SPRED

Archdioceseof Chicago DEVELOPJVGNT

SPECiALRELIGIOUS
2956 SouthLoweAve.Cbicago,Ilii-nois60616
312-842-1039 www.spred.org

Aptil 2011 Volume 92 Number 4

A father oncetold his daughterneverto let time be wasted;sowrite apoemwhile caught

in a waiting room.

This attitudehasbeckoned. me when I aq-rcaughtin a long wait. While sitting in a hospi-

tal waiting room, I focusedon a chair directlyin front of me. It was of deepdark walnut
wood. The seatwas abouta foot andahalf offthe floor andheldup by 4 1egs.The square
coveredseatwas of grey leathei. It was similarto the otherchairsin the room. It had a
nick on one of its legs which distinzuishedit from the others.

No one was sitting in the chair. It was empty" That gaveit its own fascination. I was
1' ^-i- r tl.
llUP]lLB
arr1.,
Lrr4L way it wasbecoming"mf '
-L-t\Jorleelsewould sit in the chair- in somestrange

chair.

Th.ere were tlu-ee large wooden spokes that fom.ed the back of the chair. I wondered
where the wood came from: where was the waLnut tree grown? Who cut it down? Who
-What
fashioned it? Who had planted-the tree from which the chair was made? part of the
counhy had it grown in? Once made was it stacked with others, then purchased and
shipped to the hospital? Who placed it here? Was it handled with carc? fifrcr.-t nen',le
sit in this chair.

One could write an encyclopedia about the experience of one chair.

if this were a catechetical session,I would go i.rrther. Spred catechiststake this phenom-
enon of a chair fi.n1herby juxtapositioning it to something experiencedin Liturgy, then in
Qn'rnfirre end fu13lly to an encOunterwith Christ Jezus.
u vlrH rsr v,

T'" o lifirrcrinalevocation, just as Jewish rabbis sat While teaching, the priest sits in a chair
l-I-L G lrL|46rv(4 '

when he presidesat a Eucharist. We call it a "presidentialchail". The bishop sits in a

chair i:e a church cal1eda cathedral,(from the Latin, "cathedta"- meaningchair), so the
bishopof a dioceseis the primaryteacher.

In a bibLicalevocation,Jesussat on amountainto teachin the serrnonof the Mount. The

world's earthwas his chair. As we recitein our creed,we proclaimthat Jesusnow sits at
tire ight hand of God. Finally the catechistwould go to eachpersonand say: Jesussays
to us, "Come, andrest awltile."
Sartre's*grandmotheroncesaidto him: "It's not just a questionof havingeyes,youhave
to learn how to use them. Do you know what Flaubertdid to youngMaupassant?He sat
him down iri fi-ontof atoeeandgavehim two horusto describeit. Considerthingslong and.
atlentively: there is part of everythingthat remainsunexplored,for we have fallen i:rto the
habit of remembering. Wheneverwe use our eyes,we wonderwhat peoplebeforeushave
thought of the thing we are looking at. Even the slightestthing contaim a little that is
trnknown. We must find it. To describe ablaztng fue or a tree in a plain, we must remai:t
beforetirat fire or that tree u:rtil they no longer resemblefor us any othertree or any other
fire."

Spreduses this processof evocation,this phenomenologicalmethod. One first discards

secondhand notions or receivedideas,then one describesdirectlythe thing as it directly
presentsitself. This ability to describea phonomenonwithout influencefrom other'stheo-
ries is liberating.

Concentratingon the dark,richphenomenoni:r front of me, EdmundHusserlcalled"set-

ting aside" or "bracketingout" speculativeadd-ons.The point is to keepcoming backto
the tllings themselvesstrippedof conceptualbaggage.Onehasto stretchtoward or into
sornethilg.

What is true for the Spredprocesswith normal adultsis alsotrue for the processusedwith
our friends. Or-rrthor-rghts
areinvariably of or abotttsomething.But this kind of exerciseto
focr-rsis what Hr-rsserlwould call an exciting disciphnein which concentrationand effort
mi-rstconstzurtiybe renewed.The needis to keepcomingbackto what standsbeforeour
eyes,to distinguishanddescribe.Ph-ilosophers would seethis describingofphenomenaas
a perfect defimtion of phenomenology. Karl Jasperswould sayit requires"different think-
ing." "In knowing what's beforeme, it awakensme to myself,transforrnsme."

Fr. JeanMesny onceremarkedthat you haveto sit beforea roseuntil the rosetalks to you.

This processcalled evocation is a Life method,similar to what S?ttt. wrote a friend,

advisilgherhowtowrite. "Focllsonanimageuntilyoufeelaswelling, likeabubble,also
a sort of direction,indicatedto you. This is your idea; afterwardsyou can clariff it and
write it down."

This is calledthe phenomonological

method.Phenomelogists
andSpredcatechists
takeus
to the "things themselves."

The Spredcatechistis concernedwrth eachperson's concretehumanexistence.Karl ftahner

once wrote, "the worst thing that can happen to you, has alreadyhappened;you exist!"
Becauseor-rrfi-iendsexist, like us they arefree. Freedombringsanxiety,evenwith muted
consciousness, this anxiety lurks. We all needto look at creationwith the eyes of Christ
who diffirses,cprelisthis anxiety.

In this state, one who is an existentialist,a phenomenolgist,and a catechistcan describe

lived experienceas it presentsitself. It awakensus to ways of living more authentically.
Il the theology of Karl Rahner,"God is experiencedin the 'mysticismof everydaythings'
-not in the distilled essenceof things, not the highestabstractionsfrom the world but the
experienceof God's life at the very heart of the wor1d,in flesh, in time and in history.
Perhapsthe greatestdualismthat Karl Rahnerovercarneis that betweenGod andthe world.
For him they are never identical, but neither are they ever separate,so that God and the
world are experiencedand known together.

Presence to self,presenceto the world, andpresenceto God areall aspectsof one andthe
sameexperience, the experienceof God'sreal presencein the world which he createdto be
his real symbol."**

When adult Spred catechistscome together for a sessionbefore each sessionwith their
ftiends with inteilectual disabilities,their desire is to explore a human experiencethat is
their own. They do this by beginning with the readingof a story that evokesa personai
memory. The personalmemory is prornptedby a questionthat flows from the story. Cat-
echistsponderthis questionfor about twenty minutesin silence. Usually they awakenan
anay of incidentsand then slowly settle on and savora particularmemory.

This experiencefi'om the pastis sharedwith the rest of the community.This contributionto
the communitycanbeprofoundlyre-enforcing of a pastthat is now madepresentin the very
telling of the incident.

Now this memoryis placedin the light of a liturgicalexperience.The incidentpushesus

as the selectionis invariablyjuxtaposedto the Eucharist.
into a new ritual r.rnderstanding
New light is shedon the rnemoryand on the liturgy.

When the incident unearthed is then seen aligned with an incident in scripture, both are
fused in a way that can bring a person up short, almost startled.

Whenthe group leadergoesto eachperson,takestheir handsand saysa messageas from

Jesushimself, the catechistcan begin to see the original memory in a wholely different
depth. The meansSpredusesto help catechistsand Spredfriendsto grow in faith is this
processof evocation.

Whereasthe group of catechistsis led to explore a life eventby begixning with a story and
moving on to their own story the whole group with thosewho have intellectualdifficulties
is led into the evocationprocessby begilning with an objectto be seen,touched,andheld.
Relatingto the object along with a lively exchangebefweencatechistsand friends trans-
fonns the object, the sign, into anotherreality, a symbol. This processis accomplished
throughthe processof evocation.

Spredcatechistsandfriendsgrow in faith throughthe processknown assymboliccatechesis

or the methodVivre. This processis to "interpret life situationswithin a group,throughthe
processof evocation,in faith, in the light of the Word, moving toward communion and
*i6tatg.::* + * Rev. JameSH. McCarthy
Director, Spred Chicago
*Bakewell,Sarah,At the ExistentialistCafe.Chaftoand Windus,GreatBritain, 2016
**The Achievementof Karl Rahner,Ghp Jlse d_Lj_fe),W.DychinTD31, 1984
*** Contractfor Adult Cornmunitiesof SpredCatechists.Archdioceseof Chicago,Spred
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