NOT GETTING FED
There is a notion that is getting to be pretty common, repeated as an excuse by people who are abandoning their Catholic faith, that attending the Mass is boring. It might be expressed as “I don’t get fed there.” They get more ’stimulation’ at some non-Catholic church where they get stimulated with big TV screens, lively shouting music, fellowship, worldly preaching. coffee and donuts.
Serious Catholics need to get into action. figuring out ways that to make local churches more friendly and warm. Sitting in the pew staring straight ahead, as at a movie, doesn’t get it. One could look around and get a feeling for the congregation, the people of God joined together in unity. One could step up the efforts to have people greeted with a friendly smile as they enter. Or perhaps stopping and chatting with little groups of folks after Mass, helping to make them glad they came and shared in a spiritual happening. Take an interest in the work of the liturgy committee so that the meaning of what transpires is fresh in the mind. Add some life and happiness, so that our people don’t feel inclined to wander off to other denominations looking for entertainment. That’s not what church is all about! Come up with additional ideas, and share them with parish leaders.
Many people identify themselves as Catholics but don’t fully follow the ways of the Church or even totally exclude it from their lives. Maybe those with enough interest to go off to some other church looking for spiritual stimulation are in a better place than the Cafeteria Catholics and the stay-at-homes. Neither course, to leave the Church and shop around for a more exciting venue, as is so common in the U.S., or to have bored and indifferent Catholics in name only, as I have heard is common in Poland, is desirable. In either case, Catholicism is the loser. Or is it that they feel the Church requires too much of them?
