Your pew is about to be invaded!

by David Lins  |  12/15/2019  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

WARNING: Christmas is just around the corner and your pew is about to be invaded!

That’s right.

Those people who only show up for holidays or when the guilt they’d have to endure from their favorite grandmother isn’t worth the extra ninety minutes they’d “gain” will be making it harder to sit where you want or get out of the parking lot in 4.5 minutes flat.

How inconvenient.

Or maybe there is another attitude we should have.

When I was a child, the entire family knew when company was coming over. We all had to join mom in the monumental effort to clean every inch of our domicile. Why did we do this?

Because it is important that visitors understand how much they are valued.

With Christmas around the corner, we have the opportunity to be the welcome, to be the smile, to be the person who scoots over, to be the sign of peace, to be the person who lets the other car go first… who helps the visitor feel welcome.

Yes. You might have to park ten spaces further away. You might have to sit uncomfortably close to a stranger. The line for the Eucharist might take five more minutes. It may even take fifteen minutes longer to get home. But allow me to pose a question…

Would it be worth it if that person was the person you’ve been hoping and praying would come back to the church? Your sibling, your child, or your friend?

In fact, we should all go a step further. We should figure out who we can invite. We should pray about who the Lord wants to visit his home.

Our goal should be to crowd our church to the point where we have to park 20 spaces away and it takes 25 minutes longer to get home, because every extra person isn’t just someone’s sibling, child, or friend… they are a child of God.

Questions? Comments? Email David at dlins@oloj.org.