16th Sunday of the year

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A number of years ago I was supplying in a parish down near Margate. I was not in clericals because I was on holiday myself. As I came into the Church to pray before Mass I planted myself at the back of the Church. As I sat there praying I was aware of someone hovering by the side of me. Then I got a tap on the shoulder “That’s my seat” she said although the Church was still quite empty I got up and moved. After a while I got out of my seat went to put on my vestments and started Mass. I looked at her and you could visibly see that she was quite upset. After Mass she came up to me and said “If I had known it was you I would not have asked you to move.” I told her that she should never do that at all even if they are not a priest.

You may be quite upset and even shocked with this story but it is not uncommon. I have witnessed this in this Church among this community. I have been both shocked and angry that this is happening where we are meant to be a community that builds the Kingdom of God by our love for each other and yet we do the opposite.
If that was you I wonder if you would ever darken the Church again. You may think that these people talk about welcome and the kingdom of God and they don’t do what they preach. We don’t know the story of those who have come into the Church. They may be people who are broken and need to find a place of warmth and welcome and yet what they find is something completely different. We need to be people who sow good seed in the ground in our relationships and in our love for each other. This means installing a spirit of welcome in our community so that seed that Kingdom may grown here.
I know that we are creatures of habit and we often sit and talk to the same people, but let’s try and do something different. Let’s today talk to someone who is different let’s welcome the stranger, let’s install a spirit of welcome here in the Church.

One of the biggest problems that we face here in this parish is the fact that we are a large community and I discovered this week we have only a small amount of people who are welcomers. This is a very important ministry and is vital to the whole of the Mass. We need more and we also need everyone here to play their part. 
We have been entrusted to build the Kingdom of God here on earth after all we pray it every time we say the Our Father we pray “ Your Kingdom come your will be done.”  This means that we need to do the will of Jesus and learn to bring his Kingdom here on earth and it starts in our parish here today with a spirit of prayer and action.  For we might pray as we do for the Kingdom but we must also put that into action

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