Building a Community of Love

People of God come together in the Church to worship the Lord. The Apostle Paul described true worship perfectly in Romans 12:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, or well pleasing and perfect.” This is what we should teach our kids. We bring them to church and to the faith formation program to deepen this faith. Any hypocrisy on the part of the parents will have negative repercussions on the formation of our children.

Last Sunday (April 18, 2010) Rev. Fr. Vinod graciously explained the unfortunate situation at St. Alphonsa. The Liturgy he celebrated, elevated us to a real God experience. The Homily he preached was spiritually motivating. His explanations regarding the current situations, future plans, role of the diocese as well as the faithful in building up this community of faith and love were reasonable and encouraging. He highlighted the role of the hierarchy in enforcing the laws of the Church and the obligation of the faithful to abide by it. The absence of announcement after the Qurbana was well appreciated. The year passed was loaded with insinuating information or announcements which no way helped building up a community of faith and love. Father Vinod’s remark that “this is a place for worship and not a place for meeting and arguments” was highly rewarding. His pleasing behavior and meaningful communication both in English and Malayalam was very much appreciated by the youth. .

It was unfortunate that in spite of Fr. Vinod’s good intention and noble behavior he was intimidated by a few ill-informed parishioners. The situation was scary to some kids and women in our church. The misbehavior of a CCD teacher was patiently handled by Fr. Vinod. His patience in controlling the situation and giving reasonable answers were good guide lines for our community. It is a model for other priests. Emotionally charged questioning and manhandling of fellow parishioners are not a healthy behavior in a community of faith. We need to pray for the unity of our community.

Let us pay heed to the following words of St. Paul: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (Timothy 3:1-5)

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13:1-2).