Does your parish remind you more of a gym or a hardware
store?
I’m not talking about the architecture. That’s another post.
How do you see the way your parish functions in your
life? Is it more like a gym, a place
where you go to accomplish something and then leave and return to other
activities? Or is it more like a
hardware store where you go to be equipped to do those activities that one who
visits such a store might do?
If it is the first, then your parish is a service to
you. Like the drycleaners or the
mechanic’s, you go to have a service performed.
If it is like the second, it is more like the travel agency or the
recruiting office, where you go to be sent on to do something.
If it is the first, you understand the relationship that is
required of us as Christians with each other.
We are community. God draws us
into unity. And so we come together to
pray.
If it is the second, you also understand that there is
involved here a relationship with God; a very intimate and involved one. It is not like showing up at Grandma’s house
in time for Sunday dinner and then leaving after dessert not to think of the
lady again until your stomach growls the following Sunday. Hopefully you think of her during the week,
call, stop by, send a text. You might
perform some task for her such as mow her lawn or help figure out her
taxes. And as family there are many intangibles
of hers that you carry on without even realizing it: you carry the family name,
you have certain turns of phrases and bit of advice that you give from being
steeped in the family, you may be inspired to do things that others don’t
simply because grandma always said a good person did such things, and you
prayed for her good at night.
Because that is what a (functional) family does. And there (as Fr. K pointed out) is where the
first question because a false one. Your
parish should remind you of neither business institution. At its best it should remind you of
family. (How do you get a couple of
thousand people to be family – center on Christ because people [I] can’t do
it.) And family is not something you do
at a particular time, it is who you are and how you live.
1 comment:
"...it is who you are and how you live." Exactly! That is Catholic identity. It's in your bones. It's more than just attending church or superficial involvement. It's when Catholicism is a central thread in the fabric of your life. Without the thread your fabric would have a hole and you wouldn't be "you" and your life would not be the same. This is my prayer for all Catholics, that their relationship with Christ and his Church becomes a central thread weaved into the fabric of their lives.
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