Why go to mass?

Hello world-wide-web, May God bless you and keep you, always. In Jesus' name. Amen. I've been listening to a CD of a mission St. Joseph did last year, during Lent, I think, with Fr. Dennis Corrado. I want to share with you Father's reasons for attending church: 1. It's not good to be alone. Scripture has already told us. It's unnatural to be alone. We naturally seek companionship. Intimacy. Friendship. Support. It's in us. To be spiritual requires that we not do it alone. We wake up the consciousness of our souls, of who we are, not as an independent ego; it is natural for us to find ourselves in union with others. So that when people say, "I'm spiritual," it often means they are unwilling to make a commitment to be in communion with others, in some form. Some expression of unity. 2. Why should we go to church? So that we can take our place with other humans in humility. There are very few places in our lives where we can come in anonymously and silently and sit in the company of other human beings and realize our connection, humbly. I'm one person and I wish I could do more good than I can do. But when I sit in your company, I feel the power of our unity and possibility...I am only one out of 6 billion, but we belong to an international institution that stands for something powerful. Flaws and all, mistakes and all, sins and all, and I want my place to remind me of how small and insignificant I am, but how important I am in the company of others. To take my place, where I belong, with my fellow humans. 3. Because GOD calls me here. I am convinced that we are called here. That is a choice, but it's also a call. Our scriptures tell us that GOD knows us better than we know ourselves. What does the scripture say? Before I knit you in your mother's womb, I knew you. It's a great thing, is it not, to be known? That's why we Catholics do not believe in reincarnation. We are unique. Uniquely loved, uniquely identified and uniquely called. We are called to be a part of a community. Called by name. Are we free to reject the call? Of course. And you know, a lot of women, if there are single women here who are trying to figure out if they can be in relationship, know that one of the hardest thing to get guys to do today is to make a commitment. Nobody wants to make a commitment. You know there's this kind of prolonged adolescence that we have in our society now. That is not, I think, particularly healthy. Stepping up to the plate and accepting responsibility and making commitment is a very healthy spiritual thing. It makes you say, "I'm an adult. I'm not a kid." I'm not excluding fun, hah?, but I believe one of the worst things about organized religion is that it is always so sad. Church is not entertainment. We learn through humor more than we learn through tears, but, answer the call. Listen for the call to be part of a believing community. 4. When we were little my father used to hit us when we were bad and since we were faster than him, we would run out of the house and he'd say, "You can run, but you can't hide." Well that's a message for all of us, we're all running, where are we hiding? How do you hide from GOD? Who knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb? So why are we trying? Why aren't we listening? Why aren't we saying yes? 'Because pride goeth before the fall.' Because we think that if we make our own choices, if we do what we want, when we want and how we want, we'll be happier. Well so did Adam and Eve thought that. And they wound up with fig leaves. (laughter) 5. Spirituality is not a private search for what is highest in ones' self, but it is a communal search for the face of GOD. In other words: worship divinity and link to humanity. Now where have we heard this in another form in the scriptures? Love GOD. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the key. We are searching for the face of GOD. However you call GOD. I'm not so concerned in talking about this topic, that we identify ourselves by a particular religion. Although I am proud of Roman Catholicism, I'm committed to Roman Catholicism, and I want it to be as good as it can be. There are many, many paths to GOD. I believe that if I'm going to link with humanity, I have to seek something greater than myself. One of my ancestors in the faith used to say that, "The search for GOD, for divinity, begins within the heart," but it doesn't stay there. It goes beyond the heart. You should belong to a church because GOD is calling us here. 6. You want to go to church because church, religion, helps to dispel fantasies about ourselves. We all have them, don't we? We all have an image of ourselves, which is made-up. We never see ourselves for what we are, do we? We often rely on others to give us an image. Church is a place where alot of the fantasies actually get dispelled because we're challenged not only by the word of GOD, but by the diversity and differences among us. We see ourselves more clearly when we're in the company of people who are not exactly like us. 7. I think the mistake of a lot of younger people is that they don't think that we have dreams, as you age, and that's another reason why we come to church. To dream. To dream with others. Our religious tradition honors dreams. Joseph takes Mary to his side because he dreamed it. He's told in a dream 'trust, trust, trust,' and he believes the angel in his dream. The Magi avoid murder by Herod because they're told in a dream to go home by another way. To dream alone often makes the dreams stay dreams. To dream with others can make them become a reality. That we dream that there will be a world of justice, we dream that there will be a world of peace; we dream that there will be compassion for those who have less, we dream that the poor will be honored; that's our corporate dream. If we dreamed it alone, we probably could do very little, but dreaming it in union with one another, gives us a strength to make that dream a reality, and also that GOD will speak to us in dreams. 8. The language of liturgy is a heightened language. It's not supposed to be ordinary language. So that when you come into church, the language that we use is poetic; it's supposed to make us in a certain sense, leave that familiar behind and enter into a different level of reality. To encourage us to think more deeply. And you know life is so fast, and so cruel and so unfair, that one needs a place of rest in which to dream. I'm sure that as I'm speaking your mind is going from place to place, and I might say a particular word that leads you to a particular thought that leads you down a path, all of that has an energy which will effect both of us, all of us. 9. I want us to go to church because tens of thousands of people before us believed in it. The saints; do you think that all of the thousands of people that believed in our religious tradition were fooled? Were they fooled? Were they wasting their time? That some how or other there was this great big magic show that they bought into? My parents inspired me to live this tradition. Because they lived honorable lives. And because they were honorable, I wanted to be honorable, and I felt that they learned their honorableness through their affiliation in church. Not entirely, but it shaped their moral values which then shaped mine, and to continue to be committed to that, allowed me to be part of a long procession of faithful people. That convinces me that even when I have doubts about the leadership of the church, and how they express it, and I've told you I have plenty of problems with the way the church talks; I have plenty of problems with the way they don't seem to be responsive to our needs. There are statements that they make that I think, "Oh GOD, why don't they shut up?" BUT I also realize that my departure will diminish the possibility of it changing. 10. I say to my cousins who don't go to church, "WE MISS YOU! Your cynicism, your distrust, your anger, your fear, is needed in the community. So that those can be used to challenge those either in leadership or in the pews. How else are we going to get better, unless we have the whole mess together? And if everyone who is hurt or a disbeliever, or has questions, books out the door, how will those questions ever be addressed? We need the presence of people who are vital enough to say, "I believe, help my unbelief." I'll be at the 5 o'clock mass with my mom on Saturday. Look for us...we'd love for you to pray with us, join in the procession... "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Theresa