Not just Church on Sunday

September 11, 2018

No one can expect to fulfill the Christian vocation with any kind of personal integrity in the modern world unless he is at home with computers, with slums, with race problems, with world affairs, with everything. The laity stand at that point where the gospel intersects the world, just as the cross stood at the intersection of the cultures of Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome. The laity cross all frontiers. They do this in the name of Christ. As we see the laity coming into church on Sundays, we ask them, do you really love one another? Are you a unified element in the community? Are you coming together just to fulfill an obligation, trying to avoid mortal sin rather than to come in to strengthen and feed a life which you ought to spread? Are you seeking a kind of selfish sanctification, forgetful that our Blessed Lord said, 'For their sakes do I sanctify myself.' Will you be just like everyone around you, except for this weekly habit of coming to church? When others look at this band of the faithful, will they think 'I ought to be like them; I ought to have their love and their truth, and their inner peace?' Too often it is just the opposite.