Sunday Gospel Reflection (Nov 17, 2024)
As someone who worked in parish ministry for nearly a decade, I know how counterintuitive this sounds. As someone who worked with families who could be described as on the peripheries of parish life, I understand that accessibility is key. If engagement is the first step, but also the prize, then availability rules. Despite all of these considerations, I think that it is actually a better long term “strategy” to consider limiting weekend Mass times as much as possible.
First, I should address the above points of conventional wisdom. Accessibility and availability are valuable virtues. They are offshoots of the virtue of hospitality, which itself is related to charity. This fact cannot be neglected. When we make ourselves available to another person, we are showing that person he or she is valuable to us. We are making a sacrifice.
Engagement, likewise, is a strong barometer of the life of a parish. With Sunday Mass being the center of parish life and the Church as a whole, it would be most important to foster engagement here. This is the strategy of every social media app.
Even if one could argue that this does translate, which I would question, should it? Do we want a parish that operates like a social media app?
Business, including social media businesses, operate under the “customer is always right” and “perception is reality” principles. While accommodation is a necessary part of every interaction, it is done in exceptional circumstances when the rule is imprudent. Mass times are perceptually the most fundamental rule of most parishes. When they reflect an accommodation, the parish implicitly allows parishioners to see themselves as customers. Customers expect service. This is contrary to the model of Christians who said he came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45).
But what about Mass attendance? Won’t it go down if there are not as many opportunities?
At first, probably. This would have some consequences that, admittedly, are above my pay grade. What I would posit though, and I think most pastors would agree, is that a certain identity is being established when these choices are made. This identity is what a pastor would want to be known and remembered for.
Identity is articulated in most parishes by their mission statements, and many of them share some language related to “Christ-centered community.” While it is more convenient to provide multiple Mass times for families with 500 other activities on the weekend, this does not allow for the parish as a whole to become a community where it matters the most.
Real community, just like any real relationship, if it is going to be substantial, requires sacrifice of time, energy and attention. When parishes bend over backwards so every busy parishioner can “fit Mass in” to fulfill their Sunday obligation, Mass will never be seen as anything more than an obligation to fit in. This is not community even when parishioners are physically present.
This is not a rejection of those who struggle to make it to Mass or those who participate in weekend activities. This is a request, a plea, to change how one sees Mass even when one attends regularly. Attending out of obedience amongst the other demands of our time is laudable, obedience is still a virtue, but it is not the ideal for Christ’s Church, what Vatican II called “the family of God” (Lumen Gentium, 28).
Ultimately, this is an appeal for simplicity. The Mass is the “source,” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324), which means it is a first principle. Parishes can communicate this through its actions of making it the number one priority. If the Church wants to think like a business, then let’s not flood the market and, as a result, lower demand. Like the merchant of Matthew 13, we will only sell the field to acquire the pearl of great price if we recognize its value in its scarcity.