Ask not what the church can do for us but what we can do for the church

Last night, I was going through the letters to the Editor on The Herald Online. By the way, we can now read Herald online without subscribing.

A parent asked if the church is doing enough for the youths and the letter went on and on about how catechism class is not enough for our Catholic children. I believe many people missed the point about this thing call church. It is not a corporate company, loaded with money, hired the best professionals to train our kids or us. It is just a bare, empty building, waiting for us to fill it up with life.

Of course, the church relies heavily on its’ leadership and in this case, the parish priests and the Bishop. But they cannot do much unless all of us, the parishioners chip in. It takes the whole congregation to work together to make the church alive. Politics, gossips, back-stabbing, power grab, personal glories etc – we have it all in church. Sometimes, we mask it with our Christian external-holiness decency, sometimes, we have a full blown, ugly politicking and so on.

But if we put our sight on Christ and take it upon us to do everything for His purpose (and not ours), I guess one can survive the good and the bad. Indeed the Catholic church can sometimes be too constipated for the young people. There are too many rituals and sometimes, adults like me get lost in the main purpose of the feasts.

However, praise the Lord, more and more vibrant youth groups are now emerging. In my church, I know these youths do not just appeared out of nowhere to become vibrant and fun. It is the efforts of a few hardworking souls, putting their time and skills together to build it. It is also the parents all-trusting in the Lord to put their children into these groups and praying that their children in turn help to attract more youths and children to the church.

Sometimes, when I heard the remarks from the older generation Catholics, I could just shake my head. Some have remarked that they will definitely stay away when the youth animated the mass because they said it is so noisy! I wonder if they realise that the youths probably said the same thing back, like ‘They are so boring.’

So, the only way forward is for parents to be more involved in church building by encouraging their children to participate rather than sending them to tuition.

The other thing mentioned in the letter is the parent’s lament that they are not equipped to teach their children about the Catholic faith. Dude, one doesn’t need to know the book from front to back to teach children. One just need to share the faith in the Lord and learn along with them. There are plenty of documentaries, books, internet resources for the parents and children to know what they need to know. But for faith, no one can teach our children unless we do it ourselves, at every opportunity we have, 24/7.

Let’s do what we can for the church rather than sitting back and complain about the BEC, the parish priest, the ministries and etc etc. The church is us. Each of us is a brick of the church. Jesus has told us, He did not call the equipped, He equipped the one He called.