A friend of mine whose husband is in the Air Force tells me all the time, \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for that whole \u2018Fullness of Truth\u2019 thing, I\u2019d probably be a Methodist by now. The Catholic churches in every place we are stationed are just so unfriendly and unwelcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
I used to think that she was simply unfortunate in the towns where they\u2019d been sent.(Towns in Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, and Rhode Island.)\u00a0 I\u2019d never seen a parish as unfriendly as she described.\u00a0 Then we moved to Texas.<\/p>\n
Texas is a place which is renowned for the friendliness of her people.\u00a0 Those people must be going to other churches.\u00a0 I\u2019m sad to say that they must be Protestant because the Catholics aren\u2019t interested in new members.\u00a0 In fact, as we\u2019ve seen the last few weeks, they Catholic churches around here seem all full up on parishioners.<\/p>\n
The thing is, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just this small Texas town, or the towns where my friends have moved in the last few years.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s the culture within our churches.\u00a0 I think we have a friendliness problem in the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
As Christians, we are called to be welcoming to the alien in our midst.\u00a0 I know because I\u2019ve heard plenty of social justice speeches in Catholic parishes about being welcoming to the aliens arriving from south of the border.\u00a0 We are reminded to open our wallets, lives, hearts, churches and businesses to those who are in this country seeking a better life.\u00a0 Why is it that we\u2019re never told to give the same courtesy to the aliens from other towns, states, neighborhoods?\u00a0 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\u2019t know?<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 I\u2019m not accustomed to thinking in those terms, but I should.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Am I making an effort to be the light of Christ I am called to be?<\/p>\n
I may be the only Gospel some people ever read.\u00a0 Is the Christ I teach them about a person they\u2019d like to get to know?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A friend of mine whose husband is in the Air Force tells me all the time, \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for that whole \u2018Fullness of Truth\u2019 thing, I\u2019d probably be a Methodist by now. The Catholic churches in every place we are stationed are just so unfriendly and unwelcoming.\u201d I used to think that she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n