SINGING AND MAKING MELODY

A MESSAGE FOR MISSION SUNDAY

Today is Mission Sunday, our yearly reminder of our duty to extend Christ's flock by recruiting new souls to his fold, the Catholic Church.  In a time not too long ago, this was an enormous enterprise, led by the great missionary orders such as the Holy Ghost Fathers, the Maryknoll Fathers, and many other religious congregations whose chief role was to continue the work of the apostles, teaching the Faith and baptizing those who would embrace it.

Ecumenism has changed all that.  Now that the Roman Catholic Church has reduced itself to the lowest common denominator of denominations, there appears to be no longer any reason for trying to convert those who they claim have the same, or a similar faith to the one we hold.  As Catholics holding firm to the notion of Tradition, we reject the modernist premise that one faith is as good as the next, recognizing our duty to draw souls to Christ, who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

On this Sunday before the Feast of Christ the King, therefore, we are firmly reminded of this our solemn duty.  As simple lay persons living in the world, we cannot hope to emulate the great organization of Catholic Missions that existed before Vatican II.  Instead, we must simply do our part, acting as witnesses to our one true Faith and the great truths that God revealed through his holy Church.  We must make our religion as attractive as possible to those who come in contact with it.

Can we take this opportunity today to think about new ways to attract people to St. Margaret Mary's?  While I appreciate the perils involved in upsetting the status quo, there is a greater danger still in becoming too "comfortable" with the way things are.  Mission Sunday challenges us to do our duty, our Catholic apostolate.  Each of us should try to give it thought, providing some practical input for us to discuss and evaluate.

I am planning on celebrating Midnight Mass here at Christmas, and with the above in mind, how beautiful it could be if we were able to make it a High Mass, with carols and a procession to the manger.  The words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians this morning suggested the idea that we could perhaps augment the choir and put in some time to learn the Christmas propers and a few simple carols—Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.  We have a good number of young ladies in the parish, and whether you come every week or only occasionally, your voices would certainly help fill the church at Christmas, and provide our Midnight Mass with the best replica we can manage of the glorious choir of herald angels who sang their Gloria in Excelsis Deo on that first Christmas night.

Who knows, if it works out, we might be even more ambitious and have High Mass more frequently.  While the simple Mass is beautiful enough in its own right, we should not, as mentioned, feel so comfortable with what we have that we avoid trying to provide it with an even more attractive ceremonial.  How very appealing to outsiders it would be if eventually not only our choir but the whole congregation would sing to the rafters their hymns of praise with the enthusiasm normally encountered only at a touchdown at the football game.

As our existing choir is aware, to sing is to pray twice, and God reserves many graces for those who contribute to the beauty of the liturgy.  Hopefully, we will be inspired by the desire to please God on this Mission Sunday by resolving to attract more souls to him.