 Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington
"Why Church?"by Bishop William S. Skylstad (From the April 29, 2004 edition of the Inland Register)
This year in my homily for the sacraments of initiation I have been stressing how the church in the last few decades has striven to make these sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist more meaningful in our lives. In the last 100 years the age for First Communion has dropped, and since the Second Vatican Council, the fasting rules have been relaxed so that now almost everyone at the later Sunday morning Masses goes to communion. That wasn’t true 50 years ago. In a fast paced world with images and cultural pressures so many and varied, it is important to remember what is important, valuable and life-giving. Certainly one of those values is faith community and a sense of celebration. In his popular book The Holy Longing, Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser speaks about this need for community and the reasons why the faith community of church should be so important to us. He says that community is a constitutive element within the Christian search. In other words, a faith community provides an essential part of our finding the presence of God in our lives, an essential part of relating to Jesus. In the Easter Sunday Gospel this year John the evangelist speaks of the “other disciple” who, along with Peter, witnesses the empty tomb. In a sense, we are all the “other disciples” with and for one another. We support one another in the common search for meaning and belief. Father Rolheiser tells us that whenever we meet the presence of God within community, we will not meet it in its purest form. I don’t think any of us needs proof of that, given our human experience. The Church, while divine, is also human. We are human. The demand for perfection as a clear sign of a true community is unrealistic. The saving and redeeming power of God continues to be evident in the community of faith, sometimes spectacularly so. He then moves into nine specific reasons why we need to go to church: 1. We need to go to church because it is not good to be alone. This particular reason also stresses that we all need to be communities of hospitality and welcome. 2. We can take our rightful place humbly with the family of humanity. God made us all his people. We have been made in the image and likeness of God, no one excepted. The church’s body of teaching about the dignity and worth of the human person has increased dramatically, especially since the Second Vatican Council. 3. God calls us to community. The Holy Spirit is not a piece of private property. In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul emphasizes this point when he says: “Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force.” 4. The Church helps us to dispel fantasies about ourselves. It is not the Church’s imperfection that is too painful to deal with, but rather, my own fantasies about my own goodness. No one deflates us more than our own families. They know us like a book. The same is true of the Church. 5. The tradition of 10,000 saints tells us so. One of the great blessings in our Roman Catholic tradition is the focus and emphasis on some very holy people who have gone before us, formally declared saints by the church. I’m sure there are many undeclared saints in our tradition, including those who are still living, who give a wonderful and inspiring witness to holiness of life. 6. In a church community, we help others carry their pathologies, and we in turn are assisted as we carry our own. All of us have limitations, some of us, more so than others. We should and must be able to find support and assistance in carrying those burdens. 7. We can dream with others. Community assists us in focusing our vision of what we can become as individuals and as a faith family. A community of faith can offer positive hope. 8. In Church we can practice for heaven. The fullness of the kingdom of God is yet to come. Community can give us a lot of affirmation and fulfillment. Yet, we know that the here and now is just a glimpse of what is yet to come. 9. And finally, we need Church for the pure joy of it. We have just concluded the special celebrations of Holy week and Easter. Again and again I hear comments of how parishioners have truly enjoyed and have been inspired by the liturgies of the Church. A few days ago, I came across a quote from Father Louis Evely, a popular spiritual writer in the ’60s. Even then he was saying that we have become hardened, indifferent, and rebellious to joy. The older brother in the story of the prodigal son is a classic example of someone resistant to joy. The spirit of joy is a good mark of a well-integrated spirituality. All of these reasons provide ample food for reflection of what church means for us. May we all grow in appreciation of this great gift to each of us through all of us. Much peace and many blessings this Easter season.
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The Lenten season, the celebration of the Triduum, and the Easter season always provide the wonderful opportunity
of coming together as Church. This time of the year for me personally is filled with Confirmation and celebrations of First
Eucharist. Parish communities and extended families come together for these special and memorable moments. Sacraments
continue to have their power and presence when we gather as Church to celebrate them. This is a very serious time for the
young people as they come forward and are initiated fully into the Church.