Newspaper Page Text
September 25,1980
PAGE 5
The Parish: What Makes Us Stay ?
BY FATHER PHILIP J. MURNION
Why do some people remain committed
to the church, while others leave it? Perhaps
one of the most important reasons people
stay in the church is that they find support
for this among people who are close to
them.
Families and individuals alike need to
find support among those they care about.
They need to be part of a group which
shares beliefs and commitments.
The last decade has witnessed a decline in
church participation in the United States. Of
course, every significant change in the
behavior of people attracts researchers. The
full explanation for the decline of
participation in churches is far from clear.
But some evidence has emerged.
Some research, including a study
conducted in New York, indicates that the
religious practice of families is a very
important factor in determining whether an
individual will remain active in the church.
When family members share the faith, they
seem to support each other in the faith. For
example, where one spouse drifts away from
the church, the other spouse and the
children often follow.
We need to share our faith and worship
with others with whom we have
relationships. This is why family worship
and family prayer is important. This is also
why parish ministry to families is so
important. When the people of a parish
understand the need that individual
members have for support, they find ways to
minister not only to the individual, but to
groups close to the individual, like the
individual’s family, as well.
Sociologist Peter Berger explains the need
people have for support by likening religious
people to a minority group. He argues that
being religious these days is like being a
member of a minority group because U.S.
culture so frequently belittles the
significance of religious belief.
Berger concludes that religious people
need opportunities for solidarity. That
conclusion is upheld by the studies which
indicate that where such solidarity is lacking,
people are more likely than otherwise to
become alienated from the church.
How, then, can parishes offer support to
their people? How can opportunities be
created in parishes for members to offer
support to each other?
In various ways, parishes today are trying
to give people a sense of belonging, a sense
of being individually known and welcomed.
They do so by offering opportunities for
parishioners to participate in parish life to
the extent their lives allow.
Some parishes have met great success by
inaugurating programs for people who are
experiencing special problems. These may be
programs for the divorced or the widowed,
for example.
Some parishes search for ways to help
people feel a solidarity with others through
discussion groups, Scripture study or family
ministry programs in which one family
serves another.
Sometimes people need opportunities to
express what their faith means to them. In
my experience, adult men, especially, will be
more active in their parishes if they have
participated in programs such as
Marriage Encounter or Cursillo
movements where they have been able to
express their faith openly. For there are
numerous pressures in society for men not
to be expressive at all, and especially not
about their faith.
Christians remain convinced that they are
united with each other through the Spirit of
God. But they need to cultivate this unity
through activities which express it as well.
Some say love will die if it is not
expressed. Being part of the church is being
part of a new love that has been shared with
us. This love will not live and grow unless
there are regular opportunities to express it
with others.
Why do people stay in the church?
Because they experience the call of God
with and through and in other people.
Why do people leave the church? Maybe,
because nobody seems to care whether they
stay or not.
Discussion
Points And Questions
1. Why does Father Philip Mumion think Catholics need support for
their faith and for church membership today?
2. What are some ways in which people in parishes can support each
other?
3. Why does Richard Lawless talk about the “eyes of faith?” Why do
you think he finds this such a helpful image?
4. Have you ever had the experience of learning to know a friend or
an acquaintance in a new way? How does this happen?
5. Father Castelot says that St. Paul’s contribution to Christian
theology is inestimable. Why?
6. The parish today is sometimes referred to as a family. In what
ways can a parish be like a family? Do you find this a valuable
comparison? Explain your answer.
Eyes Of Faith
BY RICHARD M. LAWLESS
“Looked at through the eyes of
faith . . .”
How many times have you heard that
expression in a homily? It is a strong phrase,
usually suggesting to listeners that things are
not always as they seem - especially if things
seem pretty bad. The challenge, of course, is
to have such eyes and such faith.
When we gather in parishes for Sunday
Eucharist or other liturgical celebrations,
there are literally hundreds of eyes,
reflecting many levels of faith and a great
deal else as well:
- Eyes that reflect a faith tried in
suffering or made strong through years of
loving service.
- Eyes that crinkle at the beauty or
delightful gestures of an infant in a parent’s
arms.
- Eyes that are desperate. Eyes that are
empty.
- Eyes that are bored, or angry, or a
million miles away.
Christians believe that the persons behind
those eyes, people with great faith or with
little faith, make up the Body of Christ.
Especially when people gather for the
Eucharist, they are drawn ever more deeply
into the mysterious and usually hidden
coming-together that is the church.
“Lift up your hearts ... We lift them up
to the Lord.” For many of us at any given
Mass, that “we” unfortunately is more wish
than conscious fact.
We wish that people were more conscious
/ \
KNOW
YOUR
FAITH
(All Articles on this page
Copyrighted 1980 by N. C. News Service)
'
of one another, genuinely united in spirit as
well as in body. But chances are I know little
if anything about the person sitting next to
me and with whom I share the Lord’s
greeting of peace. I am sure we share faith,
but that is difficult to hold on to and
difficult to see.
