Dare to Open the window

It’s been over forty years now since an old hero of mine used an Italian word that startled and changed the world: aggiornamento. Pope John XXIII uttered it in connection with the Roman Catholic Church by telling anyone who cared to listen that what the Church needed to do was throw open the windows and let in some fresh air. There were many people, some of his closest colleagues, who did not care to listen. They believed that the air they were breathing was just fine, stale as it was – safe as it was. Open the windows and one never knows just what might fly through.

   Pope John’s window opening brought Vatican II and changed the Roman Church forever, for better or for worse depending to whom one listens. Since then every Communion has opened its windows, gone through its own aggiornamento, again, for better or for worse depending to whom one listens.

   It is dangerous, of course, to open windows. The safe and secure, stale as it might be, is at least safe and secure. Add fresh air to the mix and one never knows what will happen. But do we have a choice? Can we keep the windows of our minds closed forever? Jesus’ whole ministry was not about throwing out what was but about opening windows and letting fresh air in. When that happened, what needed to be changed was changed and what did not was not; but that cannot happen if we keep the windows closed.

   I was reminded of all this by a prayer Ginger H passed on to me, the author of which I do not know. This is the prayer: “Dear Lord, there just isn’t a word for it in English. Pope John said it in Italian – aggiornamento – “the opening up of windows to let in fresh air.” Ah, Lord, I like what it does to a house – opening windows. The fresh air revives and rejuvenates and makes me want to sing. But this aggiornamento implies an opening up of windows of the mind – an airing out of stale notions and worthless attitudes. It implies a reviving and rejuvenating that is as welcome as a summer breeze.

   “I know how to open house windows, and I do it whenever possible. I have a fairly good idea how to open windows in my mind. But I avoid it whenever possible. But I can deliberately expose my mind to situations where study is required, where thinking is essential, where startling, fresh, new ideas are thrust upon me. The crux of the matter is that it takes an act of decision to open a window…in a house or in a mind. Aggiornamento!  Amen!”

   The crux of the matter is that it often does take a crux, a cross, a willingness to change – which is often, if not always, painful. Yes, when we dare to open the windows of our minds, we will breathe in both fresh air that will rejuvenate and renew and air polluted with that which is not good for body or soul. We can exhale the bad. But it is only in the breathing in that we can discern what is good and what is bad.

   May this new year be a time for daring to open the windows of our minds, for daring to breathe in fresh air, to change what needs to be changed and to preserve that which does not.

                                                            WJP