The cellphone glass was shattered. Didn’t drop it, didn’t smash it against the steel tractor. It just happened. Now the real problem. Where does one go to get it either repaired or replaced? Your choices are not too inviting. Either wait online for your customer service to replace or off to Target to find a customer service agent who assures you that it’s not a problem to transfer all your contacts, photos, whatever and then teach you how to use the newest and latest technology. No two screens look the same.
After several calls to different stores, Louis, the agent, says it’s a piece of cake. Meet him at 10am because by 10:15 lines will form and take hours. Only problem, arrive at 10am and no Louis. Ron is working instead, apologizes for any misunderstanding. He takes my old phone, unboxes the new replacement and literally takes his fingers and says, “cross our fingers father, and hopes this works.” There’s a pit in my stomach that says, “we’re in trouble.” After several attempts, Ron says sorry you will have to upload each contact on your old phone. The old cell technology won’t talk to the new phone. I knew I was in trouble when he said “do you know your password for Google.”
I drove an hour from Rochester to Buffalo thinking I found my tech, instead I am driving home kicking myself saying things like, “should have done nothing, could have bought a new screen, should have walked away.”
That night, I’m receiving phone messages and I am lucky enough to reply but I have no clue how to get back to the home screen or how to upload the hundred phone numbers. Then a miracle. I contact my good friend Fr. Don who asked “how am I doing?” His response, come over his home, Ben his son, just completed uploading and changing over his new phone. Yes, there are angels!
As I walk in the door, this young man who is going to college to be an IT specialist, takes both the old and the new and within minutes has them talking to one another. No language barriers, no crossing fingers. With gratitude in my heart, I ask for a tutorial on how to use this new technology. How to download a text, how to change the ring tone, how to mute the sound during Mass.
We all have become dependent at pressing our cell phones to stay in contact with our family and relatives. In some ways, the pandemic has allowed us to visit distant family although it’s not the same as giving them a hug ourselves. In the gospel, Mary comes to Elizabeth and we learn that the moment she comes through the door, the two women press flesh by giving each other a hug and Elizabeth baby’s moves inside her. She says he leapt for joy because she realized at that moment that Mary too was pregnant with the Son of God.
Today if people want to get in contact with you they have established YouTube videos for them to chat and meet people online. But I have another idea. Two surveys have shown that over 90% of youth have stopped going to church after finishing their Catholic education. Churches will continue to close, but I have an idea that reflects what Mary was doing this morning.
An editor from The Tablet, Margaret Hebblethwaite, reports upon a diocese where 34 parishes have begun a program of using lay people as pastoral visitors. As the editor puts it, "Each member of the neighborhood pastoral team is responsible for making and maintaining contact with a dozen households. They are Catholics who want to live out the belief that the Church should care for 100 percent of its members, and not just the 15 percent who go to Mass. Sadly, another survey reported that during this pandemic 70% of the people watching Mass from their homes will not be returning to church.
In reaching out to your neighbors, there is no suggestion that people might like to come along to church. In last year alone, these visitors have made more than 6,000 contacts.
The pastor writes ahead to say a parishioner will drop in. They do not go in
pairs, to avoid any kind of intimidating posture. Basically, you are just
calling on your neighbor. Somebody who may not be "practicing,' as we say,
but who is in your parish. With what results? One team member discovered a
disabled man who knew nobody in the street; neighbors had even been throwing
rubbish over his fence. But now neighbors have helped to clean up his garden
and got to know him, and a Eucharistic minister brings him communion. Another
woman found one of the lonely people on her list singularly unresponsive, until
the seventh time she came to see him, when he told her, to her amazement, 'I do
so enjoy your visits.'"
This approach is a radical change. The usual teaching is that baptism brings
one into the community of the faithful. Here the order is reversed; it is the
knock on the door. The sacraments may follow later; we don't mean to imply that
they are unimportant. But more important is to get to know people, to become
friends, and if needed, to be of service. One visitor goes with lemons from her
lemon tree to break the ice. Another takes her ten-year-old son, who asked,
"Why are we going to this house?" She answered, "Because the
parish thinks we ought to be more caring of each other and get to know
people." He responded, "Oh, that's a good idea."
The approach is made to Catholics, but many people move, and visitors encounter
people of other faiths or none. But they are still neighbors. And, as the
editor writes, "The street is the place where the range of social problems
is found: domestic violence, racism, loneliness, the trials of old age,
adolescent rebellion, family stress and mental illness, not to mention a wealth
of happiness, skill and generosity waiting to be tapped.
One of the pastoral team says, "We are identifying a new mission ground. This is where we rub shoulders with those whom we do not choose for community, but rather with those whom God has called us to love - literally, our neighbors."
One woman in a
wheelchair, who gave the visitors a long tirade about the way she felt the
church had treated her, finally concluded, "If only the church was all
like you, I don't think I would have ever left it."
Today Mary and Elizabeth show us the way to establishing relationships through this kind of visiting. Our bishop is very worried that churches will close so his response has been to recruit young priests to come to his cathedral and here in North Java and a new parish in Las Vegas to inspire this community to press the flesh and to get to know the neighbors.
In two weeks, Fr. Nadeem and his wife Rebecca will come to North Java for a visit with the intention assigned by Bishop Mack to start a new ministry at Holy Family. I trust that you will welcome them both with open arms like Elizabeth greeted Mary and help them both invite your neighbors to come and taste the goodness of the Lord at this altar.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and miss you all very much. I am proud of all the good work you continue do in
the name of the Lord. May the Blessed Mohter prtect you and keep you close to her Son.
