COMING TO CHURCH -

COMING TO A  VISION  CENTER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Coming To Church - Coming To A Vision Center.”

With the number of Catholics who come to church in the 30 percentile, I’ve been asking myself, “Why would someone come to church?”

Answers … reasons: We always come to church. It’s a chance to thank God with others for blessings. It’s a moment to ask for help. Obligation. It’s the law. To stay out of sin. To give God the glory - not myself. I want to pray and sing and worship with others. I don’t like singing - so I go to the 7 AM Sunday morning Mass if possible - but I still want to go to church. I want to get to heaven and I believe the Mass helps. I would like some insights and some scripture. I need God in my life and this is one way that helps. I need Holy Communion - the Bread of Life - because Jesus is the center of my life. I need him to bring me into communion with God the Father and the Holy Spirit and all others.

With the number of Catholics who come to church in the 30 percentile, we better ask, “Why have so many dropped out?”

Answers … reasons: boredom. Loss of faith. The priest abuse. I was yelled at by a church person. Poor sermons. Too busy. Work. A divorce. A rejection. The Church left me.  Those who go to church are hypocrites. Politics.  My needs weren’t being met. I don’t know. I just slowly dropped out.

Then there are the somewhats and some timers. Some stay Catholic and show up at Christmas and Easter - funerals, weddings, first communions, baptisms, confirmations, once a monthers - now and theners. When asked their religion on a form at the hospital or what have you, they will always put down, “Catholic”. Some join other Christian groups. Some become Unitarians or Buddhists or sleep in on Sunday mornings or play golf or read The New York Times - Sunday Edition, especially doing the cross word puzzle with a good cup of  coffee or try this or that or what have you.

I’m here because I want to be here. I’m here because I want to worship with you as well as the whole church around the world this Sabbath. I’m here because I’ve been given the gift of faith. I’m here because my name is on the list for this 8:30 AM Mass.

Why are you here at Mass today?

TODAY’S READINGS

A person could hear today’s first reading from Jeremiah and say, “I’m here because coming to church helps me to travel on level roads - and as a result I stumble less - and God leads me to brooks of water - and satisfies my deepest thirsts.”

A person could hear today’s second reading from Hebrews and say, “I come to church because Jesus is my high priest - Jesus who knows weakness and the cross - and I too am called with everyone here by our baptism to be a priest along with Christ the High Priest and worship God Our Father together.”

A person could hear today’s gospel and say, “I too am blind and I want to see.”  In fact that’s about to be the main thrust of this sermon.

THIS WEEKEND

The title of my homily is, “Coming To Church - Coming To A Vision Center.”

Obviously as priest I’ve thought about Mass over and over and over again. I know of priests who lost their faith. I know of priests who have given up. Like you I need to pray and ask Christ to be my light and my salvation.

About 5 years ago I decided to write a book on the Mass. I finished it in about a year. It’s  303 pages typed - 14 pica - single space. It has  short paragraphs - short chapters. There 107 of them. It gave me more clarity in being a priest and in celebrating Mass. I sent it to 4 different publishers - and received 4 rejection letters. I’ve been there with rejection letters before. One of my books received a dozen rejection slips - and 13 was my lucky number.

People told me to self publish. I don’t want to do that - because one then has to self push - and all that. So that book is sitting there - gathering dust. Since then I have lined up 16 books - which I get to - not enough - but I read and reflect on them. It’s now almost 4 years later and my New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is to redo that book and try once again. I’m interested in seeing how my mind has changed and grown and reconsidered stuff about the Mass in the last 4 years. Since then we have the New Roman Missal and if I was really on the board I would have been ready with my book to time it with that push. However, I didn’t understand at the time what this new translation is about - and this Advent will be 1 year with it. I have some thoughts about that and will incorporate them into the redo - and that might be one more reason for rejection slips.

If you are listening, thank you for this opportunity for me to reconsider my thoughts about that book and the Mass.

I challenge you to rethink and reconsider why you come to Mass - what this 1 hour or 55 minutes means to you. I ask you to rethink and reconsider how you have grown through the years in your appreciation and your questions and your answers about the Mass.

VISION CENTER

I was talking with someone just yesterday about the Mass and the topic was just this: why do people come to Mass?

The answers we came up with were very simple. I come to thank God. I come to ask for help. I come to say I’m sorry for miscues and mistakes from last week. I come here to do this with my family and my parish.

This morning I read today’s readings with the prayer for a homily idea for this Mass.

The gospel answers my question very clearly.

The main character in today’s gospel is Bartimaeus. He screams out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

The crowd tells him to shut up.

He screamed even louder, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

Jesus stops and says, “Call him!”

The blind man hears some people say to him, “Take courage; Jesus is calling you.”

The blind man throws aside he cloak and comes to Jesus.

Jesus says to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man replies, “Master, I want to see!”

There it is: coming to church - coming to Jesus.

We come here to scream.

I always like to say, “The Church is a Crying Room.” That’s the title of Chapter 29 of my book on the Mass.

We come here to cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

We come here to hear Jesus say to us, “What do you want me to do for you?”

We come here to say to Jesus, “I want to see!”

When I redo my book I’ll have another chapter or put in it: The Church as a Vision Center.

We come here to have our vision improved. That’s one motive - that’s one reason - for coming to church. We come here for another insight into what life is all about.

We know people at work, we know neighbors, we know priests, we know family members, whom we consider deaf, dumb and blind. I don’t know if the following is true - but I’ll wonder about if it is. “Is the number one inner complaint that everyone in the world has: others don’t see something the way we see something?”

So we call them blind - as well as other less polite words.

Notice the words in today’s gospel has the pronoun “I” - not “he” or “she” or “they”.

Have pity on me - and Jesus help me to see.

If there is anything Jesus tries to do is to get us to see better - to see our neighbor on the road - to see our sister and brother and to forgive them - because they don’t know what they are doing. He constantly is frustrated with the Pharisees who were blind - wanting people to see them as the holy ones - but Jesus could see through their facades and he said - underneath was death and decay.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Coming To Church - Coming To A Vision Center.”

I said I’ve reflected a lot on the Mass and plan to do a lot more - till death do me part.

I’m challenging you to reflect upon your inner motives and reasons for being here - to see where you have come from - and I challenge you to scream out to Jesus - the High Priest - whom we heard about in today’s second reading - to Jesus who walks our roads as we heard in today’s gospel - and scream out to him that you want to see more and more why we are here in church - why we are here in this area of the world - and why we have the gift of life. Amen.