One of the key issues in our church today is that we are disconnected. Regardless of whether the church is full or its empty on a Sunday, most of the attendees hardly say a word to the people next to each other.
Much of St. Paul’s epistles are spent documenting the growth and life of the Church. He is very specific to comment on the community of the faithful. In St Paul’s writings, it is clear that the growth of the early Church was very deliberate, it was filled with action and purpose, with a vision of uniting in faith and sharing the praise of God.
This is how the early Church lived, in Acts 2:44-47 Paul writes: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
In the last few months, I have made a bit more of an effort to meet a few people at my parish. Some have been a tipoff from other friends of people to look out for, others people who I have crossed paths with once upon a time. Some of these people I have seen many times over the years, but never actually spoken to. Others have been there all along, but I have never even noticed. Either way, this is clearly not good enough.
Many of these people are living a Church life of anonymity. They live in the unknown, where they have no means to live their faith out with other Christians, nor do they have the opportunity to share their lives with others. How could we live like the early Christian church, when we know nothing about the person sitting in the pew next to us?
If we are to realize our potential as a Church, we must bring the faithful out of the shadows. This is not just those not going to church, it is also those who attend each Sunday, but are not actively engaged and living the reality and fullness of the faith. The signs and indicators are there. They may turn up late, hide in the corner or the back, leave after communion or exit without even looking at another person, and these are included in the minority that are considered as ‘practicing Catholics’.
There are many things in the world of which we as Christians have limited control over that is affecting the way in which people perceive the Church. Commonly we hear lies and misrepresentations of the Church by outlets such as the media, educational institutions, internet forums, celebrities, politicians, other religious beliefs and from within the church itself. Despite lofty ambitions and good intentions, there is limited opportunity for most individuals to do much about this.
However the decision to reach out to our neighbour from within the Church is completely within our power. There is nothing but fear that stops us from reaching out to our neighbour, and bring light the fullness of the Catholic faith. There is an abundant joy in sharing the love of God with another. It is so rare among Catholics that we smile and rejoice in the life that we have been given.
This is what Jesus saw in humanity when He called on them to share Christ with the world. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
The engagement with the anonymous Church is purposeful and deliberate. It requires us to make a decision to reach out to someone each week. Many people we see at church do it as a routine, with varying degrees of why they are there. We are working on a scale of a cultural or habitual practice to a deep and engaged faith, and many, many people in between.
The disruption to this is us: the words of the Mass are predominantly consistent, the message has not changed for centuries. It is for us as missionaries to go out and disrupt the normalcy of the faith and reinvigorate it through God within us. When we reach out to people in our church, we are unveiling the face of the church and representing Christ to people in a real and personal way. The distant God becomes present and comes alive through human interaction. It creates an opportunity for the faithful to join in celebration and praise of God in a meaningful way.
It is our decision to bring the Church to life. It is time for us to raise the veil of anonymity and bring to light the love of Christ. “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14). It is within our power to take Christ to the world. Let us rise, for we can choose to live this way: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).
7 thoughts on “The End of the Anonymous Church”
The fact that the Australia experience is identical to the US in this regard is significant. Community is gone because of macro shifts that took centuries to happen. Insurance against life’s setbacks now is not found in other Catholics ….for house fires, health, car and sudden poverty….it’s in insurance companies and in Government help for the impoverished which issued out of religion.
In the first church days, security was in each other. The Amish and Hutterites still depend on each other as in Acts but they also have contributed nothing to advances in health, communications, and transportation. If your mom’s life is saved by an ambulance and modern medicine, the Amish never helped. If Hitler failed to conquer Europe, the Amish never helped with the life risking part.
Yet those are the only Christians who were able to maintain the initial Christian interdependent culture which we get glimpses of in our lives during a great storm that knocks all power out in an area. Then we meet our neighbors from five doors down as we ask them….”where did you get that cup of coffee?”
If an Amish house burns down, they all get together and build a new one for that family. If ours burns down, we call the insurance company and no one in the pews is inconvenienced a bit…if they ever knew that our house burned down in the larger cities ( they would know in small towns).
What’s the solution? I have no idea. Many of us have helped many poor people all our life but never met them because we did much of it both through alms and taxes. I did intimate work with the poor for years which is irreplaceable in the spiritual realm… but a multi millionaire giving a million dollars a year may have accomplished much more on the relieving poverty level and never went near the poor.
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When I returned to the Church 10 years ago, parishioners invited me to brunch each week.
They invited me to films and concerts, into their lives. When I invited them, they accepted. None of them knew that I had an intensely traumatic past. They simply invited everyone and befriended everyone. It broke my heart in the best possible way.
Currently, I’m writing a book, Loved As If, about the healing power of Christian community. When I thought the excruciating pain I carried was my allotted cross, Christ used 20 – 25 Catholics and harrowed the hell others had cast me into and set me free. It all began with, “Would you like to join us for brunch?” And continued when I moved to another city and was immediately adopted by parishioners in my new parish. http://lovedasif.com/
this is just the thing that I love to see. my faith journey was borne of a couple of guys i nthe parish inviting me over for a beer and just chatting about anything, please let me know when this book is ready, because i would love to hear more of your story.
thanks, will do.
This disconnect I remember from my childhood in the 1950s. I am an Anglican priest who wasi raised Roman Catholic. Recently I applied for re-entry into Rome via the Ordinariate. I find myself subsequently accused by the Ordinariate of “leaving” the Church. However, I cannot get a handle on what I might have left. No one talked to me back then. No one helped me when I was down back then. No one said a word to me about anything.
Adam was with God in the Garden yet God said “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Even in the presence of God, we need the fellowship of others like ourselves and God in His wisdom provided for that.
The Body of Christ should provide for fellowship as well.