You too, are the Body of Christ

A few weeks ago I asked to speak to the Christian Formation families at their first parent meeting. As I imagine is common at many parishes, there seem to be two very separate camps: School Families and Christian Formation Families. These two camps rarely interact and often seem to misunderstand each other. My intent was to encourage the CF families in their faith formation and warmly welcome them to join school families at various parish activities and events.

A couple days before I was set to talk to the CF families I was on the phone with my older brother. I mentioned to him that I was feeling a bit nervous and unsure on how I could communicate and positively engage the Christian Formation families. From his prior experience as a youth minister, my brother suggested I share a personal story. Later that night I sat down and wrote this:

This summer nearly every Sunday morning at our house was a battle zone. While we were all rushing around getting cleaned up and dressed and hair combed our 7-year-old would be dragging her feet and pouting. Coryn didn’t want to come to mass. 
She whined: Why do I have to go if I don’t even get to receive Communion?

I will be honest and admit there were more than a few Sundays when I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. I caved and would let her skip mass.

And then one Sunday morning, it happened. All six of us were together at mass (truth be told we had bribed the kids with the promise of picking up donuts afterwards).

When it was time for Communion I dragged Coryn out of the pew and had her walk up with me. As we approached the Eucharistic Minister, she turned to my daughter Coryn, looked her squarely in the eye, extended a hand in blessing and said: You too, are the Body of Christ.

And that’s when it hit me. Each one of us make up the Body of Christ. When we chose to have our child baptized, the power of the Holy Spirit changes that child into a Beloved Son or Daughter of God. Our Parish Family is not complete unless we are present.

So, I am here today to invite you to be present, to improve our Parish Family by building relationships and serving others. For anyone who has service hours to complete, or a child who has ever complained about being bored, there are a number of parish activities that are looking for volunteers.

The funny thing about doing service is you sign up thinking you will help someone in need and in the end you realize service is about recognizing our own need for relationship with others. God didn’t create us to be alone. God wants our parish community to grow stronger. God is calling us to act as One, One Body of Christ.

If you remember just one thing, remember this: We Belong to Christ! We Belong to Each Other! You Belong to Us!

After the meeting I hung around, with great hope. Sadly the meeting was timed minutes before the kickoff for the Packer game. Which meant there was a mass exodus of people making a bee line for their cars as soon as the meeting ended.

But, it got me thinking about how our own family could improve how we worship and serve the parish. Josephine, who has always been theatrical, putting on plays, dancing and singing at home, readily volunteers to cantor or read at the weekday school mass in the historic St. Mary's church. When I suggested she sign up to be a Song Leader or Reader at the "Big Church" for Sunday mass she whimpered and whined: There would be too many people looking at ME!

Coryn, on the other hand, was eager to try serving as a Lector at the "Big Church." We signed her up and she was scheduled for the 10:30am mass this morning. 

On Thursday I picked her up from school and took her over to the Big Church to practice the readings with the micophone on. She is a natural public speaker. She reads slowly, carefully, clearly and loudly. We asked a parish staff member to make copies of the readings for us to take home and continue to practice. By Saturday afternoon she had them nearly memorized. And then the phone rang. 

It was the parish secretary calling to say that we had been practicing the wrong readings. We had been reading the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time for cycle A instead of cycle B. She told me where I could find the readings on the parish website and I immediately printed them out. She practiced twice before bed and once more this morning. 

Grammy came over to take care of Mallory and Gloria so Matt, Josephine and I could focus on supporting Coryn. Before mass began a few classmates and teachers came up and wished her good luck. Coryn asked me to stay by her side and hold the heavy book of the Gospels. We lined up behind the altar servers and walked down the center aisle without incident. 

When it came time for the First Reading, we walked up together and I moved a step stool in place so her short frame was close enough to the microphone. 

Coryn read both the First Reading and Seconding Reading slowly and clearly without faltering once. When it came time for the Petitions I bent down and asked her whether she wanted to alternate reading them as we had practiced. She smiled at me and said: No, Mom. I want to read them all. 

During Communion Coryn left to use the bathroom. While she was gone an older gentleman received Communion and then side stepped over to our pew. He bent down and took Josephine's hands in his. He looked her squarely in the eye and said: Thank You. Thank you so very much. (Jo explained later that Coryn was mostly covered by the large podium.  All you could see of her was the top of her head.)

Jo relayed the message to Coryn when she returned to our pew. And that was the first of many accolades. When mass ended she received high fives and hugs from school friends. More and more people came up to tell her what a tremendous reader she was, asking her to please lector again, soon and often. One young mother told her: Thank you for sharing your gift. Another man bent down and gave her an origami heart.