When V. J, Tarantino and I were invited to represent WPI at a Napa Institute Salon Dinner led by the organization’s founder, Tim Busch, and his wife Steph in New York City on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, a few questions came to mind: Why us? What would we be doing there? What could we expect, or what could be expected of us?
Of course, being something of a journalist, I started to research. RNS highlighted the opulence of the venue and the meal, the breadth of Catholic opinion represented, and the illustriousness of the guest list. America offered a platform to our prospective host who, while emphasizing an array of non-negotiables, focused on the importance of personal encounter and cooperation on common ground. A largely critical in-depth article in the Los Angeles Times included a quote from our contributor Dawn Eden Goldstein, cited as writing “for the moderate Catholic news site Where Peter Is” – which was, at least, somewhat gratifying, given how bad a match we at WPI are for the left-right spectrum. The net effect of all this opinion and reportage was a bit disorienting.
The gathering itself – Mass, the Rosary, and dinner, inaugurated with each guest sharing a favorite Scriptural quote and personal testimony – was quite different. No doubt, the venue and the meal were spectacular, but the vivid center of the experience was genuine human engagement, hospitality and welcome. At no time were we or anyone else present being dazzled, rather than encountered. It was hard, even, to gauge the breadth of the geopolitical or ecclesio-political range represented – there was precious little spoken in the name of any agenda. Rather, there was warmth and an accommodating space for a variety of personalities and spiritualities; while I am sure there would be room for disagreement (and for agreement), were the same individuals present at a debate or a symposium (or, heaven help us, disputing back and forth online), the blessed experience of shared faith and in-person, face to face community was the preeminent tone of the night.
V. J. summarized the experience well:
Tim and Steph have really, truly created something remarkable, something rarely seen: a space for joy, no strings attached. (We, though scaled to our poverty, have always done this ourselves. This is how I can recognize it, and how I know what goes into it.) Beginning with Mass and the Rosary fostered this; the homily was delivered with so much enthusiasm; Paul and I were able to lector and cantor.
My Scripture verse at dinner was (yes, delivered in Latin) nonne cor nostrum, ardens erat in nobis. The one that came to mind in the circumstance, given the seating arrangement (I seated at Tim’s immediate right), was “friend, come up higher.”
Every single person I met, including the chef team, was kind, open and passionate. The small details of care were very much in evidence; at the end of the night, Steph Busch put my coat on me, then turned to help the kitchen team with clearing the dishes, so they could get some rest before flying to their next client. I definitely feel that nothing but unity and dialogue could come from such an endeavor; I would hope to remain in touch with this work and this community of persons, whom I now consider friends and to whom I am enduringly grateful.
I felt heard; I felt respected. I remain totally humbled to have been treated among such company as a peer. I was even indulged in playing a sample of the Mass setting I am composing; we were invited to say something about ourselves, and nowhere else is my person and my story more transparent than in the music.
I can give honest testimony that all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit were genuinely in evidence. And I was proud to represent WPI. The event coheres well with the mission of WPI: a quest for what is authentic, for common ground, and for an integrative approach. It also resounds with our personal mission as Sacred Beauty: breaking the jar, lavishing on the Beloved Jesus (above all in the Eucharist, but also in his Mystical Body and in the particularity of the Imago Dei) the best of what we have in beauty and dignity, reverence and artistry, cleanliness, silence and the delicacy which love elicits.
A last point: some regular readers of WPI might recall that I published a piece last fall in response to Pope Leo’s release of Dilexi te, to which I compared, quite unfavorably, an address given at the Napa Institute Summer Conference by Catholic financier Frank Hanna. While I stand by every word of the content of that article, I must confess to feeling a bit of compunction about the title I used. As Mike Lewis recently had occasion to point out, we ourselves at WPI publish a variety of opinions, and have recently taken some flak for thoughts expressed by one of our contributors. Whether or not I agree with those thoughts personally (I do not, for what it’s worth), they fit under the editorial policy, while clearly being expressed as the contributor’s own opinion. To characterize this or any other single work on the site as “WPI Catholicism” would be unfair (not that that has stopped some people), but I hate to think that I may have been doing the same thing, with regard to Napa.
Of course, we cannot expect all of our differences magically to vanish over a meal, howsoever grace-filled or generously offered – but we can (and should) legitimately hope for more texture, nuance, compassion, and (dare I say?) charity, in how we see and understand one another and our lives in the faith. I certainly feel that I have grown through this experience.
As I write today, it is Easter Wednesday – appropriate, given Val’s Scripture quote from the night of the Salon Dinner itself, but also inasmuch as through the breaking of bread, above all at the altar but also at the table, we may all come to recognize our Living Lord, triumphant over death, more clearly and more perfectly – in the world, in the Church, and in one another.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, (photo: kozak4512, own work.)
Dr. Paul Chu is currently a philosophy instructor for CTState, the Connecticut Community College, and has previously taught philosophy in college, university, and seminary settings. He also served as a staff writer and editor for various national publications. He is co-founder of Sacred Beauty, a Private Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport dedicated to honoring the beauty and holiness of God through artistic and intellectual creativity founded in prayer, especially Eucharistic contemplation. He contributes regularly to https://questionsdisputedandotherwise.substack.com/.
Popular Posts