March 3, 2025
Welcome, God and All...
I was recently asked by a colleague and friend, What is the reasoning in your mind that makes it worthy of driving forty miles to worship God every week? (Or words to that effect.)
It's a question worth considering.
Nearly a century ago, when fewer people were on the road, so to speak, churches were seen as the centers of community. In neighborhoods and hamlets across America, even in her biggest cities, at your church everybody knew your name, and vice-versa. You were part of the action because that's where the action was. Local congregations saw themselves as one big (and usually) happy family. Sure, there were always passionate differences of opinion, but that's been around since Cain 'lost' Abel (and that's an extreme example).
That all changed about 75 years ago. We became mobile. We went where we pleased, and it wasn't necessarily the church or synagogue of our choice - and for many, it wasn't even a choice. The 'day of rest' ordained by God for His glory was becoming a day of leisure. Fast forward to today, and that sense of leisure has taken the driver's seat. In the wake of the COVID pandemic it seems to be a neat thing to worship the God who meets you where you are in the lap of leisure - via cyberspace, at home, in your bathrobe. And that's IF you even choose to recognize God's presence in our lives.
We can place blame on any number of things for the decline of church attendance and participation. A tight economy that makes it difficult to give the traditional 10% charitably. So many agencies and causes that need and seek out your discretionary income. A lack of meaningful catechesis or treading the unsettled waters of heretical thought. But that didn't hold back the church communities of the 1930s and earlier. They too suffered economic hardships, the specter of warfare, loss of life from natural disasters and catastrophic illnesses, and yet they thrived! They believed God was with them, and through their prayers, they were able to meet their challenges and grow through them.
Elsewhere in these pages I have written about my own sojourn in the desert, seeking to make an impact. As an impressionable teen and young adult, I saw the majority of folks symbolically pat me on the head, saying "that's nice" when I wanted to find my way to making friends, a major building block in community building. Then there were the one or two opportunists who wanted to grab more attention for themselves and exploited my talents for their own hoarded benefit. It would be easy to become disillusioned over that. I can't say I wasn't - doubts and the like are everywhere in life. I did discover one important thing in all of that, though. For me, to be honest about my shortcomings and concerns and to express them did more to find community than trying to assimilate by attempting to be something I am not.
The community I am among right now knows me. They welcomed me as a stranger in their midst and made me feel as one of their own over the course of time. At a time I really needed community - the sudden loss of so much eleven years ago - they were there and rallied around me. I thank God for them. I do what I do well, and some things I do not quite so well, to praise God and serve him through this community.
Sadly, this community is being broken up. It's happening because statistics and measurements indicate the community is no longer viable or sustainable, and there is nobody to spare to guide and spark sustainability, no resource available to breathe life into it. We're supposed to be consoled through the words of Christ through St. John: "Do not let your hearts be troubled...in My Father's house there are many dwelling places" (John 14:1-2a), a passage read at funerals. Hey, we are not yet dead! (Monty Python, Spamalot)
The Church exists so that people can thrive and grow spiritually by building community. When you revert to statistics alone to prove stability or lack thereof, I believe you take God and Christ out of the picture. Nothing can thrive without that divine presence, that journey together to make life better for the many and not the few. Does the Church have ALL the answers? In my innocent youth I thought so. I know now that it doesn't. I mean, Jesus reminds us that all who remain faithful to his word, mission and ministry will find and build community and peace. But you can't measure it in the long or short term. Pope Francis has cautioned that relying on too many things of this earth - those things measured by trends and statistics - can lead us to stagnation and instability. That mindset turns community into another disposable asset of what I call the "Church Incorporated", and a disastrous outcome is at the end of that road.
The Church's Number One priority is to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Her assets are not in how many attend or how much revenue is generated year-over-year, but in the faithfulness of her members who get the work done. They build the community by attending to the sick, feeding the hungry (physically and spiritually), consoling the sorrowful, and welcoming the stranger in their midst. They serve each other by acknowledging God's glory in prayer, art, and music; by setting a holy example for their children and neighbors. During the Roman persecution of the 3rd Century, when Pope St. Sixtus II was martyred, his Deacon, St. Laurence, was summoned by the Roman magistrate and ordered to surrender the "treasure of the Church", he liquidated the material assets, gave the proceeds to the poor, and presented those poor as the Church's treasure, which indeed they were. He understood that the Church was the house of God for the People of God and knew what the business model was - just as Christ had outlined it in the Gospels.
Jesus promised St. Peter (who was far from sainthood at the time) that his Church would stand firm. Peter would have an integral role in building the early Christian community, as would St. Paul and all who would follow them...including those struggling to maintain community in the world today, including me. I pray God continue to sustain us in our fight to maintain our identity as a community, faithful in Christ; wherever this takes us, be it where we are, or five blocks or 500 miles away, or half a world away.
That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it. You might find some further support in the 1990 Christian anthem, For the Sake of the Call by Steven Curtis Chapman. I know I did, every time I questioned my reasoning over living out my vocation. (Look it up on YouTube.)
Until we meet again, may God be with you, and may God have mercy on us all...
+the Phoenix
