We need to invite people back to Mass

The View

In recent times, three friends have all told me about people they know who have not been back to Mass in church. They continue to watch online. My friends were both surprised and worried because the people they mentioned were regular Massgoers before the pandemic.

Nor had any of the people health concerns that would make them more cautious and all are fully vaccinated. It is unwise to base anything on  such a small sample but it did make me wonder how prevalent this is.

We are creatures of habit and sadly, it is quite easy to displace a habit with another, easier one.

Do the people who have not yet returned, despite the safety of churches, not miss receiving the Lord in the Eucharist? I found this to be a terrible privation and even though I did not break regulations myself, on one level I understood why some people went to so-called lockdown Masses, which were held in defiance of public health guidelines.

It may be time to launch a ‘come back to Mass’ campaign. Before we do anything, though, it is a useful exercise to ask ourselves exactly what we are inviting people to return to?

The best answer is to receive the Lord under the appearance of bread and wine. Nonetheless, returning to Mass is about more than an individualised encounter with the Lord.

We are made for community. John Donne’s No Man is an Island resonates with us for a reason. It was written when Donne was ill in 1693 and eventually published as Meditation 17 in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and Severall steps in my Sicknes. Donne begins the meditation by saying that “the Church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptises a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume”.

In other words, we are deeply entwined with each other as members of the body of Christ. We have been asked to ‘Do this in memory of me’. When we are able to attend Mass, but do not do so, we diminish the community.

We need each other. The solidarity of seeing others coming to worship helps and encourages us all.

Challenge

Not only do we need each other but we need to challenge each other. The Catholic Church in Ireland has been battling privatised religion long before the Second Vatican Council but the battle has intensified since people now ‘shop around’ for spirituality.

Irish people, unlike Americans, do not change from one Christian denomination to another very often. Instead, they go looking in other places, in what is called disparagingly and often inaccurately New Age spirituality, or popularised forms of Buddhism.

While sometimes people are looking for a comfort blanket rather than a challenge, there can also be a lack of vision in our Catholic parishes that forces people into looking elsewhere.

The Catholic Church is supposed to offer people a vision of life lived to the full. Not an easy life, not a sheltered life, but a life worth living because the grace of God permeates it.

There are practical things that we can do to ask people to return to church. We could enlist volunteers, including young people, to do a leaflet drop, with a simple, short message like “Come back to Mass. We miss you.”

November is the month of the dead so leaflets and social media could be employed to advertise a series of services for those who lost loved ones for any reason during the past 18 months, particularly when restrictions were most severe. They could be organised along the lines of station Masses, and in the city, for estates or a number of streets.

Advent is another opportunity to invite people. US parishes ran a successful campaign some years ago along the lines of ‘Come home for Christmas’.

Ideas

There are lots of good ideas but they will all ultimately fail unless there is a community to which to invite people. In some parishes, stewarding has led to people being greeted and welcomed each week. It would be a shame to see that wither away.

Some parishes are resuming regular tea and coffee after Mass. All of these small things build community.

Ultimately, however, we want both practical initiatives and a vision of a life worth living together.

Our lives are meant to be lived for each other and for those most in need. Without that vision being translated into action, we will not have credible communities to which to invite people to return.