KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

The Sunday celebration of the Lord ’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life. The letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful ‘not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some,
but to encourage one another’. Catechism of the Catholic Church #2177 and 2178.

At the centre of Christian spirituality and worship is the celebration of Mass, where at Christ’s command we meet to recall the Passover and acknowledge Christ as our Passover from death to life. We do this according to his Word “Do this in memory of
me”. From Apostolic times the faithful have met for “the breaking of the bread” on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, Sunday. This day of remembrance is the ultimate expression of who we are and who we say we are.

It is with sadness and disappointment therefore that we have to record the serious falling away in Mass attendance. Following the decline in Sunday worship experienced in Protestant Churches the Catholic Communion has to face the reality of being among many people who live their daily lives without authentic recall to the worship of God. This says much about the relationship of people to God in our time or rather it says much about the absence of a healthy relationship between the one who loves us and those who were made to love.

Many reasons have been suggested for this lack of practice. Among them is a recognition of a warped sense of freedom, an over-developed sense of self-importance, a lack of personal discipline, a crisis in faith, an immature appreciation of our faith tradition and a feeling of vulnerability and abandonment in the face of a materialist existence. The truth is most likely that many people no longer practice their faith, living it out in worship and prayer, for all of the above reasons and some more besides. For the purpose of this article, I am turning my attention to the majority of non-practicing Catholics as evidenced in surveys and studies who no longer go to Mass for no apparent reason other than the fact they have become slack or that their lives are very busy.

How do we cope with the realization that too many people are living their lives not in communion with the mystical body of Christ, the Church of the people of God? How do we grow to become a just and welcoming community of the worshipping faithful? I am conscious that any attempted answer to this complexity will appear inadequate but the alternative – remaining silent – is supremely inadequate.

The first thing to say is that the celebration of more Masses is not an answer. Multiplying Mass times and occasions for Mass will not restore the community in faithful practice. The beginning point is by means of heartfelt evangelization. And what does that mean? A mere glimpse of the tele-evangelists and other such religious pedlars would be enough to make any rational person flee from evangelistic practices if that was all there was to it. The Holy Father on the other hand is plainly encouraging us to develop ‘the new evangelization’ and bring Christ to a directionless world. Plainly he doesn’t mean that we copy the Christian religious lunatic fringe with their glitzy and outrageous performances. What he does mean is that the living gospel must be present in our lives firstly, evidently so, before the Word of God can be planted in the hearts of others. Genuine committed love of the Lord will inevitably lead to a desire to serve God and his people and then to worship him at Mass together with the faithful community. This is a gradual and deliberate process that necessarily must be lived out in faith. It is the first step in an effort to welcome back home those who have drifted away.

The other steps that follow need careful exploration and discussion at Parish level. Now would be a good time for such discussions to begin.