Pure Love: a Challenge (or, Exhortation) to Catholics

The Church has its obligations, which I addressed in part in my last blog, and Catholics have theirs, which the Lord makes clear. That we are to pray and gather in prayer. That we commemorate his death and resurrection, as one. That we pray for each other and worship God, the Father.

That we gather and give of our hearts, as one.

Revolution is a fine idea. Perhaps the finest idea of all when we seek universal good. But that good does not stop at the door of the church. A person who leaves the Church for political reasons has, in effect, confessed non-belief, that God does not care for the Church. That the Church, the faith, are abandoned, first by God. That is the underwritten statement in non-attendance.

But I do not believe that people who do not go to Mass believe this. I think people feel the weight of their convictions, moral, intellectual, and religious, and are compelled by the Spirit to live accordingly. When there is conflict a person must ultimately live with themselves. A person who refuses to attend Mass because of the political/moral practices of the Church can, it is true, point fingers, but it would be disingenuous not, at the same time, to admit one's own moral failings.

A person who does not attend Mass has his or her reasons, and those reasons are likely founded in an interior conflict between the moral law of the church, as preached and practiced, and the moral truth that person has come to understand and accept in their heart. And to these people - and we are all these people, at one time or another - I ask a question.

Who put that truth in your heart?

If you have the courage of your convictions, you will live those truths in your life, and as Catholics our lives include in large part the church. You should bring yourself, your prayers, to Church. You should confess your fears and desires unabashedly to the Lord. And you should tell your priest too, while you are at it.

There is no ultimate, controlling reason for fear or mere discontent to allow one to lapse in one's obligations to the church, to the body of Christ. If the Church is obligated to carry the meaning of the Mass - that pure love - to the streets, to all humankind - then we are obligated as well to bring ourselves - the persons God created, formed and compelled by the Spirit - to church.

A lapsed Catholic is a confused Catholic, and a confused Catholic has immediate recourse. Get up next Sunday morning and join us. We are your neighbors, many of whom share your concerns, to be sure! We are always here, even at the point of death.

The Church will not change if the only people who go to Mass are the ones who do NOT object. No, we need everyone. We are Catholic. We are universal. We want it all. We need it all. Life and love, now and forever.

We need your prayers. And we need YOU.