What we can do

The mission of the Church and its leaders is proclamation, sanctification, worship, and charity.

But the Church is also an organization of real human beings and with inescapable logistical and practical issues.

Today’s first reading (Acts 6:1-7) presents us with the first recorded instance of the Church facing this tension.

As the number of disciples continued to grow,
the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution.

So the Twelve
called together the community of the disciples
and said,
“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God
to serve at table.”

Their response at that time was to create what we know today as the Order of Deacons.

Ironically, although Deacons were originally ordained to handle logistical issues so that the Apostles could focus on the Word, Deacons quickly became ministers of the Word themselves (e.g., Stephen, whose proclamations led to his being the first Christian martyr). Today, the Successors of the Apostles seem mired up to their eyeballs in logistics and administrative matters.

Why is this? First, although only some among us are ordained to preach and teach, all of us - by virtue of our Baptism and Confirmation - are empoweered and indeed commanded to proclaim the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in different ways. So, Deacons, Priests, Bishops, and all of us ought to be very excited about the work of God’s Word.

Second, there is a dark form of a "Golden Rule" among human beings: whoever has the gold often makes the rules. This has proved true again and again throughout the centuries even within the Church. Today, there are bloggers and others (liberals and conservatives) who advise parishioners to withhold donations to parishes, dioceses, etc. until pastors and bishops do things the way they want. It should be no surprise therefore that Church leaders have sought to maintain the Church’s freedom of speech and action by maintaining control over Church resources.

To be sure, there needs to be a certain balance, clergy and laity need to avoid an adversarial relationship, and everyone needs to focus humbly on what is true and what is the mission of the Church.

With those things in mind, when it comes to both the mission and the logistical needs of the Church on a global, diocesan, and parish level, (to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes) each of us humbly needs to ask ourselves what we can do for our Church.