Wanted and welcomed

 

Sometimes people question why bother with church or prayer or mass?  We search for reasons as to why, nowadays, so few attend mass on a regular weekly basis. We speculate about the manifold influences of secularism, popular culture, relevance, the scandals, the pressures of life and so on. But, perhaps there is a more basic root cause of a lack of attendance?

What if people really felt wanted and welcomed at their local parish mass and community? What if their experience of joining with other believers (including people with doubts, questions and struggles) was so uplifting and so life-giving that they wanted to come back the next week? 

What if we lived out our call to be disciples not so much by big and demonstrative gestures but ordinary everyday acts of kindness and genuine concern for the persons next to oneself?  One might say that people are already doing this and it still makes no difference. That may be so. But, are parishes really known as communities of living faith, joy, kindness and generosity?

Are parishes more than the sum of the individuals attending mass week after week and sometimes day after day? Can even an atheist sense the presence of a mysterious joyful love (Jesus) in the midst where two or three are gathered?

I suggest that if people feel genuinely wanted, appreciated, welcomed and loved many of them will come back again and again – perhaps not all at once and perhaps not all of them.  The Christian religion was first described as ‘The Way’ and Christians were referred to as followers of “The Way” (Acts 9:2).  It ushered in a whole new way of living and relating to God. It set the Roman empire on fire and spread  outwards from Jerusalem – east, south, north and west.