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August 26, 2021I’ve always thought the expression “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” should be changed. It makes more sense to me to say “you can’t eat your cake and have it too” because once you eat it, you don’t have it anymore.
While I wait for my letter to whoever is in charge of such things to be answered, the fact remains, we can’t. We can’t be a church that is using a ton of space impractically and still be fiscally responsible, we can’t appeal to new people by doing what has always been done, we can’t go forward by going back.
In our MQOA Sunday conversation this week, we dug into the idea that for some of us, there is real comfort in sticking with what we’ve known, staying with what we’re familiar with. And although Jesus doesn’t tell the people in Sunday’s Gospel (or us) that whatever happened before was bad just because it’s from the past, He does challenge us to keep adapting, keep growing, keep working to move forward.
I heard a speaker once ask a primarily-elderly congregation, “how many of you wish your children were still coming to Mass here?” Almost all of them raised their hands. Then he asked, “how many of you are willing to go along with changing the style of music at Mass, in order to help that happen?” There was a startled silence in the room as they thought it over.
These Covid Times have meant for all of us that we need to decide and prioritize what is essential. What brings us to Mass? What is vital there, and what can be discarded, at least for now, so that we can focus on the essentials? Are the essentials important enough to us to sacrifice our comfort and familiarity?
It’s something we all must pray about, and act on in our daily faith lives. The year ahead promises nothing but more and more situations where we’ll have to be ready to pivot, whether we want to or not. But as a parish, we must keep our eyes fixed squarely on Jesus, our ears open to the urging of the Holy Spirit. That’s how we’ll know we’re doing what God calls us to do.
