How can I deepen my connection with the Church?
When I moved to St. Louis 20 years ago, I was struck by how blessed the local Church is with parishioners who have a strong love for their parishes. While growing up, I never realized all that a parish family could be. Rather, I just saw everyone there as strangers around me as we all attended Sunday Mass.
“We’re all just here to fulfill our Sunday obligation,” I would think to myself. I hadn’t stopped to ponder that a parish is not just a place to go, but an occasion of encounter with the Lord and my brothers and sisters in Christ.
St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, explains:
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ…Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 14-17)
It can be tempting to think our faith should only be focused on our personal relationship with God, but Christ calls us to be in relationship with each other within the body of Christ — the Church. No one person can play every role, just as no one body part can fulfill every task. The body benefits from having a variety of parts, just as we spiritually benefit from working together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
When we realize our parishes are each members of the greater Church and each parishioner is a member of the parish, we see that our parishes are meant to be places where we encounter Christ and His Body — the Church. We not only pray alongside our parish brothers and sisters, but we also are called to walk with them on this journey of faith, through the high points and the lows, the joys and the sorrows.
Activities like fish fries and trivia nights foster community; retreats and faith formation events help us grow in and share our faith. When we face tragedy or hardship, we have cultivated strong relationships to help us carry our cross.
Our parishes are like a microcosm of the Church that we will come to see if we make an effort to truly engage. I pray that we all come to find a family of faith at our local parish and for God’s help in discerning how He is calling you to share your gifts and talents with the local Church.
Father Dan Kavanagh is director of the Catholic Deaf Ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
