christian understanding of multiculturalisma multiculturalism that focuses less on a gathering place for many peoples and more on a gracious hospitality that has made a welcoming space for each face among us.
Encuentro 2000, then, sees the Church of the third millennium like Jesus who washed the feet of the disciples, as host of the house of all peoples. We are asked to become the welcoming Lord, gracious hosts to a world filled with dissonant and meaningless conversations. We are asked to start a new conversation in this house of prayer. Such hospitality transforms differences of culture, language, race, gender, class, and circumstance into an invitation to speak from the deepest longings of our hearts. Such hospitality recognizes the invitation of the Host who knows us better than we know ourselves, so that we, in turn, become hosts to one another. As such, this grace-filled hospitality transforms any obstacles to faithfulness into opportunities to speak from the depths of our hearts. In this house of welcoming, even those who find themselves wandering tired and afraid in this world can hear the words of Isaiah:
Thus says the Lord GOD,
who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
Others will I gather to him
besides those already gathered. (56:8)
Making the Vision of Encuentro 2000 Come Alive
Encuentro 2000 calls us to a springtime of Christianity as we enter the third millennium. It extends an open invitation into the warmth of a gracious hospitality. It invites us to make ourselves at home. Such a call to hospitality accepts without question our gifts and contributions toward the feast of future dreams being celebrated at the kitchen table. It calls us to the living room to share out photo album and recount our families' stories. It calls us to the door closed in anger to offer a confession of shortcomings as well as words of forgiveness that can move us to reconciliation and healing. It calls us to the patio that we may experience the garden as a place of prayer for all peoples. Finally, it calls us to the eucharistic table to share our joys and sorrows with the One who is at once our Lord and our Host, revealing a dazzling vision of communion. The Body of Christ gathered at the banquet table is the summit and source of transforming hospitality. It is the house of prayer where the many faces of God's house dwell.