Last night I watched the world premier of Sharknado Two; the
Second One, unfortunately one of the best films of the summer. The movie left off just as the clean up was
about to begin. The city is infested
with man eating sharks (not enough room here to explain), injured people, and
buildings left in rubble – not to mention the flooding. Who is going to help clean all that up?
The Catholic Church.
We are so connected as a worldwide Church that we have the mechanisms in
place to immediately step in and start bringing aid to those who need it. Catholic hospitals will treat the
patients. Catholic social services,
Catholic Charities, Catholic work groups would help. Collections from Sunday Masses across the
country/world would come streaming in.
Catholic services would be set up for those who need the
sacraments. The gates of Sharknadodom
would not prevail against it.
Think of all the atheist societies that would come to
help. The Atheist General Hospital, the
Atheist Charitable Society, money would stream in from collections at the
Sunday morning atheist community gatherings and from collections taken up at
the local Atheist Elementary Schools.
I wonder if the local atheist meeting hall provides as much
to a community as the local parish. I
think of all the things that this parish provides for this part of Akron. Education, sports, concerts, lectures, arts,
community support during times of death, crisis, or illness, retreats, camps, dances,
cultural and entertainment events, hubs of information about and how to be
involved in local, national, and worldwide concerns, clubs for persons of all
ages, youth groups, gardening clubs, beautiful grounds and playgrounds used by
the community, charitable organization that reach out to the parish boundaries,
to the diocese, and to the world. Permanent
jobs are provided for a couple score of people in everything from teaching and
arts to ministry and business offices.
Other recent jobs include roofers, plasterers, painters, organ
construction, plumbers, heating and cooling professionals, landscapers,
architects, construction workers, sign makers, carpet layers, and more. A bit over three million dollars passes
through this part of town as part of our budget annually. It provides a voice for the
neighborhood. So much so that studies
show that when a Catholic parish closes in a struggling neighborhood, the
neighborhood goes into a steep and accelerated decline because a Catholic
parish is so connected to other parishes, the diocese, and people outside of
the immediate neighborhood it kept the neighborhood alive. The parish also provides spaces for the
community to rent for everything from wedding receptions to city meetings.
AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT: providing sacramental healing,
forgiveness of sins, adoption into the family of God, the reception of the
Eucharist, receiving on the Holy Spirit, and uniting in matrimony. All that in just a couple of acres.
So beware sharks!