By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Pope Francis has warned us not to be a self-referential Church — closed in on ourselves. But we live in a consumer society. And sometimes a consumerist mentality can inject itself into our ideas about the Church. We see this sometimes in people who easily hop from one parish to another, or even from one denomination to another. They might say, "I'm looking for a church that meets my needs."
This might also well describe that "self-referential" attitude that the pope criticizes in very strong terms. A "self-referential" church could easily become a club house for the self-satisfied and not a field hospital for those wounded or a lifesaving station for the drowning. Too often, the adjective "parochial," even when used in reference to a parish, means "narrow-minded,” concerned only with the narrow or local without regard for more general or wider issues.
Yes, the Church should "meet" people where they're at and pastors are to "feed" their flocks.
Yet, in a deeper sense, Christianity is not about meeting "my needs" — for the focus should not be on ourselves but on others. As Jesus himself said, "The Son of Man came into the world not to be served but to serve."
Christian spirituality is not merely an exercise in "navel gazing." Christian spirituality is ultimately about conforming ourselves to the image of Christ who, as the Gospel tells us, "went about doing good." Thus, spirituality while looking heavenward will also have us with our feet firmly planted on the ground and necessarily engages us in what spiritual writers have called the "corporal" and "spiritual" works of mercy.
The corporal works of mercy are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead; the spiritual works of mercy are to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill and pray for the living and dead
Now some might object: Shouldn't we be more concerned about getting to heaven than fixing the earth? But for us, Catholics, fixing the earth is not opposed to our transcendent destiny. It assumes it. For this world is our highway to heaven — and our journey along this highway is our one-time chance to get to heaven. And if we're going to get to heaven — and to help others to get there — then we have to be concerned about the condition of the highway.
If we were to believe like an atheist that this life is all there is, that is, if life is not a highway but merely a dead end alley, we don't have to care about the condition of the road. But if this world is our highway to heaven, then we have to make sure we take care of the potholes, those obstacles that could have us or others crash or break down along the way.
Jesus did not suffer and die on the cross just to make us feel good. Indeed, Christianity with its ascetical practices of fasting and other mortifications and its call to "take up one's cross" daily is far from being some kind of "feel good" religion. Jesus suffered and died on a cross not to give us a "feel good" religion but rather to give us a "do good" religion. At the core of both Old and New Testaments is the command to love.
This love is not merely an emotion or feeling; it is an action. It is something that we do for others. If love is not to become distorted into mere sentimentality on one extreme, or a false compassion on the other, then love demands that we work for justice and equality; love demands that we stand in solidarity with the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the excluded.
Loving or doing good requires self-sacrifice, self-mortification and self-discipline. Doing good is not often easy and it can get us into trouble — it can earn for us misunderstanding, scorn and even persecution. Yet, it is in doing good and focusing not on our needs but on those of our neighbor that we discover the Joy of the Gospel.
