Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

Based story told to me by a fellow deacon.

While shopping at a local Buy More I ran into a parishioner I hadn’t seen in a while. He confided in me that he started attending one of the local “evangelical” churches and was no longer coming to St. Oran’s. I was saddened by the news and asked if he would tell me more about it over a cup of coffee. I asked him why he left the Catholic Church for one of the new, made-up churches. He said that he enjoyed the Sunday service at his new church much better. They had awesome, thirty-minute sermons that left him feeling uplifted. They had much better music, nicer people, and a communion service that everyone was invited to. He was impressed with the number of baptisms they did as part of the service in a large, inflatable pool. He felt as if everyone was genuinely connected and part of a family.

I then went on to ask him what he didn’t like at St. Oran’s that got him to start looking elsewhere. Among his list of complaints were:

1: He was tired of not being able to understand the priests. One of the priests at St. Oran’s is from India and the other was from Indonesia. Both spoke in heavy accents that could be difficult for people outside of that culture to understand.

2: He was tired of politically motivated homilies. One of the priests was extremely conservative. Another extremely liberal. They often had conflicting and opposite messages.

3: He was tired of the poor music and off-key singing. Many of the hymns they were singing were too contemporary. He especially didn’t like the change to what he referred to as the “My Little Pony” gloria. He didn’t like how some of the organists played very fast, as if Mass were a race, and others played as if they were stuck in the mud in Georgia. The final straw came when an aging hippy started accompanying the piano with his guitar. His playing was decent enough but he upped the amp to the point that his playing was all you could hear, even overpowering the cantor.

4: The final nail in the coffin was when they skipped the homily one Sunday to roll out large TVs to play a video begging people to donate to the annual Catholic Appeal to support the diocese in their ministries. Then a second collection was taken to kick off the parish’s support for the appeal. He felt as if money for the diocese was more important than understanding God’s word.

As I listened to him, I found myself agreeing with most of everything he said. These are some of the complaints, including others, that I hear from parishioners all of the time. One of the joys of being a deacon is that we have one foot in the world of the laity and the other in the world of the clergy. A lot of times people feel more comfortable opening up to us than they do the pastor. We’re expected to carry their message up the line.

At the same time, I couldn’t but feel sorry for this man. What he didn’t realize is that he walked away from Jesus to feel more comfortable with himself. That is exactly what the devil wants everyone to do; turn away from the Church Jesus created to embrace a church a man created because he disagrees with Jesus. That is exactly what one does when they leave the Catholic Church.

I asked him if he understood that the communion service he takes part in was only the sharing of a meal between those present. It has no spiritual significance at all and it had no saving power. In essence, it was no different that the two of us enjoying a cup of coffee together. It is a good, shared experience, but nothing more.

Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus himself. He is truly present in the Eucharist. Jesus feeds us with his own body every time we receive the Eucharist. We believe this because Jesus’ own words tell us of this reality. When we receive communion worthily we not only enter into to communion with God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but we enter into communion with all of God’s family consisting of every person who is in friendship with God from the very beginning of time until the end of time. The Eucharist is never just you and Jesus. It is the most powerful thing a person can do in heaven or on earth. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. It is the only reason to become Catholic. It is the only reason to return to the Catholic faith. Without the Eucharist, so-called faith is meaningless.

Then I asked him if he realized that he walked away from Jesus to seek an earthly experience he preferred over being in the presence of God. That is exactly what he did when he left St. Oran’s for Reverend Jimbo’s First Congregational Evangelical Church of God.

If what the Catholic Church teaches is true, no other faith will suffice. If what the Catholic Church teaches is not true, no Christian faith will suffice. All denominations have their origins in the Catholic Church and you don’t start with something false and suddenly become true. You don’t start with something true and become truer.

Today’s second reading, Romans 8:35, 37-39, should speak loudly to all of us. If we were to reword it a little to speak directly to us today it might read something like –

Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will bad music, or poor homilies, or sinful pastors, or calls to charity,
or ugly churches, or rude parishioners, or the call to live holy lives?
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Of how I wish more people felt this way about the church. We don’t leave Jesus because of Judas. We don’t leave Jesus because of tone-deaf people singing poorly chosen songs. We certainly don’t leave Jesus because of poor or politically motivated homilies. If you find yourself in a parish that you just cannot stand and you must church shop, seek out a better Catholic Church. Don’t give up everything that matters most in life for the things that don’t matter at all.

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