Why Are We Here?

25 November 2013

     It's almost strange to be continuing this conversation. It's a rare thing indeed to be sharing this kind of conversation with a companion such as you. For one thing, we've barely met. We hardly know each other. Our lives and our backgrounds are so dissimilar. And then there's the huge age difference. Sometimes I'm really feeling my age and then other times I barely think about it. I'm watching everybody go to communion at 10:00 mass on a Sunday morning and I'm thinking about you - and all the people making their way down to the Priest who's handing out a wafer made of flour and water. Our parish is filled with the world; people from Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, even Indonesia and the Philippines. There are old people and young people, and lots of babies crying. I love to hear the babies crying while others can't stand it. They're the future. I'm not. They are the Church of tomorrow.

     Today is really special because Bishop Justs is visiting from Jelgava, Latvia. His story is unique. He's a special man for our cause. His family fled Latvia in the late 40's and he was called to become a Priest. He eventually became the Pastor of our Parish. Then late in life he was called to Rome where Pope John Paul made him a Bishop and encouraged him to go back to Latvia and build up a Church that was destroyed by communist-thinking. He was torn between leading a pretty good life in a big, Washington suburbs parish, to returning to a country reeling in the poverty of post-communism. He returns every year to our parish to see old friends and collect money for Jelgava. We give generously and freely because our parish is wealthy and a lot of people love Bishop (Father) Justs. To me and a lot of people he will always be a priest we dearly love. The hat and regalia may be different, Father Justs is not. It strikes me on this special morning that Bishop Justs is talking about the thing he's always talked about - and the message never gets boring - Jesus Christ came upon this messed-up Earth to spread the message of unconditional love. An inspiring priest such as Bishop Justs always has the uncanny ability to continually make that central message sound fresh and new as if you're hearing it for the first time.

     The central message captured me when I converted in the early 80's - and the message has never changed. It's taken a lot of sifting, and thinking, and reading, to try and be a good Catholic. It's withstood a lot of argument and doubt and negativism thrown at me by those who find themselves either broken away from their faith completely or what I refer to as The Fringe-People. I love them all, because they're struggling too, to find what they're looking for. I saw a lot of them today walking down the path to receive Communion from a loving priest and a loving Bishop. For me, it's always has been the subject of unconditional love,  and keeping a free mind in order to ask yourself the important questions.