One part of our Church life that does not receive enough attention is the parish community itself. We want to stress that the mystery of Christ must be lived out and witnessed in the individual lives of believers. If you have been baptized into Christ, you have been missioned to become the living extension of the person and mission of Jesus. The mystery of Christ must be realized in a personal way: it must come to life in the way you live your life.
The local parish community must also share and live this mystery. The people must become the living extension and witness to Jesus Christ. Being a living witness was never meant to be limited to the parish priest.
The first area that we want to focus on is the people as a praying people. These are people who definitely make the effort to be attentive to, share in and are nourished by their prayer life. These are people who are in tune with the movements of the Holy Spirit. Our adult children can look at us and say, “Now these people do listen to the Word of God. These people are filled with praise and thanksgiving for the work of God.”
Now we, their adult children, may be absent from a prayer life, but we can see that prayer and attentiveness to the Holy Spirit is very nourishing for our parents. The local parish is a nourishing source of God presence, shared and lived together.
Welcoming the stranger was a significant part of the ministry of Jesus. In our local parishes we want to help everyone be sensitive to the new comers. We do not limit this to the ushers whowelcome people but rather we look around to see who is new (they may be new to me!) and go over and welcome them. Jesus stands right in our midst as a stranger – and you welcomed me!
In our very mobile society we need to stress the ministry of welcome for all parishioners. People who are long-time members of the parish community will say, “But I know everyone here!” This is not true because their familiarity with their fellow parishioners can blind them from seeing who is new and unknown to others.
We must examine how alert we are to differences. How much of an effort do we make to getting to know parishioners who are different ethnically, racially, economically or age-wise? How often do we ask someone who might be different to come “\’and help me set the tables or serve the coffee?’ Reaching out means helping people who might be different from the majority to help them fit in and feel they belong.
If we are a long-standing parish community we need to be alerted to what we are meant to be. How we live, treat each other, reach out to the strangers ae all meant to be living signs of the presence of Christ. A parish community is never a brick building that once erected is meant to stand unmoveable for a century. A parish community is like your tomato plants in the garden. They need to be tended to, worked with, pruned in order to bear a harvest of tomatoes.
So too, our parish community needs to work hard to become the living witness of Jesus Christ.
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