Are We Church?

When ever you walk down the road around Brighton you are confronted with one really quite stark reality. That of Homelessness. It is easy to walk by, it is easy to walk by on the other side of the street and blame society or blame them. We might think and say Surely they have homes or they could go back to their own homes. A few weeks ago I got chatting to one on my walking around Brighton. It is so easy not to give a name to homeless people. His name was Rob, he invited me to sit next to him. As we sat and talked I noticed one thing. His world was full of feet, children and dogs. It is easy to walk by but here sitting next to me on the street was what Jesus was talking about in todays Gospel. IF we do not give a name to people, if we use generalisations then it is easy for us to forget that they are christ given as much as you or me. We do this so easily that it becomes  hard to ever think of them as our brothers and Sisters. This is what the Nazi Germany did to the Jews, and what is happening today with the Rohingya Muslims. 

I use the homeless today to highlight for us that no matter who we are or our backgrounds, our believes, our orientation we are children of God and have dignity. 

When we are born we are given a name and this name is used at our baptism. The name that we use gives us dignity gives us an identity it reflects who we are. So our names are very important when ever I speak to a homeless person young or old I ask them what their name is as one person once said to me “ Father my name reminds me that I am part of this world.”

If we do not recognise the poor and those who the world rejects then this gathering this morning just becomes a collection of individuals that are nice those whom we speak too. But, if we want to be a Church then we have to be different. We have to lean names, learn about people, be outward looking rather than inward looking be a church of mission rather than looking after ourselves and  what we have. We need to recognise those on the fringes of society and help them be practical and loving.

Jesus walks our streets today he is in the face of the poor the marginalised and those on the fringes of society. To be Church means to be truly missionary to open our hearts to them by the little that we can do. It is recognising the name that they have been given and reaching out to receive them in dignity and love. Where did we see Christ we see him everyday in the eyes of those who reach out for his friendship God is love and we in our way by being truly authentically church must reach because there is in front of us in all its mess the Image of God. 

So the question for us today: Are we Church? Or are we just a collection of people that happen to come to this building celebrate Mass?