Thursday, October 13,
2016
Random thoughts continue:
Churches
We don't labor to build
our churches and beautify our liturgy because we wish to erect monuments to our
own glory. We build them because we need
places of safety, apart from the world, where we can be immersed in the beauty
and the purity which we long for, so
that we can be cleansed and healed before being sent back into the world.
Every time I enter
a beautiful church I have an opportunity to make a journey: A journey into
beauty. A cleansing. A restoration. A renewal. A rediscovery of the beauty of
things that ordinary life often tends to disregard or devalue. You see that
very often with people who walk into a church and have no ability to savor. So
often they walk through, demonstrating that they also have no sense of the
sacred, no openness to beauty, no ability to perceive that where they are is in
some essential and mystical way so different than the malls they hurry through
several times a week. This is so sad. They are so impoverished.
I think that's why
it feels so good to come to church for Mass: Because the minute we walk through
those doors, there is no need to hide the truth: We walk through the doors of
this Church, every single time, carrying the grime, the guilt, the shame, the
wounds of our own sins. And it is assumed that such is the case. But at the
same time we realize that we have the opportunity to leave somehow changed.
Colossians 3:12
“Because you are
God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.” Holy and beloved. If we could only
think of ourselves that way. If we could only think of others that way,
especially those we find it most difficult to love.
Community
It
might be important to note that Thomas only met the Risen Lord when he was
together with his community
You are part of a
flock. You were never meant to make your way alone. That is why regular worship
and active membership in your faith community is essential to your
existence.
God sends people
into your life to help accomplish his purpose in you. So stop thinking you have
to do it all on your own.
There are certain
gifts from God that we cannot receive if we do not pray together. And there are
also certain gifts of God that simply cannot touch us, that simply are not
accessible to us if we are not part of the distribution system through which
they are passed along from one to another. Parents who bring their children to
church, who take an active role in their children's' religious education--those
parents receive grace, and help and insight--and also learn more about their
own inheritance, their own faith--for there is no better way to learn than to
teach. Those who sing at worship have holy texts and words engraved on their
souls, and carry those words with them throughout their lives. Those who
practice holy Stewardship find themselves touched by graces that they never
realized could be theirs back when the weekly offering was simply a token
minimum. Those who serve in the ministries find out just how rich their
inheritance is meant to be. Those who preach draw closer to the scriptures.
Those who study draw closer to God and to one another. Those who distribute
food and care to the needy realize just how rich they really are. Those who
give of time, treasures, talents, find those things increased in their own
lives. Those who begin to come to their church more frequently for prayer find
that the times of prayer become the richest times of their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment