Second Sunday in Advent

Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you.  Rom 15:7

        This line in today's reading from Paul's letter to the Romans jumps out at me because of this experience I had a few months ago.  A woman wandered into Mass on a Friday and on this particular Friday, all the catholic school children in the parish attended Mass as well.  The woman that wandered in looked different and acted different from most churchgoers.  And it is not usual for this to happen as the parish sits well within a residential area with no close access to a bus line or other public transportation.  The woman was not well groomed, was carrying a large bag and was talking to no one in particular.  From what I could tell no one welcomed her, on the contrary an alarm went up among the congregation to "find out what was in that large bag" and "get her away from the children".  Are we so caught up in safety issues that we can no longer welcome the stranger among us?  Why do we find this so hard to do?  To finish the story, the woman looked different from the churchgoers, but was not dangerous. 

        I just started reading a book called Rebuilt-Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making the Church Matter, by Michael White and Tom Corcoran.  In revitalizing their parish, Tom and Fr. Michael found that their parish welcomed the churchgoers and gave them what they want, but did not attend to the mission of the church which is Go therefore and make disciples of all Nations (Mt 28:19) and You Shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mk 13:31). At this particular parish they were fulfilling every perceived need of what the authors call "Consumer Catholics" in the parish but were not fulfilling the mission of the church and their church was dying.  What can we do to welcome the stranger among us?  Didn't Jesus welcome all to come to him, even the little ones?  

        Dear Lord, please help us to understand the mission of the Church and to reach out to the stranger among us.  Help us to be open to others who are not like us, but who are also hungry for you God.  In the words of the Cursillo Movement "Be a friend, make a friend, bring a friend to Christ."  Isn't that what the New Evangelization of the church is all about?