Life is VERY Good When We are One

on January 26, 2015

While various of my IRD colleagues went to pre-March for Life activities with the United Methodists or the Evangelicals, I spent Wednesday evening, January 21, at an evening of prayer sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. I think I got the best deal!

Life is VERY good. That was the theme of the Arlington Diocese’s March for Life activities, but it also describes how I felt as I sat (Well, actually, sitting was probably the activity in which we were least engaged. There was much more jumping up and down than sitting!) in the packed Patriot Center at George Mason University.

Worship at Life is VERY Good (Photo credit: Catholic Diocese of Arlington)
Worship at Life is VERY Good (Photo credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)

It was good to be with thousands of worshippers from all across the nation, as a Protestant who felt very much at home among Roman Catholic brothers and sisters praising the Lord. It was good to see that the overwhelming majority of attendees were under the age of 25. It was good to see so many teenagers — some as well-scrubbed and demure as one thinks of when one thinks of ‘Catholic School,’ others with hair of various florescent hues, piercings, and tattoos. It was good to hear speakers and worship leaders alike talk about the need to know Jesus and to follow Him. And it was very good to know that, Catholics and Protestants together, we are one — not only in our concern for the unborn and others vulnerable in this culture of death — but one in the Body of Christ!

Confession was offered throughout the evening. Rather than being a contradiction to the joyful, exuberant worship taking place, it was complementary. The opportunity provided assurance of forgiveness of sins by Christ and allowed the forgiven to praise God with thankful hearts. The printed program for the evening included a section on “How to go to the Sacrament of Penance,” an “Examination of Conscience,” and the comforting assurance of God’s mercy and forgiveness from the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son. Rembrandt’s powerful painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son” also graced the page.

The printed program also included a letter from the Apostolic Nuncio with a message from His Holiness Pope Francis to the attendees. “His Holiness is deeply grateful for the commitment of so many young Americans to promoting respect for the dignity and inalienable rights of every human being, especially the smallest and most defenseless members of our human family,” the message said.

The Bishop of Arlington, the Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde, added his greetings, thanking both the adults “who spent countless hours. . . making it possible for the young to be here today,” and the young people for making “many sacrifices.” “It brings me great joy and hope that each one of you is ready to take a stand for the sanctity of all human life,” Bishop Loverde declared. I was humbled as I am every year by the sacrifice that so many make to come to the March for Life, when I can just stroll down the street from my office in order to participate.

Chris Stefanick at Life is VERY Good (Photo credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)
Chris Stefanick at Life is VERY Good (Photo credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)

Speaker Chris Stefanick brought the message that life is very good only because of the God who sent His Son to die on the Cross and give us His abundant, resurrection life. Stefanick is the founder of Real Life Catholic, a group that describes new life in Christ as “the best news in human history.”

Recording artist and songwriter Maher shared deeply from his own life and spiritual journey. He is the author of such well-known worship songs as “Your Grace is Enough,” and “Christ is Risen.”

Maher, who sees his ministry as one to “unify the Church” and bring the “voices from different streams together” led the thousands of worshippers in “Because He Lives,” a song that is a tribute to the old gospel song with the same title.

Matt Maher at Life is VERY Good (Photo Credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)
Matt Maher at Life is VERY Good (Photo Credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)

This touched me deeply because we had just sung the old Gaither-version of the song at the funeral of a great saint of my parish two days before.

One of the most powerful testimonies of our oneness in the Body of Christ was the opening worship with the Northern Irish worship band Rend Collective. The band hails from Bangor, a town in County Down, on the Northern Ireland seacoast. Maybe Rend Collective plays at majority Catholic events frequently, I don’t know, but what I do know is that their participation in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington’s Life is VERY Good is witness to Catholics and Protestants alike, both here and in Northern Ireland that different part of the Body of Christ should rejoice in each other’s different expressions of faith and in our oneness in Him.

The biographical information of Rend Collective on their website refers to their “endearingly raucous live show,” and their songs at Life is VERY Good were indeed that. I was not surprised. It was my second Rend Collective experience. Their music is raucous for a reason: it is a celebration of being freed from sin by Christ and belonging to God. What better reason to get raucous and wild?

Rend Collective celebrates freedom in Christ (Photo credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)
Rend Collective celebrates freedom in Christ (Photo credit: Natalie J. Plumb, Catholic Diocese of Arlington)

In a short video introducing their album “The Art of Celebration,” bandleader Gareth Gilkeson says that on one quiet, misty Irish morning, although he had grown up a Christian and was “surrounded by the fact that Jesus loved him since he was born,” he was totally overwhelmed by the reality of God” and the fact that he was “not condemned” but that he was free. And he reveals a “theological break-through” by the band that “seriousness is not a Fruit of the Spirit, but joy is.”

In a world wracked by abortion, persecution, and other suffering, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Armed with that joy, and with the overwhelming awareness of Christ’s presence and love, the thousands of young people at Life is VERY Good left the Patriot Center well-prepared to March for Life and to share God’s love and truth throughout the year.

(My thanks to the Catholic Diocese of Arlington’s Office of Youth Ministry for their warm welcome, and to Natalie J. Plumb at the Diocese for their great photographs.)

 

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