Shoved to Them
A friend of mine whose husband is in the Air Force tells me all the time, “If it weren’t for that whole ‘Fullness of Truth’ thing, I’d probably be a Methodist by now. The Catholic churches in every place we are stationed are just so unfriendly and unwelcoming.”
I used to think that she was simply unfortunate in the towns where they’d been sent.(Towns in Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, and Rhode Island.) I’d never seen a parish as unfriendly as she described. Then we moved to Texas.
Texas is a place which is renowned for the friendliness of her people. Those people must be going to other churches. I’m sad to say that they must be Protestant because the Catholics aren’t interested in new members. In fact, as we’ve seen the last few weeks, they Catholic churches around here seem all full up on parishioners.
The thing is, I don’t think it’s just this small Texas town, or the towns where my friends have moved in the last few years. I think it’s the culture within our churches. I think we have a friendliness problem in the Catholic Church.
As Christians, we are called to be welcoming to the alien in our midst. I know because I’ve heard plenty of social justice speeches in Catholic parishes about being welcoming to the aliens arriving from south of the border. We are reminded to open our wallets, lives, hearts, churches and businesses to those who are in this country seeking a better life. Why is it that we’re never told to give the same courtesy to the aliens from other towns, states, neighborhoods? Why is it that we are not reminded that our faith requires us to make the alien feel welcome and that alien simply means someone we don’t know?
It was during a discussion this weekend with my brother (a Baptist minister) that I was reminded that the people we have encountered have not simply been unkind or unwelcoming, but they were being un-Christian. It was a moment of shock when he said that to me. I’m not accustomed to thinking in those terms, but I should. Not am I being kind, generous, a good person, but am I behaving in a Christ-like manner to every person who I may encounter throughout the day? Am I making an effort to be the light of Christ I am called to be?
I may be the only Gospel some people ever read. Is the Christ I teach them about a person they’d like to get to know?
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