Called to be Church -- again

BY DEACON ED SOLOMON

The diocesan pastoral planning process, Called to be Church, has generated a great deal of concern and anxiety for many within our Catholic community.

Most Catholics are deeply rooted and attached to the parishes in which they have been raised, celebrated the sacraments, and established bonds of friendship and community.

As we journey together through the pastoral planning process, therefore, it is important for all of us to remember what it means to "be Church."

The first reading for all the Sundays of the Easter season is taken from the Acts of the Apostles. This biblical book tells the story of how the early Christian community labored to live the good news of Jesus Christ after His Resurrection.

In many ways, the story in Acts parallels our own story in the 21st century as we struggle to "be Church" in a society whose dominant values often clash with Gospel values.

All too often, we associate the word "church" with a building, but the Book of Acts was written in a time when there were no church buildings. Those who followed Jesus met in small groups in their homes and near the temple to remember what Jesus said and did, and to experience the resurrected presence of Jesus among them.

For the early Christians, discipleship was not a "Sunday obligation," but a way of life: "They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the communal life, the breaking of the bread and to the prayers" (Acts 2:42). The followers of Jesus lived life so differently from others that the Romans called them people of "the way."

As the pastoral planning process unfolds in the months ahead and church buildings in our Diocese close, merge or are reconfigured for the needs of the future, the readings from the Acts of the Apostles should give us great hope.

Like the early Christian community, we must ground ourselves in living the communal life, and caring for each other and the needy around us. We must nurture our prayer life, and be sustained by breaking the bread in the Eucharist and breaking open God's word in the Holy Scriptures.

We must continue to be known as people of "the way" so that others will be attracted by the way and the body of Christ will continue to grow.

The Acts of the Apostles is a book that remains unfinished. As disciples of the Lord, each of us writes a new page in this book by the way we live our lives: faithfully, hopefully, joyfully and lovingly.

That is the challenge of the call to be Church. What will we write this week?

(Deacon Solomon ministers at St. Vincent de Paul parish in Albany. He is also a member of the Formation for Diaconate Team for the Albany Diocese.)

(04/03/08)