Lord, grant me a heart that includes — not excludes — the unchurched and the disengaged - Daily Reflections November 21,2014

A HOUSE OF PRAYER, NO LESS!

 

Life now is almost like a perpetual balancing act. There is the need to safeguard the sacred nature of the place of worship — the physical church — and the corresponding need to uphold solemnity and proper liturgical decorum of both the clergy and the laity. But at the same time, there is the need for our places of worship to be as welcoming as possible in order to attract those who are not among the so-called “dynamic Catholics” but who are disengaged, not totally unchurched, but not quite involved either.

       The need to make the liturgy alive, appealing and attractive to these “seasonal Catholics” can take the focus away from being “prim and proper” (read: orthodox and solemn) in the way we celebrate liturgy. Move too far toward the popular and the mundane and one offends the sensibilities of those who have decided to stay on the side of the solemn and the sublime.

       Whatever position we are in, there is no doubt that there have been abuses and excesses on both sides. Somewhere in between the two extremes lies the golden mean, that which does not leave a bitter aftertaste and produces rancor even among those who claim to be staunch Catholics.

       The two camps who differ in style and approach, I would like to think, are really one in their aim and goal — the very same goal that led the Lord to take up the cudgels for God and proceed to drive out the sellers in the temple. Those who want the liturgy to be chic and popular, on the one hand, and those who insist on solemnity and seriousness, on the other, really have evangelization in mind, to draw people to the Church, not away from it.

       There is a point, however, when even evangelizers need to draw the line. There is a point, too, when talk about God’s will, that tastes sweet initially, turns out to be sour in the belly when opposition begins to take shape.

       The Lord must have faced stiff opposition from those who turned the temple into a cathedral of commerce. “My house shall be a house of prayer!” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: How welcoming are you to the unchurched?

 

Lord, grant me a heart that includes — not excludes — the unchurched and the disengaged.

 

May my life’s witness draw them closer to You.