How Do I Serve the Church?

As the summer starts to wind down, I have begun to notice that there are a lot of goodbye parties on my calendar.  One is for my brother who is leaving Pittsburgh to join the Franciscans Friars TOR one is for a college friend who is joining the Franciscan Sisters TOR, one is for my other brother who is heading off to major seminary in Washington D.C. and still another for a friend doing a missionary year with Saint Paul’s Outreach. It is bittersweet to see my friends and family leave town, but I know that this is God’s mission for them. Their yes to God’s call challenges me to ponder about God’s mission for me at home.

The idea that the laity has a mission from God is something that is very underdeveloped in the Church. Often if we see a single lay person who is living a holy life, we encourage them to become a priest or a sister. It is as if there is this unspoken rule that we should leave the holy stuff to the priests, brothers and sisters, and the laity have no obligation to evangelize. However, this is not the case. At the end of every Mass, we as a Church are commissioned to go out and proclaim the Gospel to those we meet.

Recently, while I was at a Theology on Tap, the speaker exhorted the audience to be missionaries in their own parishes. He challenged us to start the type of outreach that we would like to see. Instead of waiting for the parish to start young adult outreach, a service group, a Theology on Tap, etc., we, the laity of the Church, need to start these initiatives in the parishes ourselves.

Now, there are many needs in our communities.  How do we know which things to start? Well, first we need to pray and ask God for His help. Spending some quality time in Eucharistic adoration is a great place to quiet our hearts and hear the voice of God in our lives.  In addition, I recommend asking your spiritual director, parish priest, or other holy people about your idea to fulfill God’s mission in the Church and see what they have to say.

After you have prayed about your mission and received confirmation from others about your idea to serve the Church, just go out and do what God calls you to do. I think we often get so wrapped up in trying to plan things perfectly that we sometimes are paralyzed into not doing anything at all. We need to have courage to start new initiatives and try new things to bring people to Christ. Yet as we start these new things, we need to keep our focus on Christ.

One of the traps that we can fall into when we try to serve God is to make whatever group, project, event or idea that we are involved with the end all and be all. As we try to follow God’s will, we need to do so in humility, knowing that apart from God, we can do nothing. If we rely on our own talents, strength, and abilities, we are not going to be able to fulfill God’s mission in our local churches, recalling that “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain those who build.” (Psalm 127:1)

So the harvest is abundant and the laborers are indeed few, yet let us as the laity of the Church go into the harvest with our priests, brothers and sisters to serve our communities and bring souls to Christ.

Bob Waruszewski

Bob Waruszewski

Bob Waruszewski is a cradle Catholic from Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from St. Vincent College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. Currently he works in the energy industry in the Pittsburgh and is enjoying life as a married man and father to his one year old daughter. He enjoys hiking, reading a good book and competing on the athletic field.

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