Gathering of the Faithful in Oberammergau

Yesterday evening, I returned from a 10-day pilgrimage to Germany and Switzerland, traveling with the Saint Meinrad Alumni Association. It was a wonderful time, with many highlights and memories - and more stories and pictures will be forthcoming. But, to start, a reflection on one aspect of the highlight of the trip - the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. In 1633, the people of this small village in Bavaria, not far from the Austrian border, vowed that if they were spared the effects of the plague that was devastating central Europe, they would put on a Passion Play every ten years to honor the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The town was spared, and this year saw the 41st presentation of the Oberammergau Passion Play.

Over the years, people have come from all over the world to be a part of this production. And it was this universal reach that especially touched me during our days in the village. It was almost as if the focus of the entire Christian world was on this small village in southern Germany. On the day we attended the Passion Play - the 99th of 100 performances this year - we saw innumerable people we knew: our own Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, OSB, of Indianapolis, and several other people from Indianapolis traveling with him, including my kindergarten principal and a priest friend from Indy; a group traveling from Batesville, Indiana, with several people I knew; a group traveling from Evansville, Indiana, with many people from St. John Parish in Newburgh, where my traveling companion, Fr. Jason Gries, had served as associate pastor a few years ago; a priest from Wisconsin who also studied at Saint Meinrad, two years behind us, along with Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, the former bishop of Cheyenne, Wyoming, whom I had met last December while in Cheyenne for the ordination and installation of their current bishop, who was my predecessor as pastor at OLPH; the tour escort who had been with my pilgrimage In the Footsteps of St. Paul last summer; and many more. And we also met many new people, from Italy and Japan and all parts of the United States and Europe. And of course, there were our local hosts, Dieter and Rose Marie Dashuber, in whose home Fr. Jason and I stayed - Dieter is a native of Oberammergau and was one of the high priests in the Passion Play.

The focus of all these people was on the same thing - a remembrance of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Fittingly, we marked the day of the Passion Play by also having Mass at the local parish Church of Ss. Peter and Paul, at which Bishop Ricken presided and several of us priests in attendance concelebrated. The whole experience was a massive gathering of the faithful in a small German village to remember a vow made over 350 years ago and the Lord whom we all worship and whose saving death and resurrection has given us life. And, really, the Christian world was focused not on this particular village, but on the man on the cross, who rose from the dead. He is the one who brings us all together each time we gather to pray and celebrate the Eucharist - whether in Oberammergau or in our own parish church. Sometimes it's good to have a reminder of the universality of our faith!