Service is holy

by Michael Shackleton · February 4, 2009

The parish is the usual place for Catholics to experience Christ present in his members. It is the local community of Christ�s faithful who support one another in mutual love and�compassion under the pastoral guidance of the parish priest.

It takes all sorts to make up the parish community, as is well known, and, when it comes to getting involved in serving one another, some individuals will appear to be more diligent, intelligent and cooperative than others. Some�prefer to work alone or not to work for the parish at all.

It is imperative that parishioners are concerned for one another, deeply understanding that�they are all one in Christ. This has become even more necessary as the number of priests who can serve in parishes is diminishing. In past times, people left it to the priest to look after their pastoral and spiritual needs,�because priests were much freer then to move from home to home, getting to know their flock. Unfor-tunately, the members of the flock frequently had a relationship with their pastor but not a great relationship with one another. It was deemed the priest�s privilege and duty�to care for each individual.

Now the emphasis is on the whole parish, priest and people,�as a living organism given life by the Holy Spirit to share in the missionary vocation of building up and maintaining the parish community in its oneness with Christ, and also undertaking the evangelising of others.

In this way, the parish is the obvious arena for its members to carry on Christ�s ministry of service�to others as a sign of God�s presence among them: to give drink to the thirsty, to make the stranger welcome, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick and the imprisoned (Mt 25:15-17). These acts of compassion by which Christ assures us we shall be judged, are of a material nature rather than spiritual.

The priest provides for the sacramental and spiritual support of parishioners through which he fulfils his proper role in his path to holiness. Lay people have, instead, a worldly role, pursuing material benefits for themselves and others. They attain�holiness in service of one another. It is in this activity that, in the words of Vatican II: �the laity seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God�s will� (Lumen gentium, 33).

It is highly likely that in the average parish, people are not made aware of their call to be holy through working with their fellow-parishioners. Pope John Paul II, in his�apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici of 1987, said that holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ.

It would be a big mistake for parish members to think they can best serve the Church by being authorised to do liturgical readings or to distribute Holy Communion. In themselves, such tasks do not confer holiness, although they may contribute towards it. Rather, lay people find their true vocation in service of others, doing the kind of jobs that belong to the secular world and in which they are most effective.

The Church is undergoing stresses and strains at present, which play a part in making Catholics disagree with one another, sometimes rancorously,�on such issues as liturgical English, inculturation, contraception and many others.

These tensions are in many ways necessary for the local Church to come to grips with modern times. Always, however, each individual must be fully conscious of the need for personal holiness within the parish by means of the loving service of one other.