I have had this experience: While listening
to a really good song, my eyes meet those of
a stranger - and we smile with the delight of
sharing a mutual feeling. Sometimes this
happens during a particularly true insight of
a homilist, or in the joy of a special liturgy
as well.
It may only be for a moment, but for
that time we are really together. If I later see
that person sharing the Body of the Lord,
his or her oneness in Christ with me really
hits home. That “stranger” has become real
to me as a human being with whom I share
what is deepest and most important in this
life.
Many parishes across the land succeed in
helping members come to know one another
as persons of faith. Frequently this happens
when occasions are provided for people to
simply become acquainted with one another.
If I learn that Karen Jones is struggling
with the care of an elderly parent, or that
Jose Diaz is a fellow runner or that someone
shares with me the joy and pain of being a
parent, my chances of sharing faith with him
or her are much greater.
Getting to know even familiar persons in
a new way may surprise me. This person is
deeper and more sensitive to beauty and life
and joy than I would have guessed. That
person is funnier, or more generous or more
loving than the caricature of her that I have
carried around.
The Fellowship of the Cross of Nails is an
international and ecumenical group with
Anglican roots. The fellowship has a helpful
apostolate which members organize in their
churches, called “foyer” groups.
Foyer is the French word for both hearth
and entry way. Founded in Paris by the
Catholic parish of St. Severin in 1968, the
foyer groups are simple evenings where
parishioners share food and fellowship. Eight
or so persons agree to exchange such
evenings over several months.
At the end of that time, new groups are
formed. As Canon H.C.N. Williams of the
fellowship explains, foyer groups help
people realize what they symbolize when
they worship and share at the Lord’s Table.
Simply getting to know one another
strengthens the praise and thanksgiving of
the Eucharist.
THE LAST DECADE HAS seen the first major decline in they are supported in their beliefs and commitments. (NC
church participation in the United States. Those who stay in Photo by Paul Tucker)
their parishes are more likely than those who leave to feel
Paul: A Theologian In Spite Of Himself
BY FATHER JOHN J. CASTELOT
St. Paul is often called the first Christian
theologian. In editions of the New
Testament, his writings are printed after the
four Gospels and the book called the Acts of
the Apostles. Nonetheless, the letters he
wrote were completed before the year 60.
The earliest Gospel, that of Mark, did not
appear until almost the year 70.
The following letters are quite generally
accepted as being unquestionably the work
of Paul himself: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians,
Philippians, Philemon, 1 and 2 Corinthians
and Romans.
But varying degrees of doubt have been
expressed about whether or not he was the
actual author of seven other letters often
attributed to him in the past. Five of them -
Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and
Hebrews - are almost certainly not his
compositions. It is not so easy to be sure
about Paul’s authorship of the two others -
2 Thessalonians and Colossians. There are
good arguments both pro and con.
In any case, even if we accept only the
first seven as his personal work, his
contribution to Christian theology is simply
inestimable. It would be difficult to name
anyone who has had a more powerful or
more lasting influence on theology.
Yet, he was not a professional theologian
as we usually understand this term. Paul was,
in a sense, a theologian in spite of himself.
Chances are that he would never have
written anything if the occasion had not
called for it. For this reason his letters are
called occasional writings.
Paul was intensely active, traveling
(mostly on foot), preaching, founding
churches, instructing and ail the while
supporting himself by working at his own
trade. He was a tentmaker.
This was hardly the kind of existence to
afford leisure for scholarly pursuits. It was
the kind of existence, however, that brought
him into contact with all sorts of people and
these people had problems.
His converts were earnestly trying to live
the Christian life and it was all so new!
Whether they had been Jews or pagans they
had all sorts of questions, very practical
questions which demanded immediate
answers. In order to provide these answers,
Paul wrote to the people.
He was, as a result, an eminently pastoral
theologian, which means he grappled with
the concrete aspects of people’s relationships
with God and with each other in Christ.
He had no ready-made answers to
problems, not even a distinctive Christian
vocabulary with which to formulate his
answers. This makes his accomplishments all
the more amazing.
He could not call upon the accumulated
wisdom of centuries of Christian experience.
He had only his own experience and that of
the Christian communities of his day. One
must always keep this in mind when reading
his letters.
But the overall effect is that his writings
are marked by a very reassuring realism.
They convey the definite impression that
Christianity is not just a worldview, a
‘system,’ but a life to be lived by people who
are striving for the sort of life of which Jesus
Christ is the supreme example ana source.
WHEN WE GATHER FOR SUNDAY MASS there are
hundreds of pairs of eyes reflecting many levels of faith.
Eyes that reflect a faith tried in suffering or made strong
through years of loving service. Eyes that crinkle at the
beauty of an infant. Eyes that are desperate or empty. Eyes
that are bored, or angry or a million miles away. (NC Photo
by Chris Niedenthal